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GROTIUS, HUGO (1583-1645)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 624 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GROTIUS, See also:HUGO (1583-1645) , in his native See also:country Huig See also:van See also:Groot, but known to the See also:rest of See also:Europe by the latinized See also:form of the name, Dutch publicist and statesman, was See also:born at See also:Delft on See also:Easter See also:day, the loth of See also:April 1583. The Groots were a See also:branch of a See also:family of distinction, which had been See also:noble in See also:France, but had removed to the See also:Low Countries more than a See also:century before. Their See also:French name was de Comets, and this See also:cadet branch had taken the name of Groot on the See also:marriage of Hugo's See also:great-grandfather with a Dutch heiress. The See also:father of Hugo was a lawyer in considerable practice, who had four times served the See also:office of burgomaster of See also:Leiden, and was one of the three curators of the university of that See also:place. In the See also:annals of precocious See also:genius there is no greater See also:prodigy on See also:record than Hugo Grotius, who was able to make See also:good Latin verses at nine, was ripe for the university at twelve, and at fifteen edited the encyclopaedic See also:work of Martianus See also:Capella. At Leiden he was much noticed by J. J. See also:Scaliger, whose See also:habit it was to engage his See also:young See also:friends in the editing of some classical See also:text. At fifteen Grotius accompanied See also:Count See also:Justin of See also:Nassau, and the See also:grand See also:pensionary J. van Olden Barneveldt on their See also:special See also:embassy to the See also:court of France. After a See also:year spent in acquiring the See also:language and making acquaintance with the leading men of France, Grotius returned See also:home. He took the degree of See also:doctor of See also:law at Leiden, and entered on practice as an See also:advocate. Notwithstanding his successes in his profession, his inclination was to literature.

In 1600 he edited the remains of See also:

Aratus, with the versions of See also:Cicero, Germanicus and See also:Avienus. Of the Germanicus Scaliger says—" A better text than that which Grotius has given, it is impossible to give "; but it is probable that Scaliger had himself been the reviser. Grotius vied with the Latinists of his day in the See also:composition of Latin verses. Some lines on the See also:siege of See also:Ostend spread his fame beyond the circle of the learned. He wrote three dramas in Latin:—Christus patiens; Sophomphaneas, on the See also:story of See also:Joseph and his brethren; and Adamus exul, a See also:production still remembered as having given hints to See also:Milton. The Sophomphaneas was translated into Dutch by See also:Vondel, and into See also:English by See also:Francis See also:Goldsmith (1652); the Christus patiens into English by See also:George See also:Sandys (164o). In 1603 the See also:United Provinces, desiring to transmit to posterity some See also:account of their struggle with See also:Spain, determined to appoint a historiographer. The choice of the states See also:fell upon Grotius, though he was but twenty years of See also:age, and had not offered himself for the See also:post.' There was some talk at this See also:time in See also:Paris of calling Grotius to be librarian of the royal library. But it was a ruse of the Jesuit party, who wished to persuade the public that the opposition to the See also:appointment of See also:Isaac See also:Casaubon did not proceed from theological motives, since they were ready to appoint a See also:Protestant in the See also:person of Grotius. His next preferment was that of advocate-See also:general of the fisc for the provinces of See also:Holland and See also:Zeeland. This was followed by his marriage, in 16o8, to See also:Marie Reigersberg, a See also:lady of family in Zeeland, a woman of great capacity and noble disposition. Grotius had already passed from occupation with the See also:classics to studies more immediately connected with his profession.

In the See also:

winter of 1604 he composed (but did not publish) a See also:treatise entitled De jure praedae. The MS. remained unknown till 1868, when it was brought to See also:light, and printed at the See also:Hague under the auspices of See also:Professor Fruin. It shows that the principles and the See also:plan of the celebrated De See also:Pare See also:belli, which was not composed till 1625,more than twenty years after,had already been conceived by a youth of twenty-one. It has always been a question what it was that determined Grotius, when an See also:exile in Paris in 1625, to that particular subject, and various explanations have been offered; among others a casual See also:suggestion of Peiresc in a See also:letter of See also:early date. The See also:discovery of the MS. of the De jure praedae discloses the whole See also:history of Grotius's ideas, and shows that from youth upwards he had steadily read and meditated in one direction, that, namely, of which the famous De jure belli was the mature product. In the De jure praedae of 1604 there is much more than the germ of the later treatise De jure belli. Its See also:main principles, and the whole See also:system of thought implied in the later, are anticipated in the earlier work. The arrangement even is the same. The See also:chief difference between the two See also:treatises is one which twenty years' experience in affairs could not but briny the substitution of more cautious and guarded language, less dogmatic See also:affirmation, more See also:allowance for exceptions and deviations. The See also:Jus pacis was an addition introduced first in the later work, an insertion which is the cause of not a little of the confused arrangement which has been found See also:fault with in the De jure belli. The De jure praedae further demonstrates that Grotius was originally determined to this subject, not by any speculative intellectual See also:interest, but by a special occasion presented by his professional engagements. He was retained by the Dutch See also:East See also:India See also:Company as their advocate.

One of their captains, Heemskirk, had captured a See also:

rich Portuguese galleon in the Straits of Malacca. The right of a private company to make prizes was hotly contested in Holland, and denied by the stricter religionists, especially the See also:Mennonites, who considered all See also:war unlawful. Grotius undertook to prove that Heemskirk's See also:prize had been lawfully captured. In doing this he was led to investigate the grounds of the lawfulness of war in general. Such was the casual origin of a See also:book which See also:long enjoyed such celebrity that it used to be said, with some exaggeration indeed, that it had founded a new See also:science. A See also:short treatise which was printed in 1609, Grotius says without his permission, under the See also:title of See also:Mare liberum, is nothing more than a See also:chapter—the 12th—of the De jure praedae. It was necessary to Grotius's See also:defence of Heemskirk that he should show that the Portuguese pretence that Eastern See also:waters were their private See also:property was untenable. Grotius maintains that the ocean is See also:free to all nations. The occasional See also:character of this piece explains the fact that at the time of its See also:appearance it made no sensation. It was not till many years afterwards that the jealousies between See also:England and Holland gave importance to the novel See also:doctrine broached in the See also:tract by Grotius, a doctrine which See also:Selden set himself to refute in his Mare clausum (1632). Equally due to the circumstances of the time was his small contribution - to constitutional history entitled De antiquitate reipublicae Batavae (161o). In this he vindicates, on grounds of right, prescriptive and natural, the revolt of the United Provinces against the See also:sovereignty of Spain.

Grotius, when he was only See also:

thirty, was made pensionary of the See also:city of See also:Rotterdam. In 1613 he formed one of a deputation to England, in an See also:attempt to adjust those See also:differences which gave rise afterwards to a See also:naval struggle disastrous to Holland. He was received by See also:James with every See also:mark of distinction. He also cultivated the acquaintance of the See also:Anglican ecclesiastics See also:John Overall and L. See also:Andrewes, and was much in the society of the celebrated See also:scholar Isaac Casaubon, with whom he had been in See also:correspondence by letter for many years. Though the mediating views in the great religious conflict between See also:Catholic and Protestant, by which Grotius was afterwards known, had been arrived at by him by See also:independent reflection, yet it could not but be that he would be confirmed in them by finding in England a See also:developed school of thought of the same character already in existence. How highly Casaubon esteemed Grotius appears from a letter of his to See also:Daniel See also:Heinsius, dated See also:London, 13th of April 1613. " I cannot say how happy I esteem myself in having seen so much of one so truly great as Grotius. Awonderful See also:man! This I knew him to be before I had seen him; but the rare excellence of that divine genius no one can sufficiently feel who does not see his See also:face, and hear him speak. Probity is stamped on his features; his conversation savours of true piety and profound learning. It is not only upon me that he has made this impression; all the pious and learned to whom he has been here introduced have See also:felt the same towards him; the See also:king especially so!" After Grotius's return from England the exasperation of theological parties in Holland See also:rose to such a See also:pitch that it became clear that an See also:appeal to force would be made.

Grotius sought to find some mean See also:

term in which the two hostile parties of See also:Remonstrants and See also:Anti-remonstrants, or as they were subsequently called Arminians and Gomarists (see REMONSTRANTS), might agree. A form of See also:edict See also:drawn by Grotius was published by the states, recommending mutual See also:toleration, and forbidding ministers in the See also:pulpit from handling the disputed dogmas. To the orthodox Calvinists the word toleration was insupportable. They had the populace on their See also:side. This fact determined the See also:stadtholder, See also:Maurice of Nassau, to support the orthodox party —a party to which he inclined the more readily that Olden Barneveldt, the grand pensionary, the man whose uprightness and abilities he most dreaded, sided with the Remonstrants. In 1618 See also:Prince Maurice set out on a sort of pacific See also:campaign, disbanding the civic See also:guards in the various cities of Guelders, Holland and Zeeland, and occupying the places with troops on whom he could rely. The states of Holland sent a See also:commission, of which Grotius was chairman, to See also:Utrecht, with the view of strengthening the hands of their friends, the Remonstrant party, in that city. Feeble plans were formed, but not carried into effect, for shutting the See also:gates upon the stadtholder, who entered the city with troops on the See also:night of the 26th of See also:July 1618. There were conferences in which Grotius met Prince Maurice, and taught him that Olden Barneveldt was not the only man of capacity in the ranks of the Remonstrants whom he had to fear. On the early See also:morning of the 31st of July the prince's coup d'etat against the liberties of Utrecht and of Holland was carried out; the civic guard was disarmed—Grotius and his colleagues saving themselves by a precipitate See also:flight. But it was only a See also:reprieve. The grand pensionary, Olden Barneveldt, the See also:leader of the Remonstrant party, Grotius and Hoogerbeets were arrested, brought to trial, and condemned—Olden Barneveldt to See also:death, and Grotius to imprisonment for See also:life and See also:confiscation of his property.

In See also:

June 1619 be was immured in the fortress of Louvestein near Gorcum. His confinement was rigorous, but after a time his wife obtained permission to See also:share his captivity, on the See also:condition that if she came out, she should not be suffered to return. Grotius had now before him, at thirty-six, no prospect but that of a lifelong captivity. He did not abandon himself to despair, but sought See also:refuge in returning to the classical pursuits of his youth. Several of his See also:translations (into Latin) from the See also:Greek tragedians and other writers, made at this time, have been printed. " The See also:Muses," he writes to See also:Voss, " were now his See also:consolation, and appeared more amiable than ever." The ingenuity of Madame Grotius at length devised a mode of See also:escape. It had grown into a See also:custom to send the books which he had done with in a See also:chest along with his See also:linen to be washed at Gorcum. After a time the warders began to let the chest pass without opening it. Madame Grotius, perceiving this, prevailed on her See also:husband to allow himself to be shut up in it at the usual time. The two soldiers who carried the chest out complained that it was so heavy " there must be an Arminian in it." " There are indeed," said Madame Grotius, " Arminian books in it." The chest was carried to the See also:house of a friend, where Grotius was released. He was then dressed like a See also:mason with hod and See also:trowel, and so conveyed over the frontier. His first place of refuge was See also:Antwerp, from which he proceeded to Paris, where he arrived in April 1621.

In See also:

October he was joined by his wife. There he was presented to the king, See also:Louis XIII., and a See also:pension of 3000 livres conferred upon him. French See also:pensions were easily granted, all the more so as they were never paid. Grotius was now reduced to great straits. He looked about for any opening through which he might See also:earn a living. There was talk of some-thing in See also:Denmark; or he would See also:settle in See also:Spires, and practise in the court there. Some little See also:relief he got through the intervention of See also:Etienne d'Aligre, the See also:chancellor, who procured a royal See also:mandate which enabled Grotius to draw, not all, but a large See also:part of his pension. In 1623 the See also:president See also:Henri de Meme See also:lent him his See also:chateau of Balagni near Senlis (dep. See also:Oise), and there Grotius passed the See also:spring and summer of that year. De See also:Thou gave him facilities to See also:borrow books from the superb library formed by his father. In these circumstances the De jure belli et pacis was composed. That a work of such immense See also:reading, consisting in great part of See also:quotation, should have been written in little more than a year was a source of astonishment to his biographers.

The achievement would have been impossible, but for the fact that Grotius had with him the first draft of the work made in 1604. He had also got his See also:

brother See also:William, when reading his classics, to mark down all the passages which touched upon law, public or private. In See also:March 1625 the See also:printing of the De jure belli, which had taken four months, was completed, and the edition despatched to the See also:fair at See also:Frankfort. His own honorarium as author consisted of 200 copies, of which, however, he had to give away many to friends, to the king, the See also:principal courtiers, the papal See also:nuncio, &c. What remained he sold for his own profit at the See also:price of a See also:crown each, but the See also:sale did not recoup him his outlay. But though his book brought him no profit it brought him reputation, so widely spread, and of such long endurance, as no other legal treatise has ever enjoyed. Grotius hoped that his fame would soften the hostility of his foes, and that his country would recall him to her service. Theo-logical rancour, however, prevailed over all other sentiments, and, after fruitless attempts to re-establish himself in Holland, Grotius accepted service under See also:Sweden, in the capacity of See also:ambassador to France. He was not very successful in negotiating the treaty on behalf of the Protestant interest in See also:Germany, See also:Richelieu having a special dislike to him. He never enjoyed the confidence of the court to which he was accredited, and frittered away his See also:influence in disputes about See also:precedence. In 1645 he demanded and obtained his recall. He was honourably received at See also:Stockholm, but neither the See also:climate nor the See also:tone of the court suited him, and he asked permission to leave.

He was driven by a See also:

storm on the See also:coast near Dantzig. He got as far as See also:Rostock, where he found himself very See also:ill. Stockman, a Scottish physician who was sent for, thought it was only weakness, and that rest would restore the patient. But Grotius sank rapidly, and died on the 29th of See also:August 1645. Grotius combined a wide circle of general knowledge with a profound study of one branch of law. History, See also:theology, See also:jurisprudence, politics, classics, See also:poetry,—all these See also:fields he cultivated. His commentaries on the Scriptures were the first application on an extensive See also:scale of the principle affirmed by Scaliger, that, namely, of See also:interpretation by the rules of See also:grammar without dogmatic assumptions. Grotius's philological skill, however, was not sufficient to enable him to work up to this ideal. As in many other points Grotius inevitably recalls See also:Erasmus, so he does in his attitude towards the great See also:schism. Grotius was, however, animated by an ardent See also:desire for See also:peace and See also:con-See also:cord. He thought that a basis for reconciliation of Protestant and Catholic might be found in a See also:common piety, combined with reticence upon discrepancies of doctrinal statement. His De veritale religions Christianae (1627), a presentment of the evidences, is so written as to form a See also:code of common See also:Christianity, irrespective of See also:sect.

The little treatise became widely popular, gaining rather than losing popularity in the 18th century. It became the classical See also:

manual of See also:apologetics in Protestant colleges, and was translated for missionary purposes into Arabic (by See also:Pococke, r66o), See also:Persian, See also:Chinese, &c. His Via et velum ad pacem ecclesiasticam (1642) was a detailed proposal of a See also:scheme of See also:accommodation. Like all men of moderate and mediating views, he was charged by both sides with vacillation. An See also:Amsterdam See also:minister, James See also:Laurent, published his Grotius 623 papizans (1642), and it was continually being announced from Paris that Grotius had " gone over." See also:Hallam, who has collected all the passages from Grotius's letters in which the prejudices and narrow tenets of the Reformed See also:clergy are condemned, thought he had a " See also:bias towards popery " (Lit. of Europe, ii. 312). The true interpretation of Grotius's mind appears to be an indifference to dogmatic propositions, produced by a profound sentiment of piety. He approached parties as a statesman approaches them, as facts which have to be dealt with, and governed, not sup-pressed in the interests of some one of their number. His See also:editions and translations of the classics were either juvenile exercises prescribed by Scaliger, or " lusus poetici," the amusement of vacant See also:hours. Grotius read the classics as a humanist, for the See also:sake of their contents, not as a professional scholar. His Annals of the Low Countries was begun as an See also:official See also:duty while he held the appointment of historiographer, and was being continued and retouched by him to the last. It was not published till 1657, by his sons See also:Peter and See also:Cornelius.

Grotius was a great jurist, and his De jure belli et pacis (Paris, 1625), though not the first attempt in See also:

modern times to ascertain the principles of jurisprudence, went far more fundamentally into the discussion than any one had done before him. The title of the work was so far misleading that the jus belli was a very small part of his comprehensive scheme. In his treatment of this narrower question he had the See also:works of Alberico See also:Gentili and See also:Ayala before him, and has acknowledged his obligations to them. But it is in the larger questions to which he opened the way that the merit of Grotius consists. His was the first attempt to obtain a principle of right, and a basis for society and See also:government, outside the See also:church or the See also:Bible. The distinction between See also:religion on the one See also:hand and law and morality on the other is not indeed clearly conceived by Grotius, but he wrestles with it in such a way as to make it easy for those who followed him to seize it. The law of nature is unalterable; See also:God Himself cannot alter it any more than He can alter a mathematical See also:axiom. This law has its source in the nature of man as a social being; it would be valid even were there no God, or if God did not interfere in the government of the See also:world. These positions, though Grotius's religious See also:temper did not allow him to rely unreservedly upon them, yet, even in the partial application they find in his book, entitle him to the See also:honour of being held the founder of the modern science of the law of nature and nations. The De jure exerted little influence on the practice of belligerents, yet its publication was an See also:epoch in the science. De Quincey has said that the book is equally divided between " empty truisms and time-serving Dutch falsehoods." For a saner See also:judgment and a brief abstract of the contents of the De jure, consult J. K.

See also:

Bluntschli, Geschichte See also:des allgemeinen Staatsrechts (See also:Munich, 1864). A See also:fuller See also:analysis, and some See also:notice of the predecessors of Grotius, will be found in Hey, Etude sur le See also:droit de la guerre de Grotius (Paris, 1875). The writer, however, had never heard of the De jure praedae, published in 1868. Hallam, Lit. of Europe, ii. p. 543, has an abstract done with his usual conscientious pains. Dugald See also:Stewart (Collected Works, i. 37o) has dwelt upon the confusion and defects of Grotius's theory. See also:Sir James See also:Mackintosh (Miscell. Works, p. 166) has defended Grotius, affirming that his work " is perhaps the most See also:complete that the world has yet owed, at so early a See also:stage in the progress of any science, to the genius and learning of one man." The chief writings of Grotius have been named. For a complete bibliography of his works, see See also:Lehmann, Hugonis Grotii See also:manes vindicati (Delft, 1727), which also contains a full See also:biography. Of this Latin life De Burigny published a rechauffee in French (2 vols., 8vo, Paris, 1752).

Other lives are: Van Brandt, Historie van het See also:

Leven H. de Groot (2 vols., 8vo, See also:Dordrecht, 1727); Von Luden, Hugo Grotius nach seinen Schicksalen and Schriften dargestellt (8vo, See also:Berlin, 18o6) ; Life of Hugo Grotius, by See also:Charles See also:Butler of See also:Lincoln's See also:Inn (8vo, London, 1826). The work of the See also:Abbe Hely contains a life of Grotius. See also Hugo Grotius, by L. See also:Neumann (Berlin, 1884) ; Opinions of Grotius, by D. P. de Bruyn (London, 1894). Grotius's theological works were collected in 3 vols. fol. at Amster-See also:dam (1644–1646; reprinted London, 166o; Amsterdam, 1679; and again Amsterdam, 1698). His letters were printed first in a selection, Epistolae ad Gallos (12mo, Leiden, 1648), abounding, though an See also:Elzevir, in errors of the See also:press. They were collected in H. Grotii epistolae quotquot reperiri poluerunt (fol., Amsterdam, 1687). A few may be found scattered in other collections of Epistolae. Supplements to the large collection of 1687 were published at See also:Haarlem, 18o6; Leiden, 1809; and Haarlem, 1829. The De jure belli was translated into English by See also:Whewell (3 vols., 8vo, See also:Cambridge, 1853) ; into French by See also:Barbeyrac (2 vols.

4to, Amsterdam, 1724) ; into See also:

German in Kirchmann's Philosophische Bibliothek (3 vols. 12mo, See also:Leipzig, 1879). (M.

End of Article: GROTIUS, HUGO (1583-1645)

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