mber 1618, was strictly national--called
by the national authority to decide a national dispute, and not intended
to have more than a national influence. The foreign deputies were
invited to attend, only to assist by their advice in the settlement of a
controversy which concerned the Netherland church alone, and which the
Netherland church alone could decide. At the fourth sitting it was
decided to cite Simon Episcopius and several other Remonstrants to
appear within fourteen days before the synod, to state and justify their
doctrines. It was also agreed to allow the Arminian deputies to take
part in the deliberations, only on condition that they forbore to
consult with, or in any way assist, their cited brethren, but this they
refused. During the interval between the citation and the appearance of
the accused, the professorial members of the synod were instructed to
prepare themselves to be able to confute the Arminian errors, and the
synod occupied itself with deliberations as to a new translation of the
Bible, for which a commission was named, made arrangements for teaching
the Heidelberg catechism, and granted permission to the missionaries of
the East Indies to baptize such children of heathen parents as were
admitted into their families. At the 25th sitting Episcopius and the
others cited appeared, when Episcopius surprised the deputies by a bold
and outspoken defence of his views, and even went so far as to say that
the synod, by excluding the Arminian deputies, could now only be
regarded as a schismatic assembly. The Remonstrants were asked to file
copious explanations of the five points in dispute (_Sententia
Remonstrantium_), but objecting to the manner in which they were
catechized, they were, at the 57th sitting, dismissed from the synod as
convicted "liars and deceivers." The synod then proceeded in their
absence to judge them from their published writings, and came to the
conclusion that as ecclesiastical rebels and trespassers they should be
deprived of all their offices. The synodical decision in regard to the
five points is contained in the canons adopted at the 136th session held
on the 23rd of April 1619; the points were: unconditional election,
limited atonement, total depravity, irresistibility of grace, final
perseverance of the saints. The issue of _supralapsarianism_ v.
_infralapsarianism_ was avoided. These doctrinal decisions and the
sentence against the Remonstrants were, at the 144th sitting, r