That he paid high regard to decisions of the councils, and the discipline of the primitive church; and thought the sentiments of the antient church should be deferred to, in the explanation of the Scriptures:  [047]

That, the early reformers were held by him in no great esteem:[048]

That, mentioning Casaubon’s sentiments, Grotius said that this learned man thought the Roman Catholics of France better informed than those of other countries, and came nearer to truth than the ministers of Charenton:—­

    “It cannot,” says Grotius, “be denied, that there are several Roman
    Catholic pastors here, who teach true religion, without any mixture
    of superstition; it were to be wished that all did the same:"[049]

That the Calvinists were schismatics, and had no mission:[050]

[Sidenote:  CHAP.  XII.]

That the Jesuits were learned men and good subjects.  “I know many of them,” he says, in one of his writings against Rivetus, “who are very desirous to see abuses abolished, and the church restored to its primitive unity.”—­We shall hereafter see that Father Petau, an illustrious member of the society, possessed the confidence of Grotius:[051]

That, Grotius looked upon the abolition of episcopacy and of a visible head of the church, as something very monstrous:[052]

That, he acknowledged that some change was made in the eucharistic bread; that, when Jesus Christ, being sacramentally present, favours us with his substance,—­as the Council of Trent expresses its doctrine on the Eucharist,—­the appearances of bread and wine remain, and in their place succeed the body and blood of Christ:  [053]

[Sidenote:  XII. 2.  Grotius’s Religious Sentiments.]

That, Grotius did not approve of the sentiments of the Calvinists concerning the Eucharist, and reproached them with their contradiction.

“You will hear them state in their confessions,” says Grotius, “that they really, substantially and essentially partake of Christ’s body and his blood; but, in their disputes, they maintain that Christ is received only spiritually, by faith.  The antients go much further:  they admit a real incorporation of Jesus Christ with us, and the reality of Christ’s body, as Saint Hilarius speaks.”

It must however be remarked that, although Grotius thought that the term Transubstantiation adopted by the council of Trent, was capable of a good interpretation, it is not clear, what was his precise opinion respecting the Eucharist.  He proposed the following formulary: 

“We believe that, in the use of the supper, we truly, really, and substantially,—­that is to say,—­in its proper substance,—­receive the true body and the true blood of Jesus Christ, in a spiritual and ineffable manner:  [054]”

That, Grotius justified the decision of the Council of Trent, concerning the number of the sacraments:[055]