[Henricus Slatius] - De gepredestineerde dief - 1780

[Henricus Slatius] - the predestined thief, or a 'dialogue' held between a Calvinist-aligned preacher and a thief who was doomed to die - printed according to the copy at Frederick-stadt - without year (circa 1780) - 37 pages - 15 x 10 cm - loose gatherings

A fictional dialogue (dialogue) between a Calvinist (Contra-Remonstrant) preacher and a thief sentenced to death.

Slatius wrote the pamphlet to mock and criticize the Calvinist doctrine of predestination (divine foreknowledge):
• In the conversation the thief drives the preacher into theological difficulty.
• The thief argues that if everything is predetermined by God (as the Calvinists believed), his thefts and his eventual execution were also foreordained by God before his birth.
• The thief cynically suggests that he could do nothing about being a thief; he was simply carrying out God’s plan.

Historical context

The pamphlet played a major role in the Conflicts of the Remonstrants during the Twelve Years’ Truce (1609–1621), the fierce religious and political struggle in the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands between the Remonstrants (liberals) and the Contra-Remonstrants (strict Calvinists).
The author, Henricus Slatius, later became involved in a plot to assassinate Prince Maurice. After its failure, he was captured and beheaded in The Hague in 1623.

The print: "Frederick-stadt"

The phrase “Gedruckt nae de copye tot Frederick-stadt” (or similar formulations) was often used. Frederickstadt (in present-day Germany) was founded by expelled Dutch Remonstrants and served as a safe harbor for printing works banned in the Republic. Often it is, moreover, a ‘false’ imprint: the pamphlet was secretly printed in the Netherlands (for example by publishers such as Jan Alleman) but exported with the name Frederickstadt to mislead the authorities.