Whose synod was the Synod of Dort? When? Where? Why?
The Synod of Dort settled a dispute between the strict Dutch Calvinists and Arminius, who argued in favor of free will. It took place in Holland in 1618.
King James I sent a mission from Great Britain, charged to argue the Calvinist case. Calvinism made great inroads into the Anglican Church in the late 16th, early 17th century. Most of Elizabeth’s bishops were Calvinists, and she had to put reins on them to moderate their statements, since she wanted the Church of England to follow a via media and include as many people as possible. Calvinism gradually faded out of the C of E during the course of the 17th century, although it made a comeback under the invading Scottish Presbyterians during the interregnum.
The Synod is of interest partly because John Donne was one of the members of the English delegation, and partly because John Milton took an interest and was, basically, an Arminian Puritan—a strong believer in free will, what we might now call a Free Will Baptist, although he was essentially a church of one.
The Synod of Dort came down in favor of strict Calvinism. Double predestination: All men are either saved or damned since before the creation of the world took place. Irresistible grace: Those who are saved cannot resist God’s grace even if they want to—they will be hauled into heaven no matter how hard they try to sin. And so forth, on to a total of five major theological points.
That even produced people in the 1650s who took St Paul’s words literally: the greater the sinner, the more God’s grace abounds. (see Bunyan’s second best known work: “Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners,” although he didn’t indulge in that sort of activity.) So they spent their time deliberately sinning, in order to let grace abound, since they were convinced that they would be irresistibly saved no mater what they did.
Arminius was condemned by the Synod of Dort, his followers were jailed, one was executed.