This Week in Christian History: A Pope's Death, Theologian's Birth, and Preacher's Conversion

Jacob Arminius Was Born on Oct. 10, 1560

This week marks the anniversary of the birth of Jacob Arminius, the 16th century Protestant theologian whose school of thought challenged that of famed Christian intellectual John Calvin.

Also called Jakob Hermanszoon, Arminius was born in Oudewater, Netherlands, eventually becoming professor of theology at the University of Leiden.

Arminius believed that human beings had a level of free will when it came to salvation, in contrast to Calvinism which stipulated that God has predestined the fate of people's salvation.

"The theology of Arminianism was not fully developed during Arminius' time, but was systematized after his death and formalized in the Five articles of the Remonstrants in 1610," the Christian Classics Ethereal Library explains.

"After his death the Synod of Dordrecht (1618–1619) judged his theology and its adherents anathemas and published the five points of Calvinism (later knows as TULIP) as a point-by-point response to the five points of the Arminian Remonstrants."