The Letters of Burchard de Volder to Philipp van Limborch

Abstract

These notes contain an annotated edition of the only four extant letters of Burchard de Volder (1643–1709) to Philipp van Limborch (1633–1712). In the first letter (18 July 1687) De Volder provides Van Limborch with some information about the subscription to the Dordrecht Confession of Faith by professors. In the second letter (3 November 1687) De Volder comments upon Van Limborch’s De veritate religionis Christianae (1687). This letter is interesting as it provides insights into De Volder’s views on religion and theology (topics on which he was silent in his public writings). The third letter (16 November 1694) served as a cover letter for De Volder’s sending to Van Limborch a copy of the honestum testimonium on Jacobus Arminius that was requested by Arminius’s widow in 1611. In the fourth letter (6 May 1699) Volder comments upon the visit that Pieter Burman had paid him. The visit was an episode in the quarrel between Pieter Burman, his brother Frans Burman jr., and Van Limborch, caused by Van Limborch’s remark, in his Theologia Christiana (1686), that Frans Burman sr. had used Spinoza’s words while treating the issue of divine omnipotence in his Synopsis theologiae (1671–1672).