EPISCOPIUS, SIMON (Simon Bischop) (1583-1643) Dutch theologian, was born at Amsterdam on Jan. 1, 1583. In 1600 he entered the university of Leiden, where he studied theology un der Jacobus Arminius. In 161o, the year in which the Arminians presented the famous Remonstrance to the states of Holland, he became pastor at Bleyswick, near Rotterdam ; in the following year he supported the Remonstrants (q.v.) at the Hague conference. In 1612 he was made professor of theology at Leiden. Episco pius was spokesman of the thirteen representatives of the Remon strants before the synod of Dort in 1618; but he was refused a hearing, the Remonstrant doctrines condemned and he and the other Arminian representatives banished (see DORT, SYNOD OF). After the death (1625) of Prince Maurice, the Arminian con troversy abated and Episcopius was permitted in 1626 to return to his own country. He was appointed preacher at the Remon strant college in Amsterdam. Episcopius may be regarded as the systematizer of Arminianism. He protested against the tendency of Calvinists to stress abstract dogma, and argued that Chris tianity was practical rather than theoretical.
His principal works are Confessio s. declaratio sententiae pastorum qui in foederato Belgio Remonstrantes vocantur (1621), Apologia pro confessione (1629), Verus theologus remonstrans, and his incomplete Institutiones theologicae (165o). His life was written by P. Limborch, and one was also prefixed by his successor, Curcellaeus, to an edition of his collected works in 2 vols. . See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopddie.