GROTIUS, Hugo

(1583–1645)

   Theologian and jurist. Later known by his Latin name, already as a young boy in Delft, Hugo de Groot displayed his unusual intellectual gifts. He studied at Leiden Uni versityand earned his doctor’s degree in law at the University of Or leans in France in 1599. He defended the freedom of the seas, in the interest of Dutch maritime commerce, in his famous treatise Mare liberum (1609). As of 1613, Grotius served as a pensionary or legal advisor of the town of Rotterdam, but he became entangled in the religious controversies between the orthodox Calvinists (followers of Franciscus Gomarus) and the more lenient Protestant disciples of Jacobus Arminius, the so-called Remonstrants. The latter were outlawed during the national SynodofDordrechtin 1618–1619, and their leaders were taken prisoner and sentenced to death (in the case of Grand Pensionary Johan van Oldenbarnevelt) or to life im prisonment. Grotius escaped detention, fleeing Loevestein in a book chest, and went to Sweden and France. In 1631, he became Sweden’s ambassador in Paris. He published many books on the law of nations, which brought him lasting fame, but his main personal interests were undoubtedly in the field of theology.