sentenced for life. He later escaped, but Johan van Oldenbarnevelt was beheaded. The violent atrocities that occurred in the political climate surrounding Dordrecht are among the disastrous results of a hermeneutic that since the fourth century had applied to the church God’s methods for Israel. It was handed down from the time of Cyprian by the priesthood of the traditional church. Such atrocities distort Christ’s perfections and saving work, so beautifully described in the Reformed creeds, including