In 1618, arguments about Calvinisn rose to a heated debate known as the Synod of Dort in Amsterdam, Holland. At the time, Calvinism’s main opposer was Jacobus Arminius, the founder of Arminianism. Arminius’s student, Simon Episcopius, died in Amsterdam on April 4, 1634, after he was banished from his native land for his belief that Christians possessed free will to choose to follow Christ.
