History of the Calvinist–Arminian debate  The history of the Calvinist–Arminian debate begins in early 17th century in the Netherlands with a Christian theological dispute between the followers of John Calvin and Jacobus Arminius, and continues today among some Protestants, particularly evangelicals. The debate centers around soteriology, or the study of salvation, and includes disputes about total depravity, predestination, and atonement. While the debate was given its Calvinist–Arminian form in the 17th century, issues central to the debate have been discussed in Christianity in some form since Augustine of Hippo's disputes with the Pelagians in the 5th century. The Quinquarticular Controversy is a term used to refer to the purely theological Calvinist–Arminian clashes of the period 1609 to 1618, a time in which the debate had serious political overtones in the Netherlands. This controversy is the one that was addressed by the Dutch Reformed churches at the Synod of Dort in 1618–1619, a meeting to which Protestant representatives from Reformed churches in other countries were invited. Quinquarticular (i.e. "having to do with five points") refers to points of contention raised by the Arminian party in its publication of five articles of Remonstrance in 1610. These were rejected by the Synod in the Canons of Dort, the essence of which is commonly referred to as the Five Points of Calvinism. The Controversy marked the transformation of the Arminian movement into a separate, persecuted church organization in the Netherlands. For Arminians it was the start of full persecution after the imposition of an edict, while for Calvinists it resulted in the settling in clear points of doctrine that were initiated by John Calvin and clarified by Theodore Beza. For Lutherans the controversies saw the ending of any possibility of unification with the Calvinists. Pelagius was a British monk who journeyed to Rome around the year 400 A.D. and was appalled at the lax behavior within churches. To combat this lack of holiness, he preached a Gospel that began with justification through faith alone (it was actually Pelagius, not Luther, who first added the word "alone" to Paul's phrase) but finished through human effort and morality. He had read Augustine's "Confessions" and believed it to be a fatalistic and pessimistic view of human nature. Pelagius' followers, including Caelestius, went further than their teacher and removed justification through faith, setting up the morality- and works-based salvation known as Pelagianism.