Ordinum Hollandiae ac Westfrisiae pietas (The Piety of the States of Holland and Westfriesland) is a 1613 book on church polity by Hugo Grotius.
[1] In arguing for a relaxation of orthodox Calvinism, or from another perspective against the hardening of Reformed theology along the lines proposed by his colleague and opponent Franciscus Gomarus, Arminius had appealed to the secular authorities.
That was because it took aim at a work of Sibrandus Lubbertus from 1611, Commentarii ad nonaginta novem errores Conradi Vorstii from 1611, the year in which Vorstius, an Arminian, had been forced out of the University of Leiden.
More particularly it was directed against the dedication Lubbertus had made to George Abbot, in which the States of Holland were criticised for their lenient handling of the Remonstrants, and their reluctance to call a synod.
[5] Grotius argued for the tradition of Erasmus of seeking concord, putting down a marker for eirenicism; he also poured scorn on the idea, a frequent proposal of the time and in the event the solution taken, of a synod to decide on the theological points.
[11] Lubbertus also replied in 1614, with his carefully considered Responsio ad Pietatem Hugonis Grotii, from a team involving also Petrus Plancius, Festus Hommius and Matthew Slade.
[16] A reprint was published (dated 1613 also) which toned down some of the criticisms of Lubbertus, but it was too late for Grotius to regain his reputation as a potential unifier of the Dutch church.
He sent it to Walaeus, an increasingly sceptical sounding board, and published it in 1617 as Defensio fidei Catholicae de satisfactione Christi adversus Faustus Socinum.