Adam Boreel

Who was Adam Boreel?

Adam Boreel was a Dutch theologian and Hebrew scholar. He was one of the founders of the Amsterdam College; the Collegiants were also often called Boreelists, and regarded as a small sect. Others involved in the College were Daniel van Breen, Michiel Coomans, Jacob Otto van Halmael and the Mennonite Galenus Abrahamsz de Haan.

Boreel was ordained into the Dutch Reformed Church, but broke away. In Ad legem et testimonium, he argued the sola scriptura position that no religious authority other than the Bible should be acknowledged. He was attacked by Johann Hornbeek, and by Samuel Maresius.

Boreel's associates included Peter Serrarius, a fellow millenarian, Baruch Spinoza, who moved with the Collegiants after exclusion from the Amsterdam Jewish community, and Henry Oldenburg, a correspondent. Boreel was close also to John Dury. They were a fringe group, but are considered important as representative of the 'Third Force', trying to reconcile religious orthodoxy with scientific scepticism. In the early 1660s the Collegiants became harder to distinguish from other movements, of Quakers, anti-Trinitarians, and Socinians.