Hugo Grotius:
deconstructing Antichrist exegesis as papacy in 1640
Koot
van Wyk (DLitt et Phil; Thd)
Hugo Grotius
was called a papist by his peers in his own time due to his stance of tolerance
for the Catholic Church he took and more than that, for his specific
deconstruction attempts of biblical exegesis on the identification of the
Antichrist as the papacy. Grotius
tried to convince the king that the he should put out a law prohibiting people
to call the papacy the antichrist. Grotius' Appendix de Antichristo (BG nos.
1128-1129). The passage
is at the beginning of the Appendix by Grotius: ‘Hoc autem aequius est me aliquid condonare
insanientibus, quod ista maledictorum licentia regem Christianissimum Galliae
vel maxime petit; qui cum prudentissimorum virorum usus consilio interdixerit
ne quis Papam Antichristum vocet ... ’. (ed. Opera omnia theologica III (BG no.
919), p. 475 r. 28 A). Op. cit.Briefwisseling van Hugo Grotius. Deel 13
(1990)?Hugo de Groot Instituut voor Nederlandse Geschiedenis 's Gravenhage,
1990. It is
worthwhile to cite more information on this trend in Grotius: The Hague
pastor Andre Rivet was not the only theologian that reacted to Grotius'
publication in favor of church unity [protestants and catholics]. Also the
Bossche professor Samuel Desmarets (Maresius) was a great opponent. The start of
the dispute in writing was in 1640 when Desmarets in his Dissertation of the
Antichrist (BsG no. 299) took a position against Grotius' interpretation of the
biblical passages wherein the Antichrist is mentioned (Commentatio de
Antichristo (BG no. 1100)). This
orthodox Geneve criticism Grotius reduplicate in 1641 with his Appendix de
Antichristo (BG nos. 1128-1129) in which he made a uncommon sharp attack on
theologians that wants to identify the papacy with the Antichrist blindly. The counteraction of this misgiving was for
Grotius so important that he let the tractate be placed also in his publication
Annotationes in libros Evangeliorum (BG no. 1135). Grotius
attack surprised also his friend, the Amsterdam professor Vossius. Vossius was
specifically taken back by the passages wherein the author challenged the
Amsterdam pastors and accused them of trying to encourage religious disputes. From different sides he heard that it was just
this very accusation that the Amsterdam pastors levied against Grotius and his
printer of the Appendix. In March of
1642 the brother of Hugo Grotius, Willem de Groot said that the burning on the
20th of January of one of Blaeu published socian works was an Amsterdam revenge
against the publisher (Letter no. 5629). Grotius also
detected some problem because in February he suddenly insisted to his family
for the publication of one "authentic piece" ‘Autentycque stucken’
(BG [letter of Hugo] no. 889) that concerns his arrest and conviction in the
years 1618-1619 (no. 5582). Willem de
Groot sent a letter on the 24th of February to the unsettled Amsterdam pastors.
They were informed that an Amsterdam pastor Jacob Laurentius was preparing a
writing calling Hugo Grotius a papist [Hugo Grotius papizans, hoc est notae ad
quaedam loca in Hugonis Grotii Appendice de Antichristo (BsG no. 306). It
promised to be an investigation into the way Grotius handled the topic of the
Antichrist in the Appendix. The
Cambridge Platonist Henry More (1614-1687) defended the traditional view of the
Antichrist and was against the view of Grotius and Hammond. He was a pupil of
Mede. More wanted
to vindicate Mede's method and said it "is really the rescuing of the Book
itself into that Power and Use it ought to have in the Church: For it is
standing light to all the Ages thereof..." (Henry More, "Mystery of
Godliness," Theological Works, page 138). More's
fiercest attack on Grotius occurs in his commentary on Daniel (1681); there he
declared that Grotius had excused the Pope from being the Antichrist partly,
because of his distaste for the Reformed Church of Holland "for their
usage of him," partly to "curry favour with the Pontifician party".
H. More, (1681).
A Plain and Continued Exposition of the several Prophecies or Divine Visions of
the Prophet Daniel , pp. XXXVIIf. Hugo
Grotius, Theologian: Essays in Honour of G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes. Edites
Guillaume Henri Mare Posthumus Meyjes, Henk J. M. Nellen, Edwin Rabbie. Two systems
of interpretation were operational in the 17th century: Mede, More et al
(presenting the truth unashamed of the papacy as Antichrist) and Grotius and
Hammond et al (covering up the papacy as antichrist for apologetic purposes). Anglicanism
was transformed by Henry Hammond 1643-1660. The 17th
century was known as the century of syncretism in religious events in Europe. A
dictionary on syncretism said: "Syncretism refers in particular, to the
irenic movement arising from an effort within the Lutheran Church in the
seventeenth century toward interconfessional union, the sole final result of
which was the moderation of the theological spirit Syncretistic controversies
is a phrase summing up the conflict waged between the partizans and opponents
of the movement." The word irenic is one that was leveled against Grotius
and one can include also Hammond. Syncretism in Antichrist terms, means that
whereas the Reformation period called the Antichrist as the papacy, in the
Seventeenth century Protestantism a movement started to try to remove the
papacy as Antichrist and substitute it with preteristic own time
scenarios. Orthodox
Lutherans objected to Grotius' exegesis as Abraham Calovius indicated in his
"nugae Grotii de Caio" in his Biblia Illustrata (1676).A. Calovius,
Biblia Novi Testamenti Illustrata II, Dresdae et Lipsiae 1719, pp. 901-918; cf.
1616ff, 1624, 1841-96. In his criticism of Grotius, Calovius follows Maresius
[mentioned by Johannes van den Berg, "Grotius' views on Antichrist and Apocalyptic
Thought in England," in Hugo Grotius, Theologian: Essays in Honour of
G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes. Edites Guillaume Henri Mare Posthumus Meyjes, Henk J.
M. Nellen, Edwin Rabbie, pp. 170-182, page 175]. (There is also Preuss, Die Vorstellungen vom
Antichrist, page 265). The
Remonstrants did not follow Grotius. Pilippus of Limborch in his Theologia
Christiana defended the Reformers view: "per Antichristum designari
Pontificem Romanum". There is
also later a back-out of hardcore reaction against the papacy by Richard
Baxter. He was a man with an independent mind and it was said that he rarely
agreed wholly with anyone" [Van den Berg 180]. In Richard Baxter's work
The Grotian Religion Discovered. 1658 he objected to Grotius' irenicist
attitude towards the Church of Rome. He warned that Grotius had turned Papist
and that "Popery was indeed his religion" [Van den Berg 181 op. cit.
Richard Baxter, Reliquiae Baxterianae, London 1696, part I, p. 280; cf. Nutall,
"Richard Baxter," page 249). Baxter felt that Cassander's way would
inevitably lead to Rome. "Cassandrian Papists...levelling all their
doctrines to the advancement of the Papall interest" [Baxter, Christian
Concord (1653) quoted by Nutall,"Richard Baxter 246). John
Maitland the earl of Lauderdaill agreed with Baxter in a letter dated 20th of
September 1658 where he said: "I was in Paris acquainted with Grotius...
and though I was then very yong yet some visits past among us. My discours with
him was only in Humanities. But I remember well he was then esteemed such a
Papist as you call Cassandrian" N. H. Keeble - Geoffrey F. Nuttall,
Calendar of the Correspondence of Richard Baxter I, Oxford 1991. 500. Van den Berg
pointed out that even though Baxter was a critic of Grotius about his papist
tendencies, he independently shared with Grotius the view that the papacy is
the Antichrist (Van den Berg, 181). He read Brightman, Mede, More, Grotius and
Hammond but the disparate interpretations brought him to confusion "I
confess despair" (Van den Berg, 181). He called the prophecy of the
Antichrist "the dread of a dark and controverted prophecie" (Baxter,
A Paraphrase of the New Testament...With an Advertisement of Diffficulties in
the Revelations. London 1685, Q rv; R 2v; 3r,v; 4r). More accused
Baxter of a sceptical attitude with regard to the "explanation of
prophecy" (More, Some cursory reflexions impartially made upon Mr. Richard
Baxter his way of writing notes on the Apocalypse, published in London in 1685
under the pseudeonym Phililicrinis Parrhesiastes; see op. cit. Van den Berg 181
footnote 55). Drue
Cressener wrote about the dealing of the Antichrist by Hugo Grotius: "But
when I came to be acquainted with Mr. Mede's Demonstrations and had compared
them with the monstrous evasions, and absurd strains of wit, that Grotius and
others were fain to flye to, to turn off the force of them, I gave over all
thoughts of the comprehending way" Drue
Cressener, A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant
Applications of the Apocalypse, London 1690, p. XIII. Hugo Grotius
argued that not the papacy is the antichrist of the Bible but Simon Magus just
like Henry Hammond. The beast of Revelation 13:1 was for Hammond heathen
worship of imperial Rome (Henry Hammond A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all
the books of the New Testament [1653], Works III, pp. 678-83, 825-29, 911-15,
927-31).
Sources:
H. de Groot,
(1649). Des hoog-geleerden, en wijt-vermaerden Heere, Hugo de Groot,
Uytlegginge van eenige plaetsen des Nieuwen Testaments, handelende van den Anti-Christ,
den geleerden voorgestelt om te overwegen; / door D.H. en I.B. ..Uytlegginge
van eenige plaetsen des Nieuwen Testaments. Rotterdam: Joannes Naeranus. H. de Groot,
(1642). Annotationis in librum evangeliorum hugonis grotii appendix ad
interpretationem locorum n. testamenti quae de antichristo agunt Concordia
discors & Antichristus revelatus. Id est ill. viri Hugonis Grotii apologia
pro papa & papismo: quam praetextu concordiae inter christianos farciendae,
exhibet illius appendix ad interpretationem locorum Novi Testamenti de
Antichristo, modeste refutata duobus libris, per Samuelem Maresium... Liber
primus [-secundus] / Amstelodami apud Joannem & Jodocum Janssonios anno
aerae Christ. MDCXLII [1642]. Samuelle
Maresio, (1640). Dissertatio de Antichristo qua... expenditur et refutatur
nupera... commentatio... ad illustriora ea de re Novi Testamenti loca II.V. Hugonis
Grotii credita; simulque Ecclesiarum reformatarum sententia de Antichristo
romano defenditur... authore Samuele Maresio... / Amstelrodami : apud J.
Janssonium , 1640. See http://www.sudoc.fr/099806185 H. More, (1681).
A Plain and Continued Exposition of the several Prophecies or Divine Visions of
the Prophet Daniel , pp. XXXVIIf. Hugo
Grotius, Theologian: Essays in Honour of G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes. Edites
Guillaume Henri Mare Posthumus Meyjes, Henk J. M. Nellen, Edwin Rabbie. Henry
Hammond A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the books of the New Testament
[1653], Works III, pp. 678-83, 825-29, 911-15, 927-31). http://www.sudoc.fr/099806142 Briefwisseling
van Hugo Grotius. Deel 13 (1990)? Hugo de Groot Instituut voor Nederlandse
Geschiedenis 's Gravenhage, 1990. Antichrist XV, 87, 102, 265, 268, 305, 309,
319, 327, 338, 349, 359. Drue
Cressener, A Demonstration of the First Principles of the Protestant
Applications of the Apocalypse, London 1690, p. XIII.