re to be wished were common to all men of learning.

FOOTNOTES:

[548] Memoires, p. 423.

[549] Le Vassor, t. 8. 2 partie, l. 40. p. 277.

[550] Ep. 537. p. 210.

[551] Ep. 550. p. 214.

[552] Ep. 55. p. 492.

[553] Ep. 1094. p. 492.

[554] P. 846.

XVI. One of the most interesting parts of Grotius's life is the
knowledge of his sentiments in religion, and the ardent zeal with which
he undertook to reunite Christians in one belief. Brought up in the
principles of Protestantism, he had in the former part of his life a
great aversion to Popery. A letter to Antony Walaeus, Nov. 10, 1611[555],
in which he opens all his mind, acquaints us, that however much he might
be attached to the prevailing religion in the State wherein he lived, he
was persuaded that the Roman Catholics held all the fundamental truths;
but they superadded, he thought, several other articles, which he
treated as new opinions. The zeal of the Jesuits for the Roman Catholic
religion, and their attachment to the Pope, had rendered them extremely
odious to all the enemies of the Romish church. Grotius viewed them in
the same light, agreeably to the sentiments which had been instilled
into him in his infancy, as we find in a letter written, April 1,
1617[556], to his brother then in France; but when he came to riper
years, he did them justice, highly valuing their society, and receiving
many of them into his confidence, particularly the learned Dionysius
Petavius.

FOOTNOTES:

[555] Ep. 14 p. 4.

[556] Ep. 15. p. 759.

XVII. Even when farthest removed from the Roman Catholic Church, he paid
the greatest regard to the decisions of the ancient councils, to the
discipline of the primitive Church, and the authority of the Fathers. He
writes, June 6, 1611, to John Utengobard[557], that he highly respected
the ancient councils which condemned Manicheism and Pelagianism. He
declared to Vossius, July 17, 1616[558], that none held the doctrine
condemned by the ancient Church in greater detestation. "Besides the
hatred, says he to Antony Walaeus, which I profess to the tenets that
were unknown to pious antiquity, nothing more engages me to condemn, and
overturn, as far as I can, this sort of opinions, than their being an
obstacle to peace."

In the explanation of Holy Scripture he would have the sentiments of the
ancient Church adhered to. This point he treated at a conference with
the Prince of Conde, in the beginning of 1639[559]; in which he