We left the Arminians under the iron arm of Prince Maurice:—­He died in 1625:—­We have mentioned, that Prince Frederick-Henry his brother, and successor in the Stadtholderate, adopted more moderate councils in their regard; that he recalled the Remonstrants, with some exceptions, from banishment; that many settled at Amsterdam and Rotterdam; and that the Arminians founded a college in the former city:—­Episcopius was its first professor of theology:—­it has never been without teachers, of eminence for learning, as Courcelles, Pollemberg, Limborch, Le Clerc, Cottemburgh, and Wetstein.

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XII.]

It should be added, that the authority of the Synod of Dort insensibly declined:—­its authority was never formally acknowledged by the provinces of Friesland, Zealand, Utrecht, Gueldreland and Groeningen:  In 1651, they were induced to intimate that they would see with pleasure, the reformed religion maintained upon the footing, upon which it had been maintained and confirmed by the Synod of Dort; but this intimation was never considered to have the force of a legislative enactment.[043]

[Sidenote:  XII.1.  History of Arminianism.]

The theological system of the Arminians, after their return to Holland, underwent, if we credit Dr. Mosheim,[044] a remarkable change.  They appear, by his account, to have almost coincided with those, who exclude the necessity of divine grace in the work of conversion and sanctification; and think that Christ demands from men, rather virtue than faith; and has confined that belief, which is essential for salvation, to very few articles.  Thus the modern Arminians, according to Dr. Mosheim, admit into their communion,—­1st.  All, with an exception of Catholics, who receive the holy scriptures; and more especially the New Testament; allowing at the same time to every individual, his own interpretation of the sacred books:—­2dly.  All whose lives are regulated by the law of God:—­3dly.  And all, who neither persecute nor bear ill will towards those who differ from them in their religious sentiments.  Their Confession of Faith was drawn up by Episcopius in 1622:  four divines of the established church of Holland published a Refutation of it:  the authors of the Confession replied to it in the following year, by their Apology.

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XII.]

James I. of England directed his theological representatives in the Synod of Dort, to join the members in the condemnation of the doctrines of Arminius:—­but, when the English divines returned from that assembly, and gave a full account of its proceedings, the King and the greatest part of the English clergy expressed their dissatisfaction with them, and declared that the sentiments of Arminius on the divine decrees, was preferable to those of Calvin and Gomarus.  By the exertions of Archbishop Laud, and afterwards, in consequence of the general tendency of the public mind to doctrines of mildness and comprehension, an Arminian construction of the English articles on predestination and free-will was adopted:—­it has since prevailed,—­and the Arminian creed, by the number of its secret or open adherents, has insensibly found admittance into every Protestant church.