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] In 1629 he converted to Roman Catholicism. [4]
Works
Theological writings
Christelicke ende ernstighe vermaninghe tot vrede aen R. Donteclock (1609), against
Reinier Donteclock
Teghen-bericht jeghens D. Francisci Gomari (1610), against
Franciscus Gomarus
Responsio ad Bogermanni adnotationes, pro Grotio (1613), reply to
Johannes Bogermann
Censura anatomes Arminianismi etc. (1614), against
Pierre du Moulin
Petri Molinaei novi anatomici mala encheiresis (1622). Reply to Du Moulin's Anatome Arminianismi (1619).[5] This work follows
Hugo Grotius on the
Ten Commandments, suggesting they are divine positive law, rather than the
law of nature.[6]
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: