Arminian

Member of a religious group that reacted against the rigid Calvinism of the early 17th century and gained considerable influence at the courts of James I and Charles I of England.

Arminians, who derived their teaching from the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius, rejected predestination and emphasized the practices of the early church, the continuity of the Anglican Church with the pre-Reformation church, and hence the importance of the episcopacy. Their tenets, together with the Arminian bishops' fondness for elaborate church ritual, roused considerable fears of the reintroduction of Roman Catholicism.

One of the main proponents of Arminianism in the English church was Archbishop Laud. Parliament remained essentially Puritan and Calvinist and continually denounced Arminianism.