GOMAR, FRANÇOIS. - Belgian Protestant theologian, b. at Bruges on 30 January 1563, d. at Groningen on 11 January 1641. He first studied at Strasbourg and Neustadt, then theology at Oxford under John Reynold and with William Whitaker at Cambridge, where he obtained the baccalaureate in 1584, later taking his doctorate at Heidelberg. In 1593, after having been for six years pastor of the Flemish Reformed Church of Frankfurt am Main, he obtained a chair of theology at Leiden, where in 1603, on the death of F. Junius, he had as his colleague James Arminius, with whom he soon engaged in a merciless struggle that led to the division of the Dutch Church into two mutually hostile factions.
The cause of the struggle was Arminius's new, more moderate theories (v.) on predestination, which G., a fervent Calvinist, opposed vigorously, accusing Arminius of Pelagianism. The struggle soon spread to their followers, giving rise to the formation of a Gomarist party, later also called that of the Counter-Remonstrants, in opposition to an Arminian party called that of the Remonstrants, whose disputes went so far as to border almost on civil war. Even the government had to intervene, ordering public discussions, which however did not lead to reconciliation.
Not even the death of Arminius (19 Oct. 1609) succeeded in calming the parties, also because called to succeed him in the chair was a friend of his, professing the same principles, Conrad Vorstius, whose appointment G. had opposed by every means. Indignant at having failed to prevent it, G. withdrew to Middelburg (1611), where he devoted himself to preaching and to the teaching of theology and Hebrew. In 1614, having accepted the chair of theology in the faculty of Saumur, he remained in France until 1618; he then returned to Holland, as professor of theology and Hebrew at Groningen, a post he held until his death. He took part in the National Synod of Dort (Dordrecht; 13 Nov. 1618 - 29 May 1619), convened by the Stadtholder Maurice of Nassau, who had sided with the Gomarists, and presided over by Johannes Bogermann, already his ally at the beginning of the polemics against Arminius. At the Synod G. strove relentlessly to have the Arminian theories condemned. In 1633 he collaborated on the revision, made at Leiden, of the Flemish version of the Old Testament, commonly cited under the name of the Dutch Bible.
A man of vast culture, though of scant critical sensitivity, G. left an abundant literary output, both theological and exegetical: Francisci Gomari opera theologica omnia, maximam partem posthuma, suprema authoris voluntate a discipulis edita, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1644; 2nd ed., ibid. 1664.