TIME IS RUNNING AWAY – Hugo Grotius: the man who escaped in chest of books

Hugo Grotius https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmdXusPBF3w was a Dutch jurist that laid the foundations for international law, based on natural law. He wrote most of his works in exile, in France. He was teenage intellectual prodigy, he was imprisoned for his involvement in the intra-Calvinist disputes of the Dutch Republic (but escaped hidden in chest of books).

A prodigious learner, he entered the University of Leiden (when he was just eleven years old), where he studied with some of the most acclaimed intellectuals in northern Europe. At age sixteen, he published his first book (a scholarly edition on the seven liberal arts). In Holland, he earned an appointment as advocate in 1599. He also became official historiographer for the States of Holland. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxV6vApXmfo In The Free Sea (published 1609), he formulated the new principle that all nations were free to use the sea, because for seafaring trade the sea was international territory.

Grotius made another attempt to address ecclesiastical politics, by completing “De Imperio Summarum Potestatem circa Sacra” (on the relations between the religious and secular authorities). From his imprisonment in Loevestein, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MkLXsPJLC3M he made a written justification of his position, as to his views on the power of the Christian civil authorities in ecclesiastical matters.

He is mainly famous in Netherlands, also today, for an daring escape (Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and Het Prinsenhof in Delft, claim to have the original book chest in their collection). With the help of his wife and maidservant, in 1621 he managed to escape the castle in a book chest, and fled to Paris. While in Paris, he set about rendering into Latin prose (a work which he had compiled in prison), providing systematic arguments for the truth of Christianity. In 1634, he met the opportunity to serve as Sweden’s ambassador to France. While departing from his last visit to Sweden, he was shipwrecked and on August 28, 1645 and he died. His body returned to the country of his youth, being laid to rest in Delft. His last words were “By understanding many things, I have accomplished nothing”.