Queen Christina, hearing of his death, wrote to his widow to make her compliments of condolence, and to get the manuscripts he left.  “My Ambassador, she says, may have acquainted you in part with my high esteem for his admirable learning and the good services he did me:  but he could not express how dear I hold his memory, and the effects of his great labours.  If gold and silver could contribute any thing to the redeeming such a valuable life, I would chearfully employ all I am mistress of for that purpose.”  She concludes with asking his widow to procure her all the manuscripts of this learned man, whose works had always given her great pleasure:  assuring her that they could not fall into better hands, and that the author having been of use to her in his life-time, it was just that she should not be deprived after his death of the fruits of his illustrious labours.

Duncomius wrote to Gerard Vossius, February 2, 1646[718], “It is certain and beyond dispute that Grotius was a very illustrious hero, usque ad stuporem fere et miraculum; that he joined science with wisdom; that he was above all praise; and that he was deeply skilled in divine and human learning.”

Meric Casaubon, son of Isaac, had no less esteem for Grotius than his illustrious father had had before him.  In his preface to Hierocles’s book Of providence and destiny, “Hugo Grotius, he says, was a great, an incomparable man:  in him was seen what is very rare, a peaceable spirit, with much judgment, and infinite erudition.”  Augustus Buchner[719] calls Grotius the greatest ornament of his time, the oracle of human wisdom, and the wonder of the age.

Lewis du Moulin comparing Grotius with Salmasius[720], allows Grotius much more judgment, but gives to Salmasius a greater extent of knowledge.  In another place[721], where he censures Grotius for the part he had acted with regard to religion, he bestows on him, after all, in other respects the highest praises.  “Neither the present nor the last age, he says, hath produced a man superior to Grotius in judgment and erudition.  He was great in everything:  a very great Divine, Lawyer, Orator, Poet, Philosopher; his genius, far from being confined within the limits of the bar, was scarce bounded by those of nature.”

Guy Patin writes[722], February 24, 1662, “They have finished in Holland, in nine volumes in folio, an edition of all the works of Grotius, whom I formerly knew:  he was the finest genius of his time; a man of surprising knowledge, and perfect master of polite and useful learning.”  “He and Salmasius were the greatest scholars or their time,” he writes in another letter[723].  And in another place, “Peter Grotius, says he[724], was son of the first man of his age.”

“I would not mention the most learned and greatest man of this country, says Wicquefort[725], were I not forced to it by the remarks published at Brussels on what I have said of him in my Memoirs:  it will be readily conceived that I mean Hugo de Groot.  I admire, with the rest of the world, the genius, the probity, and the works of this great man; and besides this there are particular considerations, which inspire me with a veneration for his memory.”