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The British Delegation and the Synod of Dort (1618 1619)

2007; Oxford University Press; Volume: CXXII; Issue: 498 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/ehr/cem243

1477-4534

Jane Platt,

American Constitutional Law and Politics

This excellent and comprehensive collection of primary material on the British delegation to the Synod of Dort is not only very welcome but also serves to highlight the lack of attention that has been paid to what, in the closing words of his introduction to this publication, its editor, Anthony Milton, justly dubs ‘one of the most extraordinary religious assemblies of the post-Reformation period’ (p. lviii). No doubt one reason for this neglect stems from the intrinsic difficulty of a phenomenon involving the interplay of complex political issues, especially in the Dutch context, and what, to most modern eyes, are abstruse theological disputes over such notoriously arcane doctrines as free will and predestination. At any rate, it is now eighty years since the appearance of the last full-scale English monograph on the Synod (A.W. Harrison, The Beginnings of Arminianism to the Synod of Dort [1926]), while the major Dutch studies of Kuyper and Kaajan are even older. The revival of interest in the Synod, especially in the British participation, has been prompted by the debate among English historians about the role of the rise of Arminianism in the Church of England as a factor leading to the Civil War. The judicious selection of material is presented in a series of sections. The first, on the political background to the Synod, is drawn from a wide range of correspondence and indicates English concern for the Dutch controversies and especially that of James I. This is followed by a similar collection on the theological background. Sections Three, Four and Five cover the course of the Synod—the last of which is concerned with the divisions within the British delegation over the issue of the extent of the Atonement. Not only does Dr Milton, where necessary, preface the sections with useful summaries in English of any material in Latin, but, in his lengthy introduction, he handles both the political and theological issues with great skill. An impressive example is his finely nuanced discussion of the degree to which James, and the delegation for which he was largely responsible, were sincere in their protestations of eirenical intent. The remaining documents treat the conclusions of the Synod and its aftermath. The final section is of particular interest, covering as it does the later defence of the delegation against the attacks made on them by Richard Montagu, a leading representative of the rising tide of English Arminianism which was coming into its own with the accession of Charles I and the increasing influence of Laud. For both wings of English churchmen the Synod of Dort raised, to quote Milton, ‘the question that arguably is central to the whole identity of the Church of England: how close should its links be with continental Protestantism?’ (p. xxii). Not surprisingly, it became a bone of contention. Clearly there is much here for further investigation and Milton's proposed work, The Genesis of the Canons of Dort, which will draw even more extensively from the Samuel Ward MSS., is a most welcome prospect.