Beverland

Beverland, ADRIAN, a Dutch scholar, who, by several of his writings, but more especially by his unorthodox interpretation of the Fall, caused great excitement among the theologians of his day. Born at Middelburg, in Zeeland, about the middle of the 17th century, he had studied law, visited Oxford University, and settled as an attorney in Holland, when, in 1678, he published his pamphlet, Peccatum Originale, which not only was burned at the Hague, but led to his own imprisonment, and to his expulsion from Utrecht and Leyden. On his return to the Hague, he wrote De Stolatæ Virginîtatis Jure (1680), which gave still greater offence than his first work. Soon after, he came to England, where he found a supporter in Isaac Vossius. He became insane, and died in England soon after 1712. His works are now mere bibliographical curiosities.