213 



GROTIUS, HUGO. 



GROTIUS, HUGO. 



211 



golden chain, and presented him to his court as the miracle of 

 Holland. After one year's stay in France, where he was treated 

 with much distinction by many eminent personages, he returned to 

 Holland, whence he addressed a letter to Thuanus (De Thou), ex- 

 pressing his regret at having missed an opportunity of making his 

 acquaintance when in France. This letter laid the foundation of a 

 literary and friendly correspondence, which lasted till the death of 

 Thuauus. In the same year (1599) he published an edition of Mar- 

 tiauu-; Capella, with notes, which he dedicated to the Prince de Conde. 

 This edition U adorned, besides a portrait of the Prince de Coude, 

 with that of Grotiug himself, aged fifteen, wearing the chain which he 

 had received from Henri IV. Immediately on his return from 

 France, Grotius was called to the bar, and pleaded with great 

 success ; but his legal occupations di 1 not prevent him from attend- 

 ing to other studies. In the same year (151(9) he published a Latin 

 translation of a nautical work, written by Stevinus, at the request of 

 the Prince Maurice of Nassau, for the use of naval officers. In 1600 

 appeared his edition of the ' Phenomena ' of Aratus. The corrections 

 he made in the Greek text are considered to be very judicious, and 

 his notes show some knowledge of Arabic. Notwithstanding these 

 serious studies, Grotius found time for cultivating poetry, and with 

 such success, that he was considered one of the best Latin poets of 

 his time. The ' Prosopopeia ' of the city of Ostend, which had sus- 

 tained a siege of three years, was universally considered a master- 

 piece, and wag translated iuto French by Rapin, Pasquier, and 

 Malherbe, and into Greek by Isaac Casaubon. 



Grotius was nominated advocate general for the treasury of Holland 

 and Zealand in 1607, and in the next year married Mary Reygers- 

 burgh, a lady of great family in Zealand. In 1613 he waa made 

 pensionary of Rotterdam, an important place which gave him a seat 

 in the assembly of the states of Holland, and afterwards in that of 

 the states-general, and it was about that time that he contracted an 

 intimate friendship with Olden Barueveldt, a connection which 

 exercised the greatest influence on hU life. In 1615 Grotius wa3 

 lent to England in order to arrange the difficulties arising from the 

 claims of the English to exclude the Dutch from the whale-fisheries 

 of Greenland. During that negotiation, Grotius was by no means 

 satisfied with the English ministry, but he waa much pleased with his 

 reception by King James. The most agreeable incident of his visit to 

 England was however the opportunity which it afforded him of form- 

 ing an intimate friendship with Isaac Casaubon, in common with 

 whom he entertained a hope of uniting all Christians into one church. 



The intimacy of Grotius with Barneyeldt, whose political and 

 religious opinions he shared, involved him in the misfortune of his 

 friend. [BABSEVELDT; ABVISIDS.] He was condemned on the IMh 

 of May 1619 to perpetual imprisonment, and his property confiscated. 

 Pursuant to this sentence, he waa conveyed on the 6th of June in 

 the same year to the fortress of Loevestein, situated at the extremity 

 of an island formed by the Haas and the \VaaL HU wife was allowed 

 to share her husband's imprisonment, but Grotius'a father was refused 

 permission to see his ion. During the imprisonment of Grotius study 

 became bis consolation and the business of his life. In several of his 

 letters addressed from Loeveatein to Vossius, he gives an account of 

 bin studies, informing him that he waa occupied with law and moral 

 philosophy. He devoted his Sundays to reading works on religious 

 subject*, and he employed in the same way the time which remained 

 after bis ordinary labours were over. He wrote during his imprison- 

 ment hi* treatise on the truth of the Christian religion, hi Dutch 

 verse (which he subsequently translated iuto Latin prose), translated 

 the ' Pucenisso) ' of Euripides into Latin verse, wrote the institutions 

 of the laws of Holland in Dutch, and drew up for his daughter 

 Cornelia a kind of catechism in 185 questions and answers, written in 

 Flemish verse. After eighteen months' confinement, Grotius was at 

 last released by the ingenuity of his wife, who had obtained permission 

 to go out of the prison twice a week. He constantly received books, 

 which were brought in and taken out in a large chest together with 

 hi* linen. For some time this chest wai strictly examined by the 

 guards, but finding only books and foul linen, they at last grew tired of 

 the search, and gave it up. Grotius'* wife having observed this, per- 

 suaded her husband to get into the chest, which be did, and in this 

 manner escaped from the fortress on the 21st of March 1621. He 

 made bis way through Antwerp to France, where his wife, who had 

 been detained for about a fortnight in prison, joined him a few mouths 

 afterwards. 



Louis XIII. received Grotiug very favourably, and granted him a 

 pension of 3000 livres, bat it wag paid with great irregularity. He 

 was harshly treated by the Protestant ministers of Cbarenton, who, 

 having assented to the doctrines of the synod of Dordrecht, refused 

 to admit Grotius into their communion, and he was obliged to have 

 divine service performed at home. At Paris (1622) he published hid 

 'Apology,' which wag prohibited in Holland under severe penalties. 

 Having spent a year at Paris, he retired to a country-seat of the 

 president De Meunes, near Senlis, where he spent the spring and 

 summer of 1623. It was in that retreat that he commenced his 

 work ' De Jure Belli et PacU,' which was published in the next 

 year. 



During his residence in France he wai constantly annoyed with 

 importunities to pas* over to the Roman Catholic religion; but 



thou.-h he waa tired of the country, and received invitations from 

 the Duke of Holstein and the King of Denmark, he declined them. 

 Gustavus Adolphua also made him offers, which, after hia death, were 

 repeated by Oxenstiern in the name of queen Christina. In the mean- 

 time the stadholder Maurice died, and his successor seeming less hostile 

 to Grotius, he was induced by the entreaties of hia Dutch friends to 

 venture to return. He arrived at Rotterdam in September 1631, and 

 the news of his return excited a great sensation throughout all Hol- 

 land. But in spite of all the efforts of his friends he was agaiu 

 obliged to leave the country, and went (1632) to Hamburg, where he 

 lived till 1634, when he joined the chancellor Oxenstiern at Frankfurt- 

 on-the-Maiu, who appointed him councillor to the queen of Sweden, 

 and her ambassador at the court of France. The object of the em- 

 bassy was to obtain the assistance of France against the emperor. 

 Grotius arrived at Palis in March 1635 ; and although he had many 

 difficulties to encounter from Richelieu, and afterwards from Mazarin, 

 he maintained the rights and promoted the interests of his adopted 

 sovereign with great firmness. He continued in his post till 1644, 

 when he was recalled at his own request. Having obtained a pass- 

 port through Holland, he embarked on his return at Dieppe, and on 

 his landing at Amsterdam (1645) waa received with great distinction 

 and entertained at the public expense. From Amsterdam he pro- 

 ceeded by Hamburg and Liibeck to Stockholm, where Le was received 

 in the most flattering manner by the queen. Grotius however was 

 not pleased with the learned flippancy of Christina's court, and resolved 

 on quitting Sweden. The climate also did not agree with him. The 

 queen, having in vain tried to retain him iu her service, made him a 

 present of a large sum of money, and of some costly objecta ; she 

 also gave him a vessel, in which he embarked for Liibeck on the 12th 

 of August, but a violent storm, by which hia ship was tossed about 

 during three days, obliged him to land on the 17th in Pomerauia, 

 about 15 leagues from Danzi?, whence he proceeded towards Liibeck. 

 He arrived at Rostock on the 2tith, very ill from the fatigues of the 

 journey, and from exposure to wind and rain iu an opeu carriage; he 

 died on the 28th of August 1645, in the sixty-third year of his age. 

 His last moments were speut iu religious preparation, and he died 

 expressing the sentiments of a true Cnristi tu. His body was carried 

 to Delft and deposited in the grave of his ancestors, where a monu- 

 ment was erected to him in 1781. Two medals were struck in honour 

 of him. 



Notwithstanding his stormy life, the works of Grotius are very 

 numerous. They treat of divinity, jurisprudence, history, literature, 

 and poetry. Many of them are become classical. They may be dis- 

 tributed as follows : 1. His ' Opera Theologies,' which were collected 

 by his son Peter Grotius, 4 vols. 4 to, Amsterdam, 1679, contain, iu the 

 first volume, bis commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, but particularly 

 on the Gospels. Leibnitz said of them (' Opera,' vol. vi. p. 226) that 

 he preferred Grotius to all the commentators. 2. The treatise, ' De 

 Veritate ReligionU Christiana;,' which has been translated from the 

 Latin of Grotius into many European, and even into some Oriental 

 languages. An Arabic translation was published at Oxford (1660), 

 with notes by Edward Pococke. 3. A treatise in Latin, ' On the Atone- 

 ment,' written against Socinua, in order to vindicate the Remonstrants 

 from the charge of Socinianism ; translated into English, aud published 

 at London (1692) under the title, ' Defence of the Catholic F.iith con- 

 cerning the Satisfaction of Christ,' translated by W. H. 4. ' Via ad 

 Pacem Ecclexiasticam,' and several other treatises, amongst which the 

 most remarkable is ' Philosophorum Sentential de F.ito et de eo quod 

 in nostra est Potestate.' Among his works on jurisprudence, his 

 treatise ' De Jure Belli et Pocis ' is translated into all the European 

 languages, and has long been adopted by many universities as au 

 elementary book for the study of international law. It seems how- 

 ever that the author wrote it rather for the use of sovereigns and 

 ministers than for students. It was a favourite book of Gustavus 

 Adolphus, and he always carried it with him. 2. 'Florum Sparsio 

 ad Jus Justinianum,' Paris, 1642. 3. 'Introduction to the Juris- 

 prudence of Holland' (in Dutch), at the Hague, 1631. 4. 'Mare 

 Liberum,' a treatise against the claims of the English to exclusive 

 right over certain seas. It was answered by Selden in his ' Mare 

 Clausum.' 6. ' De Imperio Summarum Potestatum circa Sacra,' 

 Paris, 1646; reprinted at Naples, 1780, 'Cum Scholiis Criticis et 

 Curonologicis.' 6. A collection of legal consultations, opinions, &c. 



His principal historical works are : 1 , ' Annales et Historian Belgica) 

 usque ad Inducias Anni 1609, lib. xviii.' it appeared after bis death, 

 at Amsterdam, 1657, in foL ; 2, ' De Antiquitate Reipublicaa Batavicse," 

 Leyden, 1810, 4to ; 3, ' Parallela Rerumpublicarum,' which he left in 

 manuscript, and of which only a fragment was published in 1801, at 

 Leyden, by Baron Meerman ; 4, ' De Origine Gentium Aniericanarum,' 

 Paris, 1642 and 1643, 8vo ; 5, 'Historia Gothorum, Vandalorum, et 

 Longobardorum,' published after his death, Amsterdam, 1655. 



His Latin poems, which were collected and published for the first 

 time by his brother, William Grotius, at Leyden, in 12 vols., went 

 through ten editions before that of Amsterdam, 1 670. Three tragedies : 

 1, ' Adamus Exul,' published at Leyden in 1601, on the same subject 

 as the 'Paradise Lost;' 2, 'Christus Patiens,' printed at Leyden 

 1608, and translated into English by George Sandys under the title of 

 'Christ's Passion,' with annotations, London, 1640, a translation with 

 which the author was much pleaaed; the third of his tragedies is 



