Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 82:1 (Spring 2020)
Article: Intellectual Property In The Era Of Reformed Orthodoxy: Questions Of Authorship In The "Synopsis Of A Purer Theology"
Author: Riemer A. Faber

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Intellectual Property In The Era Of Reformed Orthodoxy: Questions Of Authorship In The Synopsis Of A Purer Theology

Riemer A. Faber

The involvement of several agents in the production of academic disputations in the early modern period raises the issue of intellectual property: given the various roles of presider, objectors, respondent, and recorder, modern scholars differ on the extent to which the contents of a disputation may be ascribed to the thinking of the one presiding professor. For the disputations published in the Leiden Synopsis the question of authorship challenges the assumption that theological positions that are expressed reflect the views of the individual faculty member. This article demonstrates that extensive internal evidence of a stylistic nature warrants the conclusion that the presiding professor composed the published version of the disputation. A detailed analysis of the disputations over which Antony Thysius presided exposes several features of unique writing style which point to single authorship. Thus one may delineate with greater confidence the theological positions, and development, of each author of the Synopsis.

I. Introduction

In the early modern period public disputations held at universities served an important function: under the supervision of a professor who had drafted a number of theses on a chosen topic, a student displayed his expertise in the subject by responding to questions and criticisms from opposing faculty and fellow students. This practice was common for many faculties in European countries from about 1250 until well into the seventeenth century. The presiding professor, or praeses, regularly organized a public disputation, assigning a topic

WTJ 82:1 (Spring 2020) p. 62

or quaestio to be treated during the discussion.1 He drew up a number of theses, articuli, which were to be exposed to criticisms, objectiones, from other students and faculty, who were called the opponentes. A previously appointed student was tasked with the responsibility of answering the criticisms; he was the respondens.2 After the public event the professor would gather up the notes, recording the objections and responses, and produce a definitive decision (determinatio or solutio). Also this written, published record was referred to as a disputatio.3

The Synopsis of a Purer Theology (1625) is a collection of fifty-two disputations on Reformed theology published by four professors at the University of Leiden: Antony Thysius (1565–1640), Joha...