Arminianism in the Church of England
Encyclopedia
Arminianism in the Church of England was a theological strand or tendency within the clergy of the Church of England
particularly evident in the second quarter of the 17th century (the reign of Charles I of England
). Arminianism
properly refers in specific terms to the theology of the Dutch minister and academic Jacobus Arminius
, who died in 1609, and his Remonstrant followers, and so to certain proposed revisions to tenets of Reformed theology (known less accurately as Calvinism). "Arminianism" in the English sense, however, had a broader application: to questions of church hierarchy, discipline and uniformity; to details of liturgy
and ritual
; and in the hands of the Puritan
opponents of Laudianism
, to a wider range of perceived or actual ecclesiastical policies, especially those implying any reconciliation with Roman Catholic practice or extension of central government powers over clerics.
While the term "Arminian" was widely used in debates of that time, and was subsequently co-opted as convenient to match later High Church
views of Anglicanism
, scholarly debate has not settled the exact content or historical role of English Arminianism. The Synod of Dort
of 1619 in effect destroyed the political base of Dutch Arminianism. Arminian views held in England after that time are variously seen as advanced, and even disruptive of Calvinism that was quite orthodox in the Church of England by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I (a position argued by Nicholas Tyacke); or on the other hand a return to the spirit of the Elizabethan Settlement. The status of the canons of Dort in relation to the Church, and the interpretation of the Thirty-Nine Articles
in the light of these and other pronouncements on Reformed theology, remained unclarified until the 1640s.
Factional struggles within the Church around William Laud
involved both ecclesiastical matters and political control of the Church, and the latter was a key issue for the lay Parliamentary Puritans; who campaigned strongly under an anti-Arminian banner. Puritanism being a term without definite meaning outside its historical meaning, the anti-Puritan nature of Arminian beliefs also requires historical context.
was a Huguenot Calvinist, but also close to Niels Hemmingsen
, who was in the Lutheran tradition of Philipp Melanchthon
that was brought to Denmark by John Macalpine
(Maccabeus); Baro preached conditional predestination. A theological controversy on his teaching at Cambridge was brought to a head by William Barret
. The intervention by John Whitgift
led to the delineation of the Church of England's reception of Calvinist purely theological teaching in the 1595 Lambeth Articles
. The Articles followed recommendations of William Whitaker
, and did not advance views on ritual or discipline.
A dissident voice was Richard Thomson. But anti-Calvinism was closed down as far as discussion in print was concerned. Thomson was refused permission to print his Diatriba de amissione et intercisione gratiae, et justificationis later in the 1590s.
. Thomas Bilson
preached in favour of a literal reading of this article before the queen and at Paul's Cross in 1597; ostensibly he was aiming at the Protestant Separatist objections to this view of the descensus or descent to hell of Christ as mentioned in the Apostles Creed. After a hostile reception at Paul's Cross, Bilson was set to work by the queen on his lengthy Survey of Christs Sufferings to argue the point. In so doing he was emphasising a theological point at odds with the Genevan Catechism and Heidelberg Catechism
, and so with some of the Reformed Churches, who followed Calvin's opinion that the descent was not literally meant but descriptive of Christ's sufferings on the cross. Adam Hill had brought the point to prominence in The Defence of the Article (1592), against the Scottish presbyterian Alexander Hume. The difference between literal or allegorical readings of the article remained divisive, with some figures of a moderate and conforming Puritan attitude such as Whitaker and Andrew Willet
disagreeing with Bilson.
at the Hampton Court Conference
in 1604 wished to make the Lambeth Articles interpretative of the Thirty-Nine Articles
; but was headed off, and the point remained unresolved. Under James I
, opposition to Arminianism became official policy, and anti-Calvinist views remained subject to effective censorship. Richard Bancroft
as the first Archbishop of Canterbury
chosen by James acted as an enforcer against Puritan nonconformity; George Abbot, however, who took over after Bancroft's death in 1610, was an evangelical Calvinist, and agreed with James on a solid opposition to Arminianism in the Netherlands, typefied by the hounding of Conrad Vorstius
and the loading of authority on the Synod of Dort
as an international council of Reformed churches.
During the period 1603 to 1625 Arminianism took shape as a Dutch religious party, became involved by successive appeals to secular authority in high politics, and was crushed. In the same period English Arminianism existed (if at all) almost unavowed on paper, and since anti-Calvinist literature was censored, had no clear form until 1624 and a definite controversy.
, Thomas Dove
, and John Overall
. Theodore K. Rabb
describes Edwin Sandys
, a lay politician, as proto-Arminian.
George Abbot suspected William Laud
at an early stage of his career of anti-Calvinism; and attempted to block Laud's election as President of St John's College, Oxford
. Laud, however, had supporters in the "moderate" group who would later emerge as the recognisable "Durham House" faction, around Richard Neile
. The election of Laud was eventually allowed to stand by the king, after much intrigue. Some other heads of houses showed close acquaintance with the Dutch Arminian literature: Jerome Beale, Samuel Brooke
, Matthew Wren
.
, communicated with George Abbot. King James issued a pamphlet against Vorstius in 1612; he also recruited Richard Sheldon
and William Warmington, English Protestant converts from Catholicism, to write against him. Abbot had anti-Arminian works written, by Sebastian Benefield
and Robert Abbot, his brother (In Ricardi Thomsoni Angli-Belgici diatribam, against Thomson); his reception in 1613 of Hugo Grotius
, the leading Dutch Arminian intellectual, was chilly (unlike the king's). James chose to back the Huguenot Pierre Du Moulin
as a theologian to unify the French Protestants, an opponent of the Arminian Daniel Tilenus
, and was successful by the synod at Alès
in 1620 in his aims.
The Elizabethan debate was at this time revisited, in the context of the overt religious conflicts and battle lines in the Netherlands
. In 1613 Antonius Thysius
published Scripta Anglicana, a collection of documents from the Cambridge disputes of the 1590s around Peter Baro. This publication was directed against Remonstrant claims that they had backing from the Church of England's doctrinal formularies; it included works by Baro, Matthew Hutton
, Laurence Chaderton
, Robert Some
, Andrew Willet
, George Estye
, Whittaker, and Johann Piscator. Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus
then disputed the interpretation, and pointed out that King James I had refused to put the resulting Lambeth Articles on the same footing as the Thirty-Nine Articles. Thomson's Diatriba, which had anticipated some arguments of Petrus Bertius
in De sanctorum apostasia problemata duo (1610), was also finally published (Leiden, 1616), through the good offices of John Overall.
In pursuit of wider aims of Protestant reconciliation (within Calvinism, and between Calvinists and Lutherans), James I both promoted the importance of the Synod of Dort (1618) by sending a learned delegation, and approved of its conclusions. He was prepared at that point to allow the Remonstrant (Arminian) teaching to be written off as a return of Pelagianism
. On the other hand James wished the Synod's conclusions to close down the debate on the specific theological points involved: particularly on predestination
. As far as his own kingdom of England was concerned, he issued instructions via George Abbot in 1622 suggesting restrictions on preaching, on the topics involved, and a moderate approach.
, obtained royal permission to publish A New Gagg for an Old Goose. The book was framed as a rebuttal of a Catholic critique of the Church of England. In response, Montagu argued that the Calvinist positions objected to were held only by a small, Puritan minority in the Church of England, and that the majority of clergy in the Church of England rejected high Calvinism.
. A term with a more accurate focus is Durham House group.
, the programme of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to shape the Church of England in terms of liturgy, discipline, and polity, has only with difficulty been equated by historians with the operation of an actual Arminian faction in the Church of England. In the factional church disputes under Charles I, however, this was certainly a common accusation.
, was used by Laudians to supply a basis for their arguments in debate, in particular with the king. His Ecclesiastical Polity supplied arguments on justification
, less individualistic than the Calvinistic norm; and these were adopted by John Cosin
in his Collection of Private Devotions. On the other hand modern scholars generally regard Hooker as a theologian within the internationalist Reformed mainstream.
was one "proto-Arminian" who both advocated the divine right of kings
, and regarded Hooker's works as supporting it. His works were brought back into print two decades after his death in 1623. Of the two most notorious clerical supporters of royal prerogative
of the reign of Charles I, Robert Sibthorpe
at least had Arminian associations (with Owen and others in the diocese of Peterborough); while Roger Maynwaring
did not.
But it also has been much contested.
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
particularly evident in the second quarter of the 17th century (the reign of Charles I of England
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
). Arminianism
Arminianism
Arminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
properly refers in specific terms to the theology of the Dutch minister and academic Jacobus Arminius
Jacobus Arminius
Jacobus Arminius , the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Hermanszoon from the Protestant Reformation period, served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden...
, who died in 1609, and his Remonstrant followers, and so to certain proposed revisions to tenets of Reformed theology (known less accurately as Calvinism). "Arminianism" in the English sense, however, had a broader application: to questions of church hierarchy, discipline and uniformity; to details of liturgy
Liturgy
Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...
and ritual
Ritual
A ritual is a set of actions, performed mainly for their symbolic value. It may be prescribed by a religion or by the traditions of a community. The term usually excludes actions which are arbitrarily chosen by the performers....
; and in the hands of the Puritan
Puritan
The Puritans were a significant grouping of English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries. Puritanism in this sense was founded by some Marian exiles from the clergy shortly after the accession of Elizabeth I of England in 1558, as an activist movement within the Church of England...
opponents of Laudianism
Laudianism
Laudianism was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England, promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters. It rejected the predestination upheld by the previously dominant Calvinism in favour of free will, and hence the possibility of salvation for all men...
, to a wider range of perceived or actual ecclesiastical policies, especially those implying any reconciliation with Roman Catholic practice or extension of central government powers over clerics.
While the term "Arminian" was widely used in debates of that time, and was subsequently co-opted as convenient to match later High Church
High church
The term "High Church" refers to beliefs and practices of ecclesiology, liturgy and theology, generally with an emphasis on formality, and resistance to "modernization." Although used in connection with various Christian traditions, the term has traditionally been principally associated with the...
views of Anglicanism
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...
, scholarly debate has not settled the exact content or historical role of English Arminianism. The Synod of Dort
Synod of Dort
The Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618-1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy initiated by the rise of Arminianism. The first meeting was on November 13, 1618, and the final meeting, the 154th, was on May 9, 1619...
of 1619 in effect destroyed the political base of Dutch Arminianism. Arminian views held in England after that time are variously seen as advanced, and even disruptive of Calvinism that was quite orthodox in the Church of England by the end of the reign of Elizabeth I (a position argued by Nicholas Tyacke); or on the other hand a return to the spirit of the Elizabethan Settlement. The status of the canons of Dort in relation to the Church, and the interpretation of the Thirty-Nine Articles
Thirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
in the light of these and other pronouncements on Reformed theology, remained unclarified until the 1640s.
Factional struggles within the Church around William Laud
William Laud
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
involved both ecclesiastical matters and political control of the Church, and the latter was a key issue for the lay Parliamentary Puritans; who campaigned strongly under an anti-Arminian banner. Puritanism being a term without definite meaning outside its historical meaning, the anti-Puritan nature of Arminian beliefs also requires historical context.
Elizabethan anti-Calvinists
The Church of England's embrace of the Elizabethan Settlement allowed for a large-scale acceptance of Calvinist views. Such intense debates as occurred on theological points were localised, in contrast to the widespread tension over church polity.Predestination
Peter BaroPeter Baro
Peter Baro was a French Huguenot minister, ordained by John Calvin, but later in England a critic of some Calvinist theological positions. His views in relation to the Lambeth Articles cost him his position as Lady Margaret's Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge...
was a Huguenot Calvinist, but also close to Niels Hemmingsen
Niels Hemmingsen
Niels Hemmingsen was a Danish Lutheran theologian. He studied at the University of Wittenberg 1537 to 1542 under Melanchthon. Returning to Denmark, he became a prolific author of works in Latin...
, who was in the Lutheran tradition of Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon
Philipp Melanchthon , born Philipp Schwartzerdt, was a German reformer, collaborator with Martin Luther, the first systematic theologian of the Protestant Reformation, intellectual leader of the Lutheran Reformation, and an influential designer of educational systems...
that was brought to Denmark by John Macalpine
John Macalpine
John MacAlpine was a Scottish Protestant theologian.-Life:He was born in Scotland about the beginning of the 16th century, and graduated at a Scottish university...
(Maccabeus); Baro preached conditional predestination. A theological controversy on his teaching at Cambridge was brought to a head by William Barret
William Barret
William Barret was a English divine.-Life:He matriculated as a pensioner of Trinity College, Cambridge, on 1 February 1579–80.He proceeded to his M.A. degree in 1588, and was soon afterwards elected fellow of Caius College....
. The intervention by John Whitgift
John Whitgift
John Whitgift was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1583 to his death. Noted for his hospitality, he was somewhat ostentatious in his habits, sometimes visiting Canterbury and other towns attended by a retinue of 800 horsemen...
led to the delineation of the Church of England's reception of Calvinist purely theological teaching in the 1595 Lambeth Articles
Lambeth Articles
The Lambeth Articles were a series of nine doctrinal statements drawn up by Archbishop of Canterbury John Whitgift in 1595, in order to define Calvinist doctrine with regard to predestination and justification....
. The Articles followed recommendations of William Whitaker
William Whitaker (theologian)
William Whitaker was a prominent Anglican theologian. He was Master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a leading divine in the university in the latter half of the sixteenth century.-Early life and education:...
, and did not advance views on ritual or discipline.
A dissident voice was Richard Thomson. But anti-Calvinism was closed down as far as discussion in print was concerned. Thomson was refused permission to print his Diatriba de amissione et intercisione gratiae, et justificationis later in the 1590s.
Descensus controversy
The third of the Thirty-Nine Articles affirmed the Harrowing of HellHarrowing of Hell
The Harrowing of Hell is a doctrine in Christian theology referenced in the Apostles' Creed and the Athanasian Creed that states that Jesus Christ "descended into Hell"...
. Thomas Bilson
Thomas Bilson
Thomas Bilson was an Anglican Bishop of Worcester and Bishop of Winchester. He, along with Miles Smith, oversaw the final edit and printing of the King James Bible. He is buried in Westminster Abbey in plot 232 between the tombs of Richard the Second and Edward the Third...
preached in favour of a literal reading of this article before the queen and at Paul's Cross in 1597; ostensibly he was aiming at the Protestant Separatist objections to this view of the descensus or descent to hell of Christ as mentioned in the Apostles Creed. After a hostile reception at Paul's Cross, Bilson was set to work by the queen on his lengthy Survey of Christs Sufferings to argue the point. In so doing he was emphasising a theological point at odds with the Genevan Catechism and Heidelberg Catechism
Heidelberg Catechism
The Heidelberg Catechism is a Protestant confessional document taking the form of a series of questions and answers, for use in teaching Reformed Christian doctrine...
, and so with some of the Reformed Churches, who followed Calvin's opinion that the descent was not literally meant but descriptive of Christ's sufferings on the cross. Adam Hill had brought the point to prominence in The Defence of the Article (1592), against the Scottish presbyterian Alexander Hume. The difference between literal or allegorical readings of the article remained divisive, with some figures of a moderate and conforming Puritan attitude such as Whitaker and Andrew Willet
Andrew Willet
Andrew Willet was an English clergyman and controversialist. A prolific writer, he is known for his anti-papal works. His views were Calvinist, conforming and non-separatist, and he appeared as a witness against Edward Dering before the Star-chamber...
disagreeing with Bilson.
Jacobean approaches
John RainoldsJohn Rainolds
John Rainolds , English divine, was born about Michaelmas 1549 at Pinhoe, near Exeter.He was educated at Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, becoming a fellow of the latter in 1568. In 1572-73 he was appointed reader in Greek, and his lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric laid the sure basis of...
at the Hampton Court Conference
Hampton Court Conference
The Hampton Court Conference was a meeting in January 1604, convened at Hampton Court Palace, for discussion between King James I of England and representatives of the Church of England, including leading English Puritans.-Attendance:...
in 1604 wished to make the Lambeth Articles interpretative of the Thirty-Nine Articles
Thirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
; but was headed off, and the point remained unresolved. Under James I
James I of England
James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...
, opposition to Arminianism became official policy, and anti-Calvinist views remained subject to effective censorship. Richard Bancroft
Richard Bancroft
Archbishop Richard Bancroft, DD, BD, MA, BA was an English churchman, who became Archbishop of Canterbury and the "chief overseer" of the production of the authorized version of the Bible.-Life:...
as the first Archbishop of Canterbury
Archbishop of Canterbury
The Archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and principal leader of the Church of England, the symbolic head of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. In his role as head of the Anglican Communion, the archbishop leads the third largest group...
chosen by James acted as an enforcer against Puritan nonconformity; George Abbot, however, who took over after Bancroft's death in 1610, was an evangelical Calvinist, and agreed with James on a solid opposition to Arminianism in the Netherlands, typefied by the hounding of Conrad Vorstius
Conrad Vorstius
Conrad Vorstius was a German-Dutch Protestant Remonstrant theologian, and successor to Jacobus Arminius in the theology chair at Leiden.-Early life:...
and the loading of authority on the Synod of Dort
Synod of Dort
The Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618-1619, by the Dutch Reformed Church, to settle a divisive controversy initiated by the rise of Arminianism. The first meeting was on November 13, 1618, and the final meeting, the 154th, was on May 9, 1619...
as an international council of Reformed churches.
During the period 1603 to 1625 Arminianism took shape as a Dutch religious party, became involved by successive appeals to secular authority in high politics, and was crushed. In the same period English Arminianism existed (if at all) almost unavowed on paper, and since anti-Calvinist literature was censored, had no clear form until 1624 and a definite controversy.
Footholds for Arminian views
Certain churchmen are now labelled by historians as "proto-Arminian". These include prominent bishops of the period around 1600: Lancelot AndrewesLancelot Andrewes
Lancelot Andrewes was an English bishop and scholar, who held high positions in the Church of England during the reigns of Queen Elizabeth I and King James I. During the latter's reign, Andrewes served successively as Bishop of Chichester, Ely and Winchester and oversaw the translation of the...
, Thomas Dove
Thomas Dove
Thomas Dove was Bishop of Peterborough from 1601 to 1630.Dove was born in London, England, and educated at Merchant Taylors' School from 1564 to 1571. He was named as one of the first scholars of Jesus College, Oxford in its foundation charter in 1571, but never attended...
, and John Overall
John Overall (Bishop)
John Overall was the 38th bishop of the see of Norwich from 1618 until his death one year later. He had previously served as Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield , as Dean of St Pauls Cathedral from 1601, as Master of Catharine Hall from 1598, and as Regius Professor of Divinity at Cambridge...
. Theodore K. Rabb
Theodore K. Rabb
Theodore K. Rabb is a historian of the early modern period and is Emeritus Professor of History at Princeton University. He is the son of the late historian, author, and philanthropist, Dr. Oskar K. Rabinowicz, and the father of mystery historical novelist, Jonathan Rabb.Along with Robert I...
describes Edwin Sandys
Edwin Sandys (American colonist)
Sir Edwin Sandys was an English politician, a leading figure in the parliaments of James I of England. He was also one of the founders of the proprietary Virginia Company of London, which in 1607 established the first permanent English settlement in what is now the United States in the colony of...
, a lay politician, as proto-Arminian.
George Abbot suspected William Laud
William Laud
William Laud was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to 1645. One of the High Church Caroline divines, he opposed radical forms of Puritanism...
at an early stage of his career of anti-Calvinism; and attempted to block Laud's election as President of St John's College, Oxford
St John's College, Oxford
__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...
. Laud, however, had supporters in the "moderate" group who would later emerge as the recognisable "Durham House" faction, around Richard Neile
Richard Neile
Richard Neile was an English churchman, bishop of several English dioceses and Archbishop of York from 1631 until his death.-Early life:...
. The election of Laud was eventually allowed to stand by the king, after much intrigue. Some other heads of houses showed close acquaintance with the Dutch Arminian literature: Jerome Beale, Samuel Brooke
Samuel Brooke
Dr Samuel Brooke was a Gresham Professor of Divinity , a playwright, the chaplain of Trinity College, Cambridge and subsequently the Master of Trinity . He was known to be an Arminian and anti-Calvinist...
, Matthew Wren
Matthew Wren
"Matthew Wren" is also a British actor who appeared in BBC children's show Trapped!.Matthew Wren was an influential English clergyman and scholar.-Life:...
.
The international Arminian conflict and the Synod of Dort
Opponents of Conrad Vorstius, successor to Arminius, led by Sibrandus LubbertusSibrandus Lubbertus
Sibrandus Lubbertus was a Dutch Calvinist theologian and was a professor of theology at the University of Franeker for forty years from the institute's foundation in 1585. He was a prominent participant in the Synod of Dort...
, communicated with George Abbot. King James issued a pamphlet against Vorstius in 1612; he also recruited Richard Sheldon
Richard Sheldon (controversialist)
Richard Sheldon was a Church of England clergyman, a convert from Catholicism, known as a polemical writer.-Life:From a Catholic family, and destined for the priesthood, he was sent during the pontificate of Pope Clement VIII to the English College, Rome. He returned to England, via Spain, and...
and William Warmington, English Protestant converts from Catholicism, to write against him. Abbot had anti-Arminian works written, by Sebastian Benefield
Sebastian Benefield
-Life:He was a native of Prestbury, Gloucestershire, where he was born on 12 August 1559. He was admitted scholar of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, on 30 August 1586. He is found probationer-fellow of the same college 16 April 1590. Shortly afterwards he took his degrees of B.A. and M.A., and,...
and Robert Abbot, his brother (In Ricardi Thomsoni Angli-Belgici diatribam, against Thomson); his reception in 1613 of Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius
Hugo Grotius , also known as Huig de Groot, Hugo Grocio or Hugo de Groot, was a jurist in the Dutch Republic. With Francisco de Vitoria and Alberico Gentili he laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law...
, the leading Dutch Arminian intellectual, was chilly (unlike the king's). James chose to back the Huguenot Pierre Du Moulin
Pierre Du Moulin
Pierre Du Moulin was a Huguenot minister in France who also resided in England for some years.-Life:Born in Buhy in 1568, he was the son of Joachim Du Moulin, a Protestant minister in the Orleans area...
as a theologian to unify the French Protestants, an opponent of the Arminian Daniel Tilenus
Daniel Tilenus
Daniel Tilenus was a German-French Protestant theologian. Initially a Calvinist, he became a prominent and influential Arminian teaching at the Academy of Sedan. He was an open critic of the Synod of Dort of 1618-9....
, and was successful by the synod at Alès
Alès
Alès is a commune in the Gard department in the Languedoc-Roussillon region in southern France. It is one of the sub-prefectures of the department. It was formerly known as Alais.-Geography:...
in 1620 in his aims.
The Elizabethan debate was at this time revisited, in the context of the overt religious conflicts and battle lines in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. In 1613 Antonius Thysius
Antonius Thysius
Antonius Thysius was a Dutch Reformed theologian, professor at the University of Harderwijk and University of Leiden.-Life:He was born on 9 August 1565 in Antwerp, and received a classical education under Bonaventura Vulcanius...
published Scripta Anglicana, a collection of documents from the Cambridge disputes of the 1590s around Peter Baro. This publication was directed against Remonstrant claims that they had backing from the Church of England's doctrinal formularies; it included works by Baro, Matthew Hutton
Matthew Hutton
Matthew Hutton may refer to:*Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of York, 17th century Archbishop of York*Matthew Hutton, Archbishop of Canterbury, 18th century Archbishop of both York and later Canterbury...
, Laurence Chaderton
Laurence Chaderton
Laurence Chaderton was an English Puritan divine, and one of the translators of the King James Version of the Bible.-Life:...
, Robert Some
Robert Some
Robert Some was an English churchman and academic. Master of Peterhouse, Cambridge from 1589, Some played a prominent part in the ecclesiastical controversies of his time, taking a middle course, hostile alike to extreme Puritans and Anglicans.-Life:He was born at Lynn Regis in 1542...
, Andrew Willet
Andrew Willet
Andrew Willet was an English clergyman and controversialist. A prolific writer, he is known for his anti-papal works. His views were Calvinist, conforming and non-separatist, and he appeared as a witness against Edward Dering before the Star-chamber...
, George Estye
George Estye
-Life:Estye was educated at Caius College, Cambridge, proceeding B.A. in 1580–1. He was afterwards elected a fellow of his college, graduated M.A. in 1584, and proceeded B.D. in 1591. In 1598 he was chosen preacher of St. Mary's, Bury St Edmunds....
, Whittaker, and Johann Piscator. Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus
Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus
Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus was a Dutch Remonstrant minister and jurist.-Life:He was born in Leiden, and in 1606 was a Calvinist preacher there. A pupil of Jacobus Arminius, he took up the Arminian views, he was a public supporter of them by 1609, and in 1610 signed the Five Articles of Remonstrance...
then disputed the interpretation, and pointed out that King James I had refused to put the resulting Lambeth Articles on the same footing as the Thirty-Nine Articles. Thomson's Diatriba, which had anticipated some arguments of Petrus Bertius
Petrus Bertius
Petrus Bertius was a Flemish theologian, historian, geographer and cartographer...
in De sanctorum apostasia problemata duo (1610), was also finally published (Leiden, 1616), through the good offices of John Overall.
In pursuit of wider aims of Protestant reconciliation (within Calvinism, and between Calvinists and Lutherans), James I both promoted the importance of the Synod of Dort (1618) by sending a learned delegation, and approved of its conclusions. He was prepared at that point to allow the Remonstrant (Arminian) teaching to be written off as a return of Pelagianism
Pelagianism
Pelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius , although he denied, at least at some point in his life, many of the doctrines associated with his name. It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without...
. On the other hand James wished the Synod's conclusions to close down the debate on the specific theological points involved: particularly on predestination
Predestination
Predestination, in theology is the doctrine that all events have been willed by God. John Calvin interpreted biblical predestination to mean that God willed eternal damnation for some people and salvation for others...
. As far as his own kingdom of England was concerned, he issued instructions via George Abbot in 1622 suggesting restrictions on preaching, on the topics involved, and a moderate approach.
The Gagg controversy
In 1624, a hitherto obscure Cambridge scholar, Richard MontaguRichard Montagu
Richard Montagu was an English cleric and prelate.-Early life:He was born during Christmastide 1577 at Dorney, Buckinghamshire, where his father Laurence Mountague was vicar, and was educated at Eton. He was elected from Eton to a scholarship at King's College, Cambridge, and admitted on 24...
, obtained royal permission to publish A New Gagg for an Old Goose. The book was framed as a rebuttal of a Catholic critique of the Church of England. In response, Montagu argued that the Calvinist positions objected to were held only by a small, Puritan minority in the Church of England, and that the majority of clergy in the Church of England rejected high Calvinism.
Caroline divines and Arminianism
The initial accusation of an Englishman of Arminianism has been dated to 1624. In a few years, the accusation of Arminianism was much used polemically against the group of theologians now known as Caroline divinesCaroline Divines
The Caroline Divines were influential theologians and writers in the Anglican Church who lived during the reigns of King Charles I and, after the Restoration, King Charles II . This is commonly considered a golden age of Anglican scholarship...
. A term with a more accurate focus is Durham House group.
Arminianism and Laudianism
LaudianismLaudianism
Laudianism was an early seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England, promulgated by Archbishop William Laud and his supporters. It rejected the predestination upheld by the previously dominant Calvinism in favour of free will, and hence the possibility of salvation for all men...
, the programme of William Laud as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1633 to shape the Church of England in terms of liturgy, discipline, and polity, has only with difficulty been equated by historians with the operation of an actual Arminian faction in the Church of England. In the factional church disputes under Charles I, however, this was certainly a common accusation.
Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity
A writer of a previous generation, Richard HookerRichard Hooker
Richard Hooker was an Anglican priest and an influential theologian. Hooker's emphases on reason, tolerance and the value of tradition came to exert a lasting influence on the development of the Church of England...
, was used by Laudians to supply a basis for their arguments in debate, in particular with the king. His Ecclesiastical Polity supplied arguments on justification
Justification (theology)
Rising out of the Protestant Reformation, Justification is the chief article of faith describing God's act of declaring or making a sinner righteous through Christ's atoning sacrifice....
, less individualistic than the Calvinistic norm; and these were adopted by John Cosin
John Cosin
John Cosin was an English churchman.-Life:He was born at Norwich, and was educated at Norwich grammar school and at Caius College, Cambridge, where he was scholar and afterwards fellow. On taking orders he was appointed secretary to Bishop Overall of Lichfield, and then domestic chaplain to...
in his Collection of Private Devotions. On the other hand modern scholars generally regard Hooker as a theologian within the internationalist Reformed mainstream.
Arminianism and absolutist views
David Owen from AngleseyAnglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
was one "proto-Arminian" who both advocated the divine right of kings
Divine Right of Kings
The divine right of kings or divine-right theory of kingship is a political and religious doctrine of royal and political legitimacy. It asserts that a monarch is subject to no earthly authority, deriving his right to rule directly from the will of God...
, and regarded Hooker's works as supporting it. His works were brought back into print two decades after his death in 1623. Of the two most notorious clerical supporters of royal prerogative
Royal Prerogative
The royal prerogative is a body of customary authority, privilege, and immunity, recognized in common law and, sometimes, in civil law jurisdictions possessing a monarchy as belonging to the sovereign alone. It is the means by which some of the executive powers of government, possessed by and...
of the reign of Charles I, Robert Sibthorpe
Robert Sibthorpe
Robert Sibthorpe or Sibthorp was an English clergyman who gained notoriety during the reign of King Charles I of England for his outspoken defense of the divine right of kings.-Biography:...
at least had Arminian associations (with Owen and others in the diocese of Peterborough); while Roger Maynwaring
Roger Maynwaring
Roger Maynwaring was an English bishop, known for his support for absolutism.-Life:He was born in Shropshire, and educated at Worcester grammar, and All Souls College, Oxford. He became rector of St Giles in the Fields in 1616.He was made a royal chaplain in 1626...
did not.
Debate on Tyacke's view
Tyacke's view on English Arminianism as innovative and disruptive in the early Stuart period had a significant effect on historiography: Kevin Sharpe wrote that[...] Nicholas Tyacke's thesis on the rise of English Arminianism became the mainstay of Conrad Russell's account of the origins of the English civil war.
But it also has been much contested.