Jacobus Arminius 1560 – 1609

Jacobus Arminius was a Dutch Reformed theologian and the eponym of the Arminian school of Protestant theology. Educated at Leiden, Geneva, and Basel, he served as a pastor in Amsterdam before his appointment to the chair of theology at Leiden in 1603. His careful, conscientious departure from strict Calvinist doctrines of predestination and irresistible grace, articulated in his Declaration of Sentiments and other writings, taught that God's election follows foreseen faith and that grace can be resisted. After his death his followers issued the Five Articles of Remonstrance, which were condemned at the Synod of Dort in 1618 to 1619 but shaped later Methodism and free-will Protestantism.