Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus

Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus born Joannes Arnoldsz Ravens (c.1582, Leiden – 2 January 1650, Amsterdam)[1] was a Dutch Remonstrant minister and jurist.

Life

He was born in Leiden, and in 1606 was a Calvinist preacher there. A pupil of Jacobus Arminius,[2] he took up the Arminian views, he was a public supporter of them by 1609, and in 1610 signed the Five Articles of Remonstrance. Subsequently, as a consequence of the Synod of Dort, he lost his church office in 1619. He left the country, being abroad until 1630. Studying law, he then had a career as advocate in Amsterdam.[3] The details surrounding his conversion to Roman Catholicism late in life are unclear and debated. In a letter to Johannes Uytenbogaert on May 14, 1629, he denied rumors of his conversion, expressing confusion about the basis of such claims. However, reports from 1630 suggest that he may have had inclinations toward Catholicism, which led to concern and even some mockery from his Remonstrant peers. In 1649, just days before his death, he declared his conversion to Catholicism, stating that, after “sharp investigation”, he had concluded that the “Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion” was the true path to salvation. This declaration, allegedly made in the presence of two witnesses, was documented in a letter to his son, but is only preserved through Philipp van Limborch, a secondary source. The motivations behind this conversion remain contested. [4]

Works

Theological writings
Title page from Jurisprudentia romana H[ermanni] Vulteii contracta (1644), a summary of a work by Hermann Vultejus (1555-1634)
Legal writings

Corvinus had been quite close to Grotius, in the 1610s, and from around 1632 taught the law. With Gerard de Wassenaer and Pieter de la Court he was one of a group of legal writers with Remonstrant sympathies who commented on reason of state; Corvinus did this in an edition of the De arcanis rerumpublicarum of Arnoldus Clapmarius (1641).[2] Other works were:

  • Posthumus Pacianus (1643) on Giulio Pace
  • Jurisprudentia romana (1644)
  • Conclusiones de ivre pvblico (1644) with Arnoldus Clapmarius, Christoph Besold, and Franciscus Rosellus
  • Enchiridium seu institutiones imperiales (1649)
  • Jus canonicum per aphorismos strictim explicatum (1648)

Family

His son Arendt became a professor of law at Mainz.[7]

Notes

  1. ^ Joannes Arnoldsz. Ravens at biografischportaal.nl
  2. ^ a b Anthony Pagden (editor), The Idea of Europe: from antiquity to the European Union, Volume 13 (2002), p. 105; Google Books.
  3. ^ de:s: ADB:Corvinus, Johann Arnold
  4. ^ "Biografisch lexicon voor de geschiedenis van het Nederlands protestantisme".
  5. ^ John Platt, Reformed Thought and Scholasticism: the arguments for the existence of God in Dutch theology, 1575-1650 (1982), p. 184; Google Books.
  6. ^ Richard Tuck, Philosophy and Government, 1572-1651 (1993), p. 188; Google Books.
  7. ^ (in Italian) treccani.it page