DIRCK VOLCKERTSZOON

COORNHERT (1522-1590)  , Dutch politician and theologian, youngest son of Volckert Coornhert, cloth merchant, was born at Amsterdam in 1522 . As a child he spent some years in Spain and Portugal . Returning home, he was disinherited by his father's will, for his marriage with Cornelia (Neeltje) Simons, a portionless gentlewoman . He took for a time the post of major-domo to Reginald (Reinoud), count of Brederode . Soon he settled in Haarlem, as engraver on copper, and produced works which retain high values . Learning Latin, he published Dutch translations from Cicero, Seneca and Boetius . He was appointed secretary to the city (1562) and secretary to the burgomasters .(1564) . Throwing himself into the struggle with Spanish rule, he drew up the manifesto of William of Orange (1566) . Imprisoned at the Hague (1568), he escaped to Cleves, where he maintained himself by his art . Recalled in 1572, he was secretary of state for a short time; his aversion to military violence led him to return to Cleves, where William continued to employ his services and his pen . As a religious man, he wrote and strove in favour of tolerance, being decidedly against capital punishment for heretics . He had no party views; the Heidelberg catechism, authoritative in Holland, he criticized .

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great Arminius, employed to refute him, was won over by his arguments . He died at Gouda on the 29th of October 1590 . His Dutch version of the New Testament, following the Latin of Erasmus, was never completed . His works, in prose and verse, were published in 1630, 3 vols . See F . D . J . Moorrees, Dirck Volckertszoon Coornhert (1887) ; N . Delvenne, Biog. des Pays-Bas (1829); A . J. van der Aa, Biog . Woordenboek der Nederlanden (1855) . (A .