polemical and political controversies of the time were pursued
with uncommon fervor. In this period they had witnessed the
deadly struggle between the two parties, into which the people
of the United Provinces, after their separation from the crown
of Spain, had divided themselves. The contest embraced
within its compass not only theological doctrines, but political
principles, and Maurice and Barnevelt were the temporal
leaders of the same rival factions, of which Episcopius and
Polyander were the ecclesiastical champions.

That the investigation of the fundamental principles of
government was deeply implicated in these dissensions is
evident from the immortal work of Grotius, upon the rights of
war and peace, which undoubtedly originated from them.
Grotius himself had been a most distinguished actor and
sufferer in those important scenes of internal convulsion, and
his work was first published very shortly after the departure of
our forefathers from Leyden. It is well known that in the
course of the contest Mr. Robinson more than once appeared,
with credit to himself, as a public disputant against Episcopius;
and from the manner in which the fact is related by Governor
Bradford, it is apparent that the whole English Church at
Leyden took a zealous interest in the religious part of the
controversy. As strangers in the land, it is presumable that
they wisely and honorably avoided entangling themselves in the
political contentions involved with it. Yet the theoretic
principles, as they were drawn into discussion, could not fail to
arrest their attention, and must have assisted them to form
accurate ideas concerning the origin and extent of authority
among men, independent of positive institutions. The