Grotius had much higher views; he proposed nothing less[649] than to reunite all Christians:  in this, he said, he would not cease to labour; and, that it would yield him pleasure to die so well employed[650]; that he gave himself little pain about the hatred he might incur, for if men gave way to this fear, never any vice would be corrected.

What encouraged him farther, in this idea, was the number of great men who entertained it before him.  “I am not the only one who hath conceived this project, he writes to his brother[651]:  Erasmus, Cassander, Vecelius, and Casaubon had the same design.  La Miletiere is employed at present in it:  Cardinal Richelieu declares that he will protect the coalition; and he is such a happy man that he never undertook any thing in which he did not succeed:  and even if there were no hopes of success at present, ought we not to sow the seed which may be useful to posterity[652]?  Even if we should only diminish the mutual hatred among Christians, and render them more sociable, would not this be worth purchasing at the price of some labour and reproaches?”

Arminius may likewise be numbered with those who were desirous of reuniting Christians[653].  The method he proposed was to distinguish fundamental points from such as were not, and leave men at liberty to believe or disbelieve the latter.  He communicated his project to Casaubon, who highly approved it:  but how shall men settle what articles are fundamental?  This question is a source of endless disputes.  Besides, they must be able to answer the Roman Catholic Divines, who, building on the doctrine that has been always taught, justly pretend that whatever has been decided to be part of that doctrine ought to be regarded as fundamental.  Men could not help approving Grotius’s intention; but even those, by whom he was held in the greatest esteem, had no confidence in the success of his project.  This made him write to Baron Oxenstiern on the subject[654].  “Even if religious differences, he says, had not given occasion to bloody wars, I should still think it the duty of Christians to restore the unity; since, as the Apostle of the Gentiles tells us, we ought to be all members of one body.  But even those, who say they desire it, doubt whether the thing be practicable.  I know well that all schism, the further it has extended, and the longer it has lasted, will be more difficult to heal; so many being employed to throw oil on the flames:  however, there are examples of inveterate evils that have been cured in the Church.  After the Council of Chalcedon there was a very great schism in the East, which continued an hundred years till the reign of Justinian, by whose authority, Pope Vigilius listening at last to terms of peace, an end was put to it.  Charles V, Ferdinand, and Maximilian thought that the schism between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants of the Augsbourg confession was not incurable.  Melancton and other learned men, whose writings are still extant, were