Autorité de l’État et de l’Église chez Hugo Grotius

Abstract

The jurist and theologian Hugo Grotius is rightly considered as a representative of the Dutch humanism initiated by Erasmus from Rotterdam which has been prolonged with Arminianism. The conflict between Arminians and rigorous Calvinists, between remonstrants and counter-remonstrants was certainly, on the one hand, a conflict that bore on the doctrine of predestination. But it was also, on the other hand, a conflict related to the authorities supposed to settle it. There was the question of knowing whether this decision belonged to the political authorities or the religious authorities of the Church. But it equally imported to determine on which confessional basis authority should be grounded in order to settle the difference. Insofar as the decision-makers were concerned Grotius answered all those questions at the very beginning of the dispute between remonstrants and counter-remonstrants, exposing his point of view in his treatise Ordinum Hollandiae Ac Westfrisiae Pietas. Regarding the authority of confessional bases, he had already sketched the outlines of his position in his first theological treatise Meletius (1611). I will limit my study to these two documents and their relationship to the problems.