Johannes Arnoldi Corvinus bornJoannes Arnoldsz Ravens (c.1582,Leiden – 2 January 1650,Amsterdam)[1] was a DutchRemonstrant minister and jurist.
He was born inLeiden, and in 1606 was aCalvinist preacher there. A pupil ofJacobus Arminius,[2] he took up theArminian views, he was a public supporter of them by 1609, and in 1610 signed theFive Articles of Remonstrance. Subsequently, as a consequence of theSynod of Dort, he lost his church office in 1619. He left the country, being abroad until 1630. Studying law, he then had a career as advocate inAmsterdam.[3] The details surrounding his conversion to Roman Catholicism late in life are unclear and debated. In a letter to Johannes Uytenbogaert on May 14, 1629, he denied rumors of his conversion, expressing confusion about the basis of such claims. However, reports from 1630 suggest that he may have had inclinations toward Catholicism, which led to concern and even some mockery from his Remonstrant peers. In 1649, just days before his death, he declared his conversion to Catholicism, stating that, after “sharp investigation”, he had concluded that the “Catholic, Apostolic, Roman religion” was the true path to salvation. This declaration, allegedly made in the presence of two witnesses, was documented in a letter to his son, but is only preserved through Philipp van Limborch, a secondary source. The motivations behind this conversion remain contested.[4]
Corvinus had been quite close to Grotius, in the 1610s, and from around 1632 taught the law. WithGerard de Wassenaer andPieter de la Court he was one of a group of legal writers with Remonstrant sympathies who commented onreason of state; Corvinus did this in an edition of theDe arcanis rerumpublicarum ofArnoldus Clapmarius (1641).[2] Other works were:
His son Arendt became a professor of law atMainz.[7]
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