Synod of Dort
In 1616 Hales went to the Netherlands as chaplain to the ambassador, Sir Dudley Carleton. Carleton sent him in 1618 to the Synod of Dort, as observer, and he remained there from 13 November till the following February. Then Walter Balcanquhall took over for him. Anthony Farindon states (as on Hales's own authority) that Hales departed from Calvinism when Simon Episcopius pressed the verse St. John iii. 16 to support his own doctrine. According to Hales's own letter (19 January 1619) it was Matthias Martinius of Bremen, who took a middle position, who employed this text. It is not clear that Hales became an Arminian, but in any case he came away less sectarian, and he was impressed by the debate on schism, which he reported on 1 December 1618.
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