ABSTRACT
In truth, however, the distinction belongs to the realm of psychology rather than of logic or theology. These minor reservations to the doctrine of absolute predestination were mainly symbolic. They were a gesture, a proclamation of nonconformity. A difference arose about what one might call the minor holy books of the calvinist church, and the attitude adopted by the two parties to this dispute illustrates their respective mentalities. Apart from the bible, the doctrines of the Dutch calvinist church were contained in the Heidelberg Catechism and in the Confession of the reformed churches composed in the early years of the religious troubles in the Low Countries. That considerable portion of the Dutch population that remained faithful to the church of Rome affected to regard the quarrel between remonstrants and counter-remonstrants as one between two heretical sects with which they were not concerned.
