DR. JOHANNES POLYANDER (1568–1646)

Johannes Polyander’s father (also Johannes) studied in Rome before personal contact with John Calvin in 1562 at Geneva influenced him to embrace Reformation tenets. In 1564 he became a Reformed preacher at Metz. Four years later, his oldest son, Johannes, was born at Metz. The Polyander family moved to Emden in 1571 where the youthful Johannes received his early education. In 1582 Johannes Polyander enrolled in the Latin school at Bremen, and four years later he matriculated at the University of Heidelberg. In 1589 he became a student at Geneva’s university.

Polyander accepted a pastoral call to the Walloon church at Dordrecht in 1591. He also accepted a teaching position at the lllustre School where he became both supervisor and instructor in logic and ethics. His first book was published in 1599, Schijnbare Tegenstrijdigheden— a pastoral/catechetical attempt to reconcile seemingly contradictory texts of Scripture (still being reprinted periodically). He also wrote fairly extensively against Roman Catholic doctrine during his Dortian ministry.

In 1611 Polyander was appointed to the theological faculty at Leiden as successor of the renowned Franciscus Gomarus. His thirty-five years’ tenure of the Leiden theological chair would prove to be longer than any of his contemporaries.

When the movement toward the National Synod of Dort began to escalate in 1616, Polyander played the roll of organizer, mediator, and contact source. As late as 1617 he viewed reconciliation with the Remonstrants as a possibility —hence his meeting with Uytenbogaert.

At the National Synod in 1618–1619 Polyander served unpretentiously. He spoke seldom, except for the time that he defended before the entire Synod his infralapsarian stand in contrast to the supralapsarian position of Gomarus. Nevertheless, he received several substantial appointments from Synod, including the task of revising the translation of the Old Testament and being a member of the following committees: the drafting of catechetical materials; the revising of the liturgical forms; the composing of the Canons of Dort; the revising and approving of the acts of Synod, as well as their presentation to the Dutch government. The fulfilment of all these tasks would occupy his time until 1637!

Also in 1619 Polyander received an honorary doctorate, which in turn assisted the reputation of the Leiden faculty as they had no professors with the doctoral degree at that time. This degree also established Polyander as the leading spokesman for Leiden’s faculty.

After the Synod of Dort in 1619, both Episcopius and Vortius were dismissed and exiled. Their theological chairs were filled by Walaeus and Thysius, who were joined by Andre Rivet from France the following year. In consort with Polyander, these four divines presided over Leiden’s theology for the next twelve years. Their concern to prevent the discord that had previously prevailed in the faculty was so great that they decided to present a united front by publishing their disputations jointly. The result was (among other writings of multiple authorship) that renowned embodiment of Dutch Reformed orthodoxy, the Synopsis Purioris Theologiae (first appearing in Latin in 1625 and subsequently translated into Dutch, but never into English), a collection of fifty-two sets of theses covering the bulk of Reformed dogmatics.

Polyander’s own writings are marked by a mixture of godly piety and profound reasoning. His goal in theology was to use theoretical knowledge to serve practical ends in the worship of God. Consequently, Polyander wrote much on the existence of God in which, as John Piatt notes, he went “beyond Arminius in organizing the arguments for God’s existence into a more coherent pattern” (Reformed Thought and Scholasticism: The Arguments for the Existence of God in Dutch Theology, 1575–1650, p. 161). For example, two-thirds of his Theses Theologicae De Deo (Leiden, 1613) is devoted to the scheme of arguments for the existence of God.

In the late 1620s Polyander wrote three exegetical/practical works—the first about Jonah (Spiegel der waere bekeeringhe); the second, on Psalm 6 (Ancker der ghelovighe siele); the third on Ephesians 1 and 2 (Grondt onser salicheyt). In these volumes especially he reveals his practical, experiential bent. Authentic conversion and godly living, as well as encouragement for beginners in grace, are emphasized throughout.

In 1630 Polyander’s first wife, Judith Nuyts, a former widow, passed away. They were married for thirty-eight years. Several months later he married Catharina Carelsdr, who survived him.

From 1632–1640 he worked on forty-eight disputations defending Reformed doctrine against the errors of Socinianism. Despite being a fierce opponent of Socinianism, Roman Catholicism, and Remonstrantism, however, Polyander’s major contributions in life were more pastoral than polemical. Throughout his life, Polyander’s infralapsarian position, combined with his God-fearing and prudent character, seemed to often place him in leadership positions which called for mediating work between various emphases among theologians. No less than twenty-three times he was chosen to be synodical chairman for the Walloon-speaking congregations! Eight times he served as rector of the Leiden University. Near the end of his life, Polyander was again brought into the middle of strife and served a critical role in mediating several theological disputes, proving once again to be, by the grace of God, a practical and pastoral theologian.

Polyander died in 1646. He was eminently useful in his lifetime, but was not as influential as some of the “Nadere Reformatie” divines we have been considering in terms of impact on future generations.

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