Synod on the freedom of conscience : a thorough examination during the gathering held in the year 1582 in the city of Freetown / D.V. Coornhert ; translated, edited, annotated by Gerrit Voogt.

This volume is jointly published with the Amsterdam Center for the Study of the Golden Age.

Includes bibliographical references.

Transl. from the Dutch.

Print version record.

First Session: Whether or not the true visible Church of Christ may err -- Second Session: Proofs based on antiquity, customs, and traditions -- Third Session: Rules and ceremonies not based on scripture -- Fourth Session: The credibility of the patristic writings -- Fifth Session: Proofs taken from councils and consensus -- Sixth Session: Proofs based on examples from ecclesiastical histories -- Seventh Session: Proofs from pagans -- Eighth Session: Passing judgment on everyone, yet not wanting to suffer anyone's judgment -- Ninth Session: Who is to judge on doctrine -- Tenth Session: Whether judgment of heresy belongs to the civil or the ecclesiastical authority -- Eleventh Session: Freedom of conscience in faith as well as in its exercise and whether only the exercise of what the civil magistrate judges to be the true religion shall be allowed, and none else -- Twelfth Session: Those who criticize doctrine or disturb the external peace of the Church, and how they ought to be punished.

Thirteenth Session: Those whose teachings differ from those of the Church, and whether they ought to be punished by death -- Fourteenth Session: Whether or not we should dispute with those who teach differently -- Fifteenth Session: The writing, publishing, printing, selling, having and reading of tracts and books -- Sixteenth Session: Condemning others without hearing them -- Seventeenth Session: Whether it is in accord with scripture that religious leaders appeal to the magistrate for support of their doctrine -- Eighteenth Session: Denouncing mercifulness, praising severity, and counseling bloodshed in matters of faith -- Nineteenth Session: Whether it is right for religious leaders to tell the civil magistrate that they have duty towards God to kill some people for matters of religion.

The first complete English translation of Dirck Coornhert's 1630 Synod on the Freedom of Conscience, one of the most elaborate and powerful pleas for religious tolerance published in early modern Europe.

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