Caspar Coolhaes

Caspar Coolhaes, or Koolhaas, (1536–1615) was a Reformed minister in the Netherlands and a libertine opponent of Calvinistic confessionalism.

An influx of strict Calvinists into Leiden lobbied for the church's freedom to deal harshly with heretics and impose punishments, while Protestants Coolhaes, Pieter Hackius,[3] and others argued along with Thomas Erastus that it was right for the civil magistrates to maintain control over punishment and order, even in church matters.

[4] The dispute was engendered, in part, by the fear that the unfettered church could in theory create an increasingly totalitarian state with its own systems of punishments.

[5] A provincial synod at Haarlem eventually excommunicated Coolhaes on 25 March 1582 when he refused to sign the Belgic Confession.

Because of his opposition to the Calvinist governmental model, opposition to the Calvinist doctrine of absolute predestination, Coolhaes' appeal for religious liberty, in combination with his professorship when Jacob Arminius was a student at Leiden, Coolhaes is considered by some as an important forerunner to Arminianism.