DORT, SYNOD OF. An assembly of the Reformed Dutch Church, with deputies from Switzerland, the Palatinate, Nassau, Hesse, East Friesland, Bremen, Scotland and England, called to decide the theological differences existing between the Arminians (or Remonstrants) and the Calvinists (or Counter-Remonstrants), was held at Dort or Dordrecht (q.v.) in 1618 and 1619. The government of Louis XIII. prohibited the attendance of French delegates. During the life of Arminius a bitter controversy had sprung up between his followers and the strict Calvinists, led by Francis Gomar, his fellow-professor at Leyden; and, in order to decide their disputes, a synodical conference was proposed, but Arminius died before it could be held. The essential contentions of the Arminians were the denial of irresistible predestination and the affirmation that Christ died for all men, not only for the "elect." In 1614, at the instance of the Arminian party, an edict was passed by the states general, in which toleration of the opin ions of both parties was declared and further controversy f or bidden; but this act only served, by rousing the jealousy of the Calvinists, to fan the controversial flame into greater fury. Grad ually the dispute pervaded all classes of society, and religious questions became entangled with political issues; the partisans of the house of Orange espoused the cause of the stricter Calvinism, whereas the bourgeois oligarchy of republican tendencies, led by Oldenbarnevelt and Hugo Grotius, stood for Arminianism. In 1617 Prince Maurice of Orange committed himself definitely to the Calvinist party, found an occasion for throwing Oldenbarne velt and Grotius into prison, and furthermore in 1617 called a synod intended to crush the Arminians. This synod, which as sembled at Dort in November 1618, was strictly national—called by the national authority to decide a national dispute, and not in tended to have more than a national influence. The foreign depu ties were invited to attend, only to assist by their advice in the set tlement of a controversy which concerned the Netherland church alone, and which the Netherland church alone could decide. At the fourth sitting it was decided to cite Simon Episcopius (q.v.) and other Remonstrants to appear within fourteen days before the synod, to state and justify their doctrines. It was also agreed to allow the Arminian deputies to take part in the deliberations, only on condition that they forebore to consult with, or in any way as sist, their cited brethren, but this they refused. When Episcopius and the others cited appeared, the former surprised the deputies by a bold and outspoken defence of his views, and even went so far as to say that the synod, by excluding the Arminian deputies, could now only be regarded as a schismatic assembly. The Re monstrants were asked to file copious explanations of the points in dispute (Sententia Remonstrantium), but objecting to the manner in which they were catechized, they were dismissed from the synod. The synod then proceeded in their absence to judge them from their published writings, and came to the conclusion that as ecclesiastical rebels and trespassers they should be de prived of all their offices. The synodical decision in regard to the five points is contained in the canons adopted at the 136th session held on April 23, 1619 ; the points were: unconditional election, limited atonement, total depravity, irresistibility of grace, final perseverance of the saints. These doctrinal decisions and the sentence against the Remonstrants were, at the 144th sitting, read in Latin before a large audience in the great church. The Remon strants were required to subscribe the condemnation, and many of them refused and were banished. "The canons of Dort repre sent the last effort of rigid Calvinistic orthodoxy to meet the dif ficulties and objections besetting their system, both from a popular and a theological point of view." (See REMONSTRANTS.) See W. A. Curtis, art. "Confessions, Christian" in Hastings Encyclo paedia of Religion and Ethics, vol. iii., p. 868 ; H. C. Rogge in Herzog Hauck, Realencyklopiidie, vol. iv. p. 798; Schaff, Creeds of Christen dom, p. 55o ff. (3rd ed., 1877) ; Hall, Harmony of Protestant Con fessions , P. 539 (positive and negative canons in English) ; for references to the sources and full Latin text, Muller, Die Bekennt nisschriften der re f ormierten Kirche (1903) , and Acta der Nationale Synode to Dordrecht (Leiden, 1887) .