Philipp van Limborch


Philipp van Limborch, Dutch Remonstrant theologian, was born at Amsterdam, where his father was a lawyer.
He received his education at Utrecht, at Leiden, in his native city, and finally at Utrecht University, which he entered in 1652. In 1657 he became a Remonstrant pastor at Gouda, and in 1667 he was transferred to Amsterdam, where, in the following year, the office of professor of theology in the Remonstrant seminary was added to his pastoral charge. He was a friend of John Locke, whose A Letter Concerning Toleration was likely addressed to, and first published by, Philipp van Limborch. He died at Amsterdam on April 30, 1712.

Works

His most important work, Institutiones theologiae christianae, ad praxin pietatis et promotionem pacis, christianae unice directae, is a full and clear exposition of the system of Simon Episcopius and Stephan Curcellaeus. The fourth edition included a posthumous Relatio historica de origine et progressu controversiarum in foederato Belgio de praedestinatione.
Limborch also wrote:
An English translation of the Theologia was published in 1702 by William Jones ; and a translation of the Historia Inquisitionis, by Samuel Chandler, with a large introduction concerning the rise and progress of persecution and the real and pretended causes of it prefixed, appeared in 1731. See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopädie.

Editorial work

In 1689 Limborch edited the compilation of Socinian Samuel Przypkowski's works in the last volume of the Bibliotheca antitrinitariorum or Bibliotheca Fratrum Polonorum of the Polish Brethren. Previous volumes had been edited after the death of Christopher Sandius by Benedykt Wiszowaty in 1684.
His editorial labors included the publication of various works of his predecessors, and of Epistolae ecclesiasticae praestantum ad eruditorum virorum, chiefly, by Jacobus Arminius, Joannes Uytenbogardus, Konrad Vorstius, Gerhard Vossius, Hugo Grotius, Simon Episcopius and Caspar Barlaeus; they are of great value for the history of Arminianism.
His edition of the Liber Sententiarum Inquisitionis Tolosanae is still considered important nowadays for its meticulous transcription of a manuscript by the Dominican inquisitor Bernard Gui long regarded as lost forever, but rediscovered in London. Recently a new edition has appeared '' edited by Annette Palès-Gobillard.