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
Arminians presented the
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. 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). 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. 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). But the attempt of
Luke Wadding to convert him to Catholicism involved him also in a controversy. After the death (1625) of
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. ==Views==