Medal commemorating the 1619 Synod of Dordrecht

Description

The first and only general synod of the Reformed churches was held from 13 November 1618 to 9 May 1619 in the town of Dordrecht in southern Holland. As well as representatives from the seven northern provinces of the Netherlands and the Walloon churches of Holland, Zeeland and Drenthe, those taking part included envoys from the English crown, the Palatinate, the Landgrave of Hessen, the four Confederate cities of Zurich, Berne, Basle and Schaffhausen, the united counts of the Wetterau, and the cities and republics of Geneva, Bremen and Emden. As a leaving present the delegates were given a gold chain with a medal. The one given to the Basle envoy, Professor Dr. theol. Sebastian Beck (1583-1654), turned up in 1775 in the coin collection of the Öffentliche Bibliothek (public library) of Basle in 1775. Today it is in the 'coin cabinet' of the Historisches Museum - without its chain. One side of the unsigned medal shows the delegates gathered in the assembly hall, the other (not shown) the temple flooded with celestial light and battered by the four winds on Mount Zion.