View source for Simon Episcopius

{{Short description|Dutch theologian (1583–1643)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2025}}
{{infobox person/Wikidata | fetchwikidata=ALL}}
'''Simon Episcopius''' (8 January 1583 – 4 April 1643) was a Dutch [[theology|theologian]] and [[Remonstrants|Remonstrant]] who played a significant role at the [[Synod of Dort]] in 1618.{{sfn|Rogget|1909|p=59}} His name is the [[Latinisation (literature)|Latinized]] form of his Dutch name '''Simon Bisschop'''.

==Life==
Born in [[Amsterdam]], in 1600 he entered the [[University of Leiden]], where he studied theology under [[Jacobus Arminius]], whose teaching he followed, and [[Franciscus Gomarus]]. He graduated M.A. in 1606, but his appointment as a minister was questioned from the [[Calvinist]] side. He went to the [[University of Franeker]], where he heard [[Johannes Drusius]]. In 1610, the year in which the [[Arminianism|Arminians]] presented the [[Remonstrance of 1610|Remonstrance]] to the states of [[Holland]], he became pastor at [[Bleyswick]], a village near [[Rotterdam]]; in the following year he advocated the cause of the [[Remonstrants]] at [[The Hague]] conference (1611), and again at [[Delft]] in 1613.{{sfn|Rogget|1909|p=59}}

In 1612 he succeeded Francis Gomarus as professor of theology at Leiden; his appointment awakened the bitter enmity of some of the Calvinists. He was attacked by [[Festus Hommius]] in ''Specimen controversiarum Belgicarum'' (1618).{{sfn|Rogget|1909|p=59}}

At the [[Synod of Dort]] in 1618, Episcopius was chosen as the spokesman of the thirteen representatives of the Remonstrants before the synod; but he was refused a hearing. At the end of the Synod's sittings in 1619, Episcopius and the other twelve Arminian representatives were deprived of their offices and expelled from the country.{{Sfn |Chisholm |1911}}

Episcopius retired to [[Antwerp]] and ultimately to France, where he lived partly at [[Paris]], partly at [[Rouen]]. He devoted most of his time to writings in support of the Arminian cause. He notably wrote the ''[[Remonstrant Confession]]'' (1621).{{sfn|Episcopius|Ellis|2005b}} But the attempt of [[Luke Wadding]] to convert him to Catholicism involved him also in a controversy. After the death (1625) of [[Maurice of Nassau|Maurice, prince of Orange]], the violence of the Arminian controversy began to abate, and Episcopius was permitted in 1626 to return to his own country. In 1630, he was appointed preacher at the Remonstrant church in Rotterdam. In 1634 he became rector of the Remonstrant college in Amsterdam, where he died in 1643.{{sfn|Rogget|1909|p=59}}

==Views==
[[File:Simon Episcopius.jpg|thumb|upright |Simon Episcopius, ca. 1630]]
Episcopius may be regarded as in great part the theological founder of Arminianism, since he developed and systematized the principles tentatively enunciated by Arminius.{{sfn|Episcopius|Ellis|2005|p=8|ps=. Episcopius was singularly responsible for the survival of the Remonstrant movement after the Synod of Dort. We may rightly regard him as the theological founder of Arminianism, since he both developed and systematized ideas which Arminius was tentatively exploring before his death and then perpetuated that theology through founding the Remonstrant seminary and teaching the next generation of pastors and teachers.}} Besides opposing at all points the peculiar doctrines of Calvinism, Episcopius protested against the tendency of Calvinists to lay so much stress on abstract [[dogma]], and argued that [[Christianity]] was practical rather than theoretical &ndash; not so much a system of intellectual belief as a moral power &ndash; and that an orthodox faith did not necessarily imply the knowledge of and assent to a system of doctrine which included the whole range of Christian truth, but only the knowledge and acceptance of so much of Christianity as was necessary to effect a real change on the [[Heart (Symbolism and Metaphor)|heart]] and [[Personal life|life]].{{Sfn |Chisholm |1911}}

==Works==
Here are some notable works of Episcopius:

* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Disputatio theologica de autoritate S. Scripturæ |location=Lugduni Batavorum |publisher=Ex officina Ioannis Patij |year=1612}}
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Antidotum continens pressiorum declarationem ... sententiae quae in Synodo Nationali Dordracena asserta est et stabilita. |location=Herder-vviici |publisher=ex officina typographi Synodalis |year=1620}}
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Acta et scripta Synodalia Dordracena ministrorum remonstrantium in foederato Belgio. |location=Herder-vviici |publisher=ex officina typographi Synodalis |year=1620}}
* {{cite book |language=nl |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Belijdenisse ofte verklaringhe van 't ghevoelen der leeraren, die in de gheunieerde Neder-landen Remonstranten worden ghenaemt, over de voornaemste articulen der christelijcke religie. |location=s. l. |publisher=s. l. |year=1621}} (Remonstrant Confession)
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Confessio declaratio sententiae pastorum gui in foederato Beiglo Remonstrantes vocantur super praecipuis artscuf is religionis Christianae |location=s. l. |publisher=s. l. |year=1622}} (Remonstrant Confession)
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Apologia Pro Confessione Sive Declaratione Sententiae eorum, Qui in Foederato Belgio vocantur Remonstrantes, super praecipuis Articulis Religionis Christianae Contra Censvram Quatuor Professorum Leidensium |location=s. l. |publisher=s. l. |year=1629}} 
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Vedelivs Rhapsodvs, sive Vindiciae Doctrinæ Remonstrantium a criminationibus & calumnijs Nicolai Vedelii ... : quas Rhapsodiarum in morem congessit & inscripsit arcana Arminianismi |location=Hardervici |publisher=Ex Officina Typographorum Remonstrantium |year=1633}}
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=Paraphrasis et observationes in caput VIII, IX, X & XI epistolæ S. Pauli ad Romanos |location=Amstelædami |publisher=Excudit Petrus Walschaert |year=1644}}
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |last2=de Courcelles |first2=Étienne |last3=van Limborch |first3=Philippus |title=M. Simonis Episcopii S.S. theologiae in Academia Leydensi quondam professoris Opera theologica : Quorum catalogum versa pagina exhibet. |location=Amstelædami |publisher=Ex typographeio Ioannis Blaev. |year=1650 |others=2 volumes}}
* {{cite book |language=la |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |title=M. Simonis Episcopii institutiones theologicae, privatis lectionibus Amstelodami traditae |location=Amstelaedami |publisher=Ex typographico Ioannis Blaeu |year=1650}}

==Notes and references==
===Citations===
{{Reflist}}

===Sources===
* {{Cite book |language=en |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |last2=Ellis |first2=Mark A. |chapter=Introduction |title=The Arminian confession of 1621 |publisher=Pickwick Publications |place=Eugene |date=2005 |chapter-url=http://evangelicalarminians.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Ellis.-Arminian-Confession-1621-Intro.pdf}}
* {{Cite book |language=en |last1=Episcopius |first1=Simon |last2=Ellis |first2=Mark A. |title=The Arminian confession of 1621 |publisher=Pickwick Publications |place=Eugene |date=2005b |url=http://evangelicalarminians.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Ellis.-ARMINIAN-CONFESSION-OF-1621.pdf}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Episcopius, Simon|volume=9|page=701}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |language=en |last1=Rogget |first1=H. C. |title=Episcopius (Bisschop), Simon |encyclopedia=The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge: Embracing Biblical, Historical |volume=4 |location=New York |publisher=Funk and Wagnalls Company |date=1909 |url=https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc04/htm/iii.x.xiv.htm#iii.x.xv}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book |language=en |last1=Calder |first1=Frederick |title=Memoirs of Simon Episcopius: The Celebrated Pupil of Arminius |publisher=Hayward and Moore |location=London |year=1838 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G8rXMWcPQLUC&q=Simon+Episcopius }}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
*{{PRDL|11}}

{{s-start}}
{{s-aca}}
{{s-bef|before=[[Conrad Vorstius]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=Chair of theology at the [[University of Leiden]]|years=1612–1619}}
{{s-aft|after=[[André Rivet]]}}
{{s-end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Episcopius, Simon}}
[[Category:1583 births]]
[[Category:1643 deaths]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch Calvinist and Reformed ministers]]
[[Category:17th-century Dutch theologians]]
[[Category:Arminian ministers]]
[[Category:Arminian theologians]]
[[Category:Participants in the Synod of Dort]]
[[Category:Clergy from Amsterdam]]
[[Category:Remonstrants]]