GOMAR, FRANÇOIS. – Belgian Protestant theologian, born in Bruges on 30 January 1563, died in 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 his bachelor’s degree in 1584, later taking his doctorate at Heidelberg. In 1593, after having been pastor for six years of the Flemish Reformed Church of Frankfurt am Main, he obtained a chair of theology at Leiden, where in 1603, following the death of F. Junius, Giacomo Arminio became his colleague; with him he soon engaged in a relentless struggle that led to the division of the Dutch Church into two mutually hostile factions.
The cause of the struggle was Arminio’s new, more moderate theories (v.) on predestination, which G., a fervent Calvinist, vigorously opposed, accusing Arminio of Pelagianism. The struggle soon spread to their followers, giving rise to the formation of a Gomarist party, subsequently also called the Counter-Remonstrants, in opposition to an Arminian party known as the Remonstrants. Their disputes went so far as almost to verge on civil war. Even the government had to intervene, ordering public discussions, which nevertheless did not lead to reconciliation.
Not even Arminio’s death (19 October 1609) succeeded in calming the opposing parties, especially since a friend of his, professing the same principles, Corrado Vorstius, was called to succeed him in the chair; G. had opposed his appointment by every means. Indignant at having failed to prevent it, G. withdrew to Middelburg (1611), where he devoted himself to preaching and to teaching theology and Hebrew. In 1614, having accepted the chair of theology in the faculty at Saumur, he remained in France until 1618; he then returned to Holland as professor of theology and Hebrew at Groningen, a position he held until his death. He took part in the National Synod of Dort (Dordrecht; 13 November 1618–29 May 1619), convened by the Stadtholder Maurizio di Nassau, who had aligned himself with the Gomarists, and presided over by Giovanni Bogermann, formerly his ally at the beginning of the controversies against Arminio. At the Synod, G. worked zealously to have the Arminian theories condemned. In 1633 he collaborated in the revision, carried out at Leiden, of the Flemish version of the Old Testament, commonly cited under the name of the Dutch Bible.
A man of broad learning, though lacking critical sensitivity, G. left a considerable 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., there 1664.