John Robinson (pastor) - at The University of Leiden

At The University of Leiden

On September 5, 1615, John Robinson entered Leiden University as a student of theology. He attended the lectures of the noted theologians, Episcopius and Polyander. His entry into the university “freed him from control of the magistrates” and entitled him to other privileges of the university's intellectuals. Every month he was eligible to receive a half tun (126 gallons) of beer, and ten gallons of wine every three months free of all taxes. In addition, no troops could be quartered in his home except during military emergencies. He also became exempt from standing night watch, and making contributions to public works and fortifications.

During his time at the university, Robinson was an active participant in the Arminian controversy, siding with the Calvinists. The Arminians believed in free will, rejected predestination, and advocated the possibility of salvation for all. Calvinists, on the other hand, which was the basis of the Dutch state's Dutch Reformed Church, maintained that God is sovereign in the areas of redemption and regeneration. They believed that God saves whom he will, when he will, and how he will.

Robinson was urged by Polyander and other professors of the university to defend Calvinism in public debates with Episcopius, a member of the university’s faculty. He began attending the professor's lectures to become well versed in the Arminian views. The debate lasted for three days. William Bradford, who was present, wrote later that the Lord helped Robinson “to defend the truth and fail his adversary, as he put him to an apparent non-plus in this great and public audience.”

Robinson was also a prolific writer. During various periods, he wrote sixty-two essays, which include his adamant A Justification of Separation from the Church of England (1610), Of Religious Communion, Private and Public (1614), edited and had published The Ecclesiastical Polity of Christ and the opposed Hierarchical Polity written by the Rev. Robert Parker (1616), Apologia Brownistarum (1619), A Defence of the Doctrine propounded by the Synod of Dort (1624), Observations Divine and Morall (1625), and his more tolerant A Treatise on the Lawfulness of Hearing Ministers in the Church of England (1624; published after his death in 1634). Several pamphlets were also written defending Separatist doctrine, and the withdrawal from the Church of England. His Works, with a memoir by Robert Ashton, were reprinted in three volumes in 1851.