Franciscus Gomarus (January 30, 1563,
BrugesBruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....
- January 11, 1641,
Groningen||-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |}Groningen is the capital city of the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. With a population of 185,000, it is by far the largest city in the north of the Netherlands....
), was a
DutchThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
theologianThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
, a strict
CalvinistCalvinism is a theological system and an approach to the Christian life...
and opponent of the teaching of
Jacobus ArminiusJacobus Arminius , the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Harmenszoon from the Protestant Reformation period, , served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden...
(and his followers), which was formally judged at the
Synod of DortThe Synod of Dort was a National Synod held in Dordrecht in 1618/19, by the Dutch Reformed Church, in order to settle a serious controversy in the Dutch churches initiated by the rise of Arminianism. The first meeting was on 13 November, 1618, and the final meeting, the 154th, was on 9 May, 1619...
(1618-1619).
Life
His parents, having embraced the principles of the
ReformationThe Protestant Reformation was a Christian reform movement in Europe which is generally deemed to have begun with Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses in 1517 although a number of precursors such as Jan Hus predate that event...
, emigrated to the Palatinate in 1578, in order to enjoy freedom to profess their new faith, and they sent their son to be educated at
StrasbourgStrasbourg is the capital and principal city of the Alsace region in north-eastern France. With 702,412 inhabitants in 2007, its metropolitan area is the ninth largest in France...
under
Johann SturmJohann Christoph Sturm German philosopher, author of Physica Electiva a book which criticized Leibniz and prompted him to publish a rebuke.-References:...
. He remained there three years, and then went in 1580 to
Neustadt- Germany :*in Baden-Württemberg:**Titisee-Neustadt, a town in the district of Breisgau-Hochschwarzwald*in Bavaria:**Bad Neustadt an der Saale, the capital of the Rhön-Grabfeld district...
, whither the professors of
HeidelbergThe Ruprecht Karl University of Heidelberg is a public research university located in Heidelberg, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Founded in 1386, it is the oldest university in Germany and was the third university established in the Holy Roman Empire...
had been driven by the elector-palatine because they were not Lutherans. Here his teachers in theology were Zacharius Ursinus (1534-1583), Hieronymus Zanchius (1560- 1590), and
Daniel Tossanus-Life:He was born at Montbéliard on July 15, 1541, the son of Pierre Toussain. He was educated at Basel and Tübingen. Returning to France he preached for six months in his native town, and went to Orléans, 1560, where, after being a teacher of Hebrew, he was ordained minister of the local Reformed...
(1541-1602). Crossing to
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
towards the end of 1582, he attended the lectures of
John RainoldsJohn Rainolds , English divine, was born about Michaelmas 1549 at Pinhoe, near Exeter.He was educated at Merton and Corpus Christi Colleges, Oxford, becoming a fellow of the latter in 1568. In 1572-73 he was appointed reader in Greek, and his lectures on Aristotle's Rhetoric laid the sure basis of...
(1549-1607) at
OxfordOxford is a city, and the county town of Oxfordshire, in South East England. The city has a population of just under 165,000, with 151,000 living within the district boundary. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through Oxford and meet south of the city centre...
, and those of
William WhitakerWilliam Whitaker was a prominent Anglican theologian. He was master of St. John's College, Cambridge, and a leading divine in the university in the latter half of the seventeenth century.-Early life and education:...
at
CambridgeThe city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. It is also at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen....
. He graduated at Cambridge in 1584, and then went to Heidelberg, where the
facultyA faculty is a division within a university comprising one subject area, or a number of related subject areas...
had been by this time re-established. He was
pastorThe term pastor usually refers to an ordained person within a Christian church. In some countries the term is more usually used in traditional Protestant churches but is also used in reference to priests and bishops within the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox churches. The...
of a
Dutch Reformed ChurchDutch Reformed Church was one of many branches of churches established during the Protestant Reformation in Europe in the sixteenth century. While the Dutch Reformed Church was based in the Netherlands, other churches holding similar theological views were founded in France, Switzerland, Germany,...
in
Frankfort- Places :In South Africa:* Frankfort, Free StateIn the United States of America:* Frankfort, Illinois* Frankfort, Indiana* Frankfort, Kansas* Frankfort, Kentucky, the state capital and best-known U.S...
from 1587 till 1593, when the congregation was dispersed by
persecutionPersecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are sexual persecution i.e.; persecution of women, religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these...
. In 1594 he was appointed
professorThe meaning of the word professor varies. In some English-speaking countries, it refers to a senior academic who holds a departmental chair, especially as head of the department, or a personal chair awarded specifically to that individual...
of
theologyThe term "theology" literally means the study of God, deriving from the Greek word theos, meaning 'God', and the suffix -ology from the Greek word logos meaning "discourse", "theory", or "reasoning"...
at the University of Leiden, and before going there received from the University of Heidelberg the
degree of doctorA doctorate is an academic degree or professional degree that in most countries represents the highest level of formal study or research in a given field. In some countries it also refers to a class of degrees which qualify the holder to practice in a specific profession . The best-known example...
.
Theology
He taught quietly at Leiden until 1603, when
Jacobus ArminiusJacobus Arminius , the Latinized name of the Dutch theologian Jakob Harmenszoon from the Protestant Reformation period, , served from 1603 as professor in theology at the University of Leiden...
came to be one of his colleagues in the theological faculty, and began to teach what he viewed as essentially
PelagianPelagianism is a theological theory named after Pelagius . It is the belief that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid. Thus, Adam's sin was "to set a bad example" for his progeny, but his actions did not...
doctrines and to create a
new school of theologyArminianism is a school of soteriological thought within Protestant Christianity based on the theological ideas of the Dutch Reformed theologian Jacobus Arminius and his historic followers, the Remonstrants...
within the university. Gomarus immediately set himself earnestly to oppose these beliefs in his classes at college, and was supported by Johann B. Bogermann (1570-1637), who afterwards became professor of theology at Franeker. Arminius sought to make election dependent upon faith, whilst they sought to enforce absolute
predestinationPredestination is a religious concept, which involves the relationship between God and his creation. The religious character of predestination distinguishes it from other ideas about determinism and free will...
as the rule of faith, according to which the whole Scriptures are to be interpreted. Gomarus then became the leader of the opponents of Arminius, who from that circumstance came to be known as Gomarists (Dutch:
contra-remonstranten). He engaged twice in personal disputation with Arminius in the assembly of the estates of Holland in 1608, and was one of five Gomarists who met five Arminians or Remonstrants in the same assembly of 1609. On the death of Arminius shortly after this time, Konrad Vorstius (1569-1622), who sympathized with his views, was appointed to succeed him, in spite of the keen opposition of Gomarus and his friends; and Gomarus took his defeat so ill that he resigned his post, and went to Middleburg in 1611, where he became preacher at the Reformed church, and taught theology and Hebrew in the newly founded Illustre Schule. From this place he was called in 1614 to a chair of theology at the
Academy of SaumurThe Academy of Saumur was a Huguenot university at Saumur in western France. It existed from 1593, when it was founded by Philippe de Mornay, until shortly after 1683, when Louis XIV decided on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, ending the limited toleration of Protestantism in...
, where he remained four years, and then accepted a call as professor of theology and Hebrew to
Groningen||-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |-| |}Groningen is the capital city of the province of Groningen in the Netherlands. With a population of 185,000, it is by far the largest city in the north of the Netherlands....
, where he stayed till his death on the 11th of January 1641. Gomarus, despite his position as a professor of Hebrew, urged that restrictions be placed against the Jews.
Synod of Dordrecht
He took a leading part in the Synod of Dordrecht, assembled in 1618 to judge of the doctrines of Arminius. He was a man of ability, enthusiasm and learning, a considerable Oriental scholar, and also a keen controversialist. He took part in revising the Dutch translation of the
Old TestamentIn Christianity, the Old Testament is the collection of books that form the first of the two-part Christian Biblical canon. These works correspond to the Hebrew Bible , with some variations and additions. In the Eastern Orthodox Church the comparable texts are known as the Septuagint, from the...
in 1633, and after his death a book by him, called the Lyra Davidis, was published, which sought to explain the principles of Hebrew metre, and which created some controversy at the time, having been opposed by
Louis CappelLouis Cappel , was a French Protestant churchman and scholar.-Life:Cappel, a Huguenot, was born at St Elier, near Sedan. He studied theology at Sedan and the Academy of Saumur, and Arabic at the University of Oxford, where he spent two years...
. His works were collected and published in one volume folio, in Amsterdam in 1645. He was succeeded at Groningen in 1643 by his pupil
Samuel MaresiusSamuel Maresius was a French-Dutch Reformed theologian ad controversialist.-Life:He was born at Oisement in Picardy, northern France. He studied in Paris, in Saumur Academy under Gomarus, and in Geneva at the time of the Synod of Dort. He was ordained in 1620, and preachedat Laon until a...
(1599-1673).