The Synod of Dordt encountered various situations which resulted in the division of four periods, and applied proper procedure to each period according to the situations. However it was various, the procedure of the Synod was very obvious due to the o...
The Synod of Dordt encountered various situations which resulted in the division of four periods, and applied proper procedure to each period according to the situations. However it was various, the procedure of the Synod was very obvious due to the official Acta of the Synod, and other personal documents written by some delegates during the Synod. But the procedure of making common judgment of each delegation has never known, which produced all judgments that were basis of all resolutions of the Synod. Therefore, there is no other way except inferring the procedure. Fortunately, some materials which have been preserved in the journal of Caspar Sibelius offer the important clues to infer it. There are two kinds of materials in the journal of Sibelius; one is the record of each session of the Synod, and the other is personal judgments of Sibelius himself and the judgments of the Overijssel delegation. The latter can be the clues. Namely, the existence of both documents of his personal judgment and of the Overijssel delegation on the same topic guarantees the inference that the Overijssel delegation would make their common judgment by synthesizing judgments of each delegate. Furthermore, some of judgments in Sibelius journal shows shift of title and contents from his personal judgment to the common judgment of the Overijssel delegation. This shift makes it possible to infer that the delegation sometimes chose the personal judgment of Sibelius or of any other delegate as their common judgment.