The Reception of Ordinum Pietas in the Palatinate

The paper examines the reception of Grotius’s work Ordinum Pietas in the Palatinate. Before focussing on the reception in Heidelberg, Grotius’s references to Palatine scholars are analysed in order to highlight the influences of Palatine theology on Grotius himself. It can be illustrated that Grotius refers particularly to irenic ideas expressed by Heidelberg theologians. In the second part, the reception of the treatise in Heidelberg is presented. After sketching the reactions of Abraham Scultetus, Jan Gruterus, and Georg Michael Lingelsheim to Ordinum Pietas, which have already been thoroughly analysed, the present paper concentrates on the famous Heidelberg theologian David Pareus, who mentions the treatise in an unpublished letter to Sibrandus Lubbertus. This letter and additional sources suggest that Pareus was not in favour of Grotius’s politico-ecclesiastical concept – a finding which raises, however, the question of why Pareus’s commentary on Romans strongly supports politico-ecclesiastical ideas that resemble Grotius’s approach greatly. The answer to this question is to be found in different theological contexts: While Pareus polemicises against Jesuit positions, Grotius advocates a Remonstrant view on civil authorities that is aimed against orthodox Calvinist positions. Furthermore, the paper examines whether or not Grotius exerted any traceable influence on Pareus’s irenicism. On the basis of various arguments, it is proven that this was not the case. On the contrary, it appears that Grotius later referred to Pareus’s irenic writings, just as he also adapted Pareus’s ideas on church and state in his work De imperio summarum potestatum.