The Canons of the Synod of Dort
The judgment of the Synod of Dort on the five articles of the Remonstrants, set out in five heads of doctrine with a rejection of errors after each. It is the synod’s own statement of the Reformed doctrine of predestination and grace.
The Canons were signed by the Dutch delegates and by those of the foreign churches and promulgated on 6 May 1619. Each head gives the synod’s teaching in numbered articles and then lists the opinions it rejects. The first head treats predestination, the second the death of Christ, the third and fourth together the corruption of man and his conversion, the fifth the perseverance of the saints. The order is that of the Remonstrants’ articles.
The preface is the synod’s own history of the dispute and names Arminius and his followers as those who had disturbed the churches. The conclusion denies a list of charges brought against the Reformed doctrine, among them that it makes God the author of sin. The sentence that follows deposes the Remonstrant ministers who had been cited, and the States General add their approval, dated at The Hague on 2 July 1619.
The English version printed by Schaff gives only the positive articles and the conclusion; the preface, the rejections and the sentence are in his Latin text. He notes two places where the English omits words of the Latin. The Canons are the synod’s own statement and are cited in the Synod of Dort for the Contra-Remonstrant position.
Cited in
- 1618 to 1619, firm date