Voetius, Gisbertus

VOETIUS, vo-f'shi-us, GISBERTUS (GIJSBERT VOET): Dutch Reformed; b. at Heusden (25 m. s. of Utrecht) Mar. 3, 1589; d. at Utrecht Nov. 1, 1676. He was educated at the University of Ley den (1604-11), and in 1611 was made pastor of the village of Vlijmen; in 1617 he accepted the position of minister in his native town, where he preached

eight times a week, devoted himself to the study of Arabic, and was privet-docent in various branches of theology, logic, physics, metaphysics, and oriental languages. In 1618 he was a delegate to the Synod of Dort, where he exercised a strong influence against the Remonstrants. For a time he preached also at Gouda against the Arminianism which had there taken root, and when, in 1630, the Roman Catholic stronghold of Bois-le-Duc was wrested from the Spanish, he eagerly devoted himself to promoting the Reformed cause there. In 1634 he accepted the professorship of theology and oriental languages at the newly founded academy of Utrecht, where he passed the remainder of his life. In 1637 he served also as pastor of the Utrecht congregation. He had already written, while still at Heusden, his Proeve van de cracht der godtsalicheyt (Amsterdam, 1628) against Daniel Tilenus, formerly professor of theology at Sedan. In all his teaching he laid no less stress on orthodoxy of belief than on uprightness of life. His vast learning excited admiration, and his zeal for knowledge was insatiable. He lectured on theology, Hebrew, Arabic, and Syriac, and urged his students to hold meetings for personal devotion. Throughout his life he was a bitter and uncompromising foe of Arminianism; as professor at Utrecht he continued his attacks in his lectures and disputations, as well as in his Thersites heautontimorumenos (Utrecht, 1635) and Catechisatie over den catechismus der Remonstranten (1641). His exegesis was designed simply to give a philological demonstration of the truth of the accepted doctrine of his church rather than the religious and Christian truths taught in the Bible. He was inferior as an exegete, and his dogmatics bore an essentially scholastic character. These traits appear strongly in his Selectce disputationes theologicce (5 vols., Utrecht, 1648-69; selected disputations ed. A. Kuyper, Amsterdam, 1887). The least deviation from rigid Calvinism was inadmissible in his opinion, and his tendency was, accordingly, prevailingly polemic. He was as Calvinistic in his theory of the relations of Church and State as in his theology, and constantly opposed all forms of patronage, maintaining that the Church should be entirely independent of the State, views set forth in his Politico ecclesiastics (3 vols., Amsterdam, 1663-76; selected treatises ed. F. L. Rutgers and P. J. Hoedemaker [2 parts, Amsterdam, 1885-86]). A bitter enemy of the Roman Catholic Church, as evinced in his Desperate causes papstus (Amsterdam, 1635), written against the Louvain Professor Cornelius Jansenius, bishop of Ypern after 1636, Voetius became involved in a long controversy with Maresius over a question of toleration (cf. his Specimen assertionum partim ambiguarum out lubricarum, partim periculosarum [Utrecht, 1642]). Both antagonists, however, united against a common foe, Johannes Cocceius (q.v.). The more liberal tendencies of Cocceius, combined with an exegesis of greater independence and a relative depreciation of practical Christianity, aroused the wrath of Voetius. The resulting controversy racked the Dutch Reformed Church till long after the death of the two protagonists; when a truce was patched up between the factions, so that at Amsterdam, for example, a

221
system of rotation was adopted whereby an adherent of Voetius should first be made pastor, then a follower of Cocceius.

A controversy of exceptional bitterness was waged by Voetius against the Cartesian philosophy, which he deemed incompatible with Reformed theology. He had kept silent while Henricus Renerius, professor of philosophy at Utrecht from 1637 to 1639, had adopted the Cartesian method in all his lectures; but his wrath became public when a like course was pursued by Renerius' successor, Henricus Regius (De Roy). Voetius was able to compel Regius to cease lecturing on philosophy, and secured a majority vote from the Utrecht faculty forbidding the use of the new system of philosophy in instruction. He himself polemized against Descartes, and had Martinus Schoock, professor of logic and physics at Groningen, prepare an attack entitled Admiranda methodus novae philosophiae Renati des Cartes (Utrecht, 1643). Descartes replied in the Epistola ad celeberrimum virum Gisbertum Voetium (Amsterdam, 1643), whereupon Voetius continued his attacks, at the same time denying connection with the polemic ostensibly written by Schoock. He was even able to have Descartes condemned by the magistracy of Utrecht as a slanderer and circulator of libelous writings. When, however, the matter was taken up officially by the academic senate at Groningen, Schoock revealed Voetius' complicity in the Admiranda methodus. Utrecht was ordered to make amends to the philosopher, and the printing, publishing, and selling of all writings for or against Descartes were forbidden on June 2, 1645, though Voetius still continued his attacks on this "fanatic and fantastic philosophy." Less explicable was the struggle with Jean de Labadie, which occupied the closing decades of Voetius' life. He had originally been the friend of Labadie, and had been instrumental in securing his call from Geneva to Middelburg in Zealand, besides encouraging his efforts to inject new life into the dry orthodoxy of the Dutch Reformed. When, however, the activity of Labadie assumed a separatistic tendency, Voetius became his opponent. A disputation De ecclesiarum separatarum unione et syncretismo (Amsterdam, 1669), defended under his auspices, dealt a severe blow to Labadie, and the breach widened continually.

Unlike Cocceius, Voetius founded no school in the strict sense of the term. His true importance lay in the practical nature of his theology and in his encyclopedic theological learning. In addition to the works already mentioned, his chief productions were: Exercitia pietatis (Gorinchem, 1644); the anonymous Erpenii bibliotheca Arabica cum augmenta (Utrecht, 1667); Diatribe de theologia (1668); and especially his Exercitia et bibliotheca studiosi theologiae (1644), the last an outline of a four-years' course in theology of impracticable difficulty. A portion of his correspondence has also been edited by A. C. Duker under the title Eenige onuitgegeven brieven van en aan Voetius (The Hague, 1893).

(S. D. Van Veen.)

Bibliography: The funeral orations by C. Gentman and A. Essenius were published at Utrecht, 1677. Consult: C. Burman, Trajectum Eruditurn, pp. 396-397, Utrecht, 1738; A. Ijpeij (Ypey), Geschiedenis van de kristlijke Kerk do de achatierede Euw, viii. 122 sqq., 12 parts, Utrecht,1797-1811; M. Goebel, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der rheiniach-weatphalischen . . . Kirche, vol. ii., 3 vols., Coblenz, 18490; A. C. Duker, Schoolpexag en eigen Onderwek, Leyden, 1861; idem, GasberEua Voetius, 2 vols., ib. 1897-1907, new ed., 1910; G. A. Lamers, in Stemmen voor Waarlaead in Vrede, 1879, i. 60724. '