Introduction

The Calvinist theologian Antonius de Waele (Walaeus; 1573–1639) was born in Ghent and received his early education there and in Middelburg. He went on to study Greek, Hebrew and theology at the University of Leiden. After a ‘grand tour’ of France, Switzerland (including Geneva, where he attended the lectures of Theodore Beza) and Germany, he returned to the Netherlands in 1601. The following year he was called as a minister to Koudekerke, where he remained for three years, after which he returned to Middelburg. He stayed there for several years, also teaching Greek and philosophy at the local Latin school. Sometime around 1611 he became friends with the Dutch theologian, jurist and humanist Hugo Grotius; but the two men parted company after the latter was sentenced to lifelong imprisonment in 1618 on account of his irenical sympathies. De Waele attended the Synod of Dordrecht (1618–19), which condemned the Arminians – who, in reaction against Calvinism, held that human free will was compatible with divine sovereignty and that Christ died for all men, not just the elect – and promoted the strongly Calvinist orientation of the Dutch Reformed Church. In 1619 de Waele was appointed professor in the faculty of divinity at the University of Leiden, which was now purged of all Arminian influence. He remained at Leiden until his death in 1639, a few months after having been appointed rector of the university.