1583 – 1645

Hugo Grotius

Worth knowing

A Dutch lawyer whose book On the Law of War and Peace (1625) helped found international law.
Imprisoned in Loevestein Castle for his part in Dutch politics, he escaped in 1621 hidden in a chest of books.
His Truth of the Christian Religion (1627) was written first as Dutch verse for sailors going to lands that had never heard of Christ. It is one of the first modern evidence-based defences of the faith.

In Scholar’s Dream, Hugo Grotius has one book

The Truth of the Christian ReligionHugo Grotius, De Veritate Religionis Christianae (1627), trans. Clarke (1743)HistoryRationality

Hugo Grotius’s quotes in the game

Every quotation from Hugo Grotius that a player meets in Scholar’s Dream, attached to the move that says it. Or see them as a plain list →

In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other, and each thing a book can do in a debate is called a move. Every quote below is spoken by one of those moves. Open “How it works in the game” under a quote to see the move, which books learn it, and which arguments it answers best.

“It appears from those books, that they appealed to five hundred witnesses, who saw Jesus… Now, it is not usual for those that speak untruths to appeal to so many witnesses.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Five Hundred Witnesses

HistoryArgument · power 88 · 100% accurate

In the gameNot one man’s word against the world — a named number, most of them alive and askable when the claim was first published, in the very city where checking it was a walk across town.

Learned byThe Truth of the Christian Religion (Lv 1)

Strong against

×3A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Grotius notes that Paul appealed to five hundred witnesses of the risen Jesus, most of them still alive. Liars do not invite the public to check their story.

×3An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Grotius notes that Paul appealed to five hundred witnesses of the risen Jesus, most of them still alive. Liars do not invite the public to check their story.

“Nobody has any ill design for nothing… the very preaching of the gospel exposed them to hardship, to hunger and thirst.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)public domain

How it works in the game: the move Nobody Lies For Nothing

RationalityArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameAsks what the liar was buying. Not honour — that was in the gift of the very people flogging them. Not comfort — the preaching itself bought hunger and thirst. A motive has to exist before it can be a motive.

Learned byThe Truth of the Christian Religion (Lv 40)

Strong against

×2A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Grotius asks what the apostles gained by lying. Preaching brought them hunger, beatings and death. Nobody lies for nothing.

×2An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Grotius asks what the apostles gained by lying. Preaching brought them hunger, beatings and death. Nobody lies for nothing.

“Paul, who openly declared that he saw Christ reigning in heaven.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain.public domain

How it works in the game: the move The Hostile Witness

HistoryArgument · power 94 · 95% accurate

In the gamePaul was not a follower who got carried away. He was the prosecution, and he changed his testimony against his own interest. Courts have always weighed that kind of witness heaviest.

Learned byThe Truth of the Christian Religion (Lv 44)

Strong against

×4A Uniform Experience Against Itan argument · why?

Hume rules the verdict in before the witness is called. Grotius calls one anyway — a prosecutor who changed his own testimony against his own interest.

×4An Enquiry Concerning Human Understandinga book · why?

Hume rules the verdict in before the witness is called. Grotius calls one anyway — a prosecutor who changed his own testimony against his own interest.

Passages you can read in the game

Longer excerpts the Scriptorium holds on screen for a player to sit and read, word for word.

“It appears from those books, that they appealed to five hundred witnesses, who saw Jesus… Now, it is not usual for those that speak untruths to appeal to so many witnesses.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)

from The Truth of the Christian Religion

“Nobody has any ill design for nothing… the very preaching of the gospel exposed them to hardship, to hunger and thirst.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain. (trimmed quote — the source scan is damaged there.)

from The Truth of the Christian Religion

“Paul, who openly declared that he saw Christ reigning in heaven.”
Hugo Grotius, The Truth of the Christian Religion (1627), Bk. II, trans. Clarke (1743), public domain.

from The Truth of the Christian Religion

Words Hugo Grotius’s books borrow from others

Moves these books can learn whose quotation comes from somebody else. The citation on each one names who actually said it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

How it works in the game: the move Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

Learned byThe Truth of the Christian Religion (Lv 16)

Who else was alive

Hugo Grotius against everyone else in the game.

A.D. 450A.D. 700A.D. 950A.D. 1200A.D. 1450A.D. 1700A.D. 1950

Boethius Boniface John of Damascus Daniel of Winchester Timothy I Alcuin of York Pope Leo III Eulogius of Córdoba Paul Alvaro of Córdoba Rimbert Humbert of Silva Candida Michael Cerularius Peter III of Antioch Anselm of Canterbury Ari Thorgilsson Ebo and Herbord Thomas Aquinas John Wyclif Lorenzo Valla Girolamo Savonarola Pope Paul III Martin Luther Miles Coverdale William Tyndale Emperor Charles V John Calvin Teresa of Ávila John Jewel The Council of Trent The English exiles at Geneva Hugo Grotius René Descartes John Owen Blaise Pascal John Bunyan Louis XIV of France Pierre Bayle Joseph Butler Jonathan Edwards Thomas Reid George Campbell William Paley John Henry Newman J. C. Ryle Friedrich Nietzsche James Orr B. B. Warfield Herman Bavinck W. R. Sorley James Denney J. Gresham Machen

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate51 authors sit outside this window