Hugo Grotius\u27 Defensio fidei Catholicae de satifactione Christi adversus Faustum Socinum : an interpretative reappraisal

With the onslaught of Socinianism in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the doctrine of satisfaction was hotly contested. Faustus Socinus made it a focal point in his attack against the orthodoxy of his day-especially in his work De Jesu Christo servatore. The disciples of Socinus continued the attack, basing their polemic squarely on this foundational work. The abundant energy devoted to refuting De Jesu Christo servatore is tacit proof of its considerable impact. As a result of this treatise--together with the Racovian Catechism (which follows De Jesu Christo servatore quite closely in not a few points)--the influence of the Minor Reformed Church was disproportionately greater than its meagre numbers and wretched, persecuted condition would suggest. Socinus had clearly struck a nerve, and the gauntlet, once thrown down, would be taken up by writers of various communions for generations to come. Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), a renowned Dutch statesman, jurist, and theologian, rose to the challenge, and in 1617 published his Defensio fidei catholicae de satisfactione Christi, adversus Faustum Socinum. S Grotius\u27 motivation for writing the rebuttal has been variously explained. Some have suggested that Grotius (a Remonstrant) was quite sensitive about charges of Socinianism directed against himself; he may have felt that a polemical broadside against Socinus\u27 treatise would be the surest way to deflect such criticism. The most likely motivation was Grotius\u27 deep religious repugnance to the [Socinian] system as a whole, as appears from the almost impassioned manner in which he closes this treatise