A Curious History

suspension from the ministry original: "Ministere decretée" was decreed against Labadie, and it was expected that this man—who calls himself so zealous and, like another Saint Paul, ready to become an anathema for his brothers—would have submitted himself to the following Synod of DordrechtA general assembly of the Reformed Church held in the city of Dordrecht. While the city is famous for the great Synod of 1618–19, this refers to a later meeting of the Walloon (French-speaking) branch of the church.. There, he was expected to give glory to God, ask forgiveness for his errors, his infractions, and his slanders, and thus redeem the peace of all the Churches—especially that of Middelburg, which he has brought to the brink of ruin through his divisions. For this, he will have to ask forgiveness from his God as long as he lives. But the Ethiopian could not change his skin, nor the leopard rid itself of its spots, Jer. 13:23 original: "le More ne pouvoit pas changer sa peau, ny le Leopard se defaire de ses taches." This is a biblical metaphor suggesting that Labadie’s nature was fundamentally unchangeable.. For as soon as he arrived at Dordrecht with the faithful guards of his inner circle original: "gardes de sa manche," literally "guards of his sleeve," implying a loyal or personal retinue., first Yvon, accompanied by Master Everard, presented to the Synod a writing signed by several persons. By this document, they represented that being authorized to bring their grievances to the Synod, the most important of their grievances was that of the approval of the book by Master WolzogueLouis Wolzogen (1633–1690), a Walloon minister and professor whose theological writings were a major point of contention between Labadie and the church authorities.. They stated that the second was to ask if the Synod held to the censures that had been made against those who had denounced the said book. To which the company replied in few words: That it promised to respond to their demands in its own time. Shortly thereafter, Masters de Labadie, Meunix, Schorer, and Baute presented themselves. Labadie, acting as the spokesman, said that in accordance with the act of the Estates of ZeelandThe provincial government of Zeeland, which often intervened in church disputes to maintain civil order.

which authorized them to represent their grievances, he had several things to say to them, which he also set down in writing; of which here is roughly the summary: 1. That a matter of doctrine being public and general should be preferred over any other private matter; 2. that a very great number of learned and pious persons awaited their final clarification on this point; 3. that it was the matter that concerned them most; 4. that upon the decision of this matter depended the decision of all the others; 5. that it was the express demand of the Estates; 6. that it was a matter of resuming the business of Naerden, and that there, just as the matter of Master Wolzogue had been the first treated according to the demand of the Estates of Utrecht, it was consequently just that theirs should be the first dispatched.

But the Synod, which clearly perceived that this demand of Labadie and his followers tended only toward forming a schismA formal split or division within a church body. as soon as the assembly should confirm the approval of Master Wolzogue’s book—and judging on one hand that it would not deviate from the resolution of the Estates of Zeeland if it obliged Labadie to propose all his grievances together, since it was resolved to examine them all; and on the other hand, believing that it was for the assembly to judge the order that must be kept in the examination of such an entangled matter—replied to him, that he must first...