_Grotius's Treatise De Jure summarum potestatum circa sacra_.--And, _Commentatio ad loca quædam Novi Testamenti, quæ de Antichristo agunt, aut agere putantur_. Nothing in the life of Grotius places him in a more amiable or respectable point of view, than his constant attempts to put Catholics and Protestants into good humour with each other, and to put both into good humour among themselves. [Sidenote: X. 4. His Treatise De Jure summarum potestatum. &c.] We have mentioned the _pacific decree of the States of Holland_, which ordered the contending communions to tolerate each other. Grotius is supposed to have framed this wise decree. The Contra-remonstrants attacked it: Grotius reprinted it, with a collection of proofs and authorities. It gave rise to a controversy on the nice question, respecting the authority of the temporal power to interfere in the ecclesiastical concerns of the state. Grotius adopted, upon this point, the sentiments of what is termed in England the Low Church: he seems to have pushed them to their utmost bearings. With these sentiments, he published his treatise _de Imperio summarum potestatum circa sacra_. It was disliked by King James and his bishops: Grotius, in their opinion, gave too much authority, in sacred things, to the secular power. On the work of Grotius, respecting _Anti-christ_, we prefer transcribing Burigni's sentiments to delivering our own. "This deep study of the Holy Scriptures led Grotius to examine a question, which made much noise at that time. Some Protestant synods had ventured to decide that _the Pope was Antichrist_; and this extravagance, gravely delivered by the ministers, was regarded by the zealous schismatics, as a fundamental truth. Grotius undertook to overturn such an absurd opinion, that stirred up an irreconcileable enmity between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants; and, of consequence, was a very great obstacle to their re-union, which was the sole object of his desires. He entered therefore upon the consideration of the passages of Scripture relating to Antichrist, and employed his Sundays in it. [Sidenote: CHAP. X. 1621-1634.]