This volume contains the proceedings of a conference “Hugo Grotius as a Theologian” (1992), held at the occasion of the retirement of professor Guillaume H.M. Posthumus Meyjes, the editor of Grotius' Meletius. Containing thirteen lectures, it is divided into three sections. In the first all Grotius' main theological works are discussed. The second section presents studies of Grotius' relationship to Erasmus, his polemics with André Rivet, his views on scholarly and religious developments in contemporary France, and his opinions on Jews and Judaism. Four lectures on the reception of Grotius' theological thought in the 17th and 18th centuries in Great Britain, Switzerland and the Netherlands, constitute the third section. In the appendix, a bibliography on the theme 'Grotius as a theologian' is provided. Publications by G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes: • Geschiedenis van het Waalse College te Leiden, 1606-1699, ISBN: 978 90 04 06669 4 (Out of print) • Jean Gerson et l'Assemblée de Vincennes (1329): Ses conceptions de la juridiction temporelle de l'Église, ISBN: 978 90 04 05740 1 • Hugo Grotius – Meletius, sive de iis quae inter Christianos conveniunt epistola. Critical Edition with Translation, Commentary and Introduction, ISBN: 978 90 04 08356 1 • Edited by C. Berkvens-Stevelinck, J. Israel and G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes, Emergence of Tolerance in the Dutch Republic, ISBN: 978 90 04 10768 7 • G.H.M. Posthumus Meyjes. Translated by J.C. Grayson, Jean Gerson - Apostle of Unity: His Church Politics and Ecclesiology, ISBN: 978 90 04 11296 4

Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) is the most famous humanist scholar of the Dutch Golden Age. He wrote influential works on the laws of war and peace, Dutch history and the unification of the churches. His plea for a freedom of the seas in Mare liberum offered the Dutch East India Company a ready justification for the establishment of a trading empire in the East Indies. As far as his daily duties left him any spare time, he penned confidential, learned and beautifully-written letters. This voluminous correspondence offers a trove of information on Grotius’ life and works, and forms the basis of his newest biography which sketches a life caught in a fierce struggle for peace in Church and State.

While the works of Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) have long been held in high esteem by international lawyers, this book addresses the broader, and neglected, theme of his contribution to the theoretical and practical aspects of international relations. It critically reappraises Grotius' thought, examining it in relation to his predecessors and in the context of the wars and controversies of his time, and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the `Grotian' tradition of thought - one which accepts the sovereignty of states but at the same time stresses the existence of shared values and the necessity of rules.

Offers an overview of Grotius' work and thought, from his historical, theological and political writing to his seminal legal interventions.

The Working Papers of Hugo Grotius is the first full-length study of the handwritten documents initially used by the author of Mare Liberum (1609) and De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625) in his day-to-day activities as a scholar, lawyer, and politician, but subsequently incorporated into his own or other archives. Martine van Ittersum reconstructs a process of transmission, dispersal, and loss that started during Grotius’ lifetime and ended with the papers’ auction in 1864. This is also a study of archival afterlives. Our understanding of Grotius’ life and work is shaped by the conscious decisions of previous generations to retain or discard documents, frequently for the sake of individual lives and careers, family honour and/or larger political and religious ends.