On 24 April 1619 the Synod of Dort sat for the 154th, and last, time. Ostensibly summoned to resolve differences between Dutch Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants within a context of Calvinist theology, in reality it pronounced predetermined decrees on unconditional election, a limited atonement, man's total depravity, the irresistibility of grace, and the perseverance of the elect.

The Synod was national (sometimes, decidedly ‘local’) in nature; yet, because other states—Great Britain, France, Hesse, and the Palatinate among them—sent delegates, it assumed in the eyes of such men as James I and Du Plessis-Mornay an importance equal to that of Trent.

Not all have so regarded it, however, and a contemporary, Richard Montague, soon to become Bishop of Chichester, was accused of casting a foul blot on Dort as early as 1626 (especially on James I's representatives there), by maintaining that the discipline of the Church of England differed fundamentally from that approved by Dort, and that the British delegates had been far from unanimous in their support of its decisions. For this, George Carleton, his predecessor at Chichester, and an English delegate, took him to task as under-estimating the strength of the English opposition to the ruling by the Synod on the parity of ministers, and their other objections to the discipline it laid down; adding, nevertheless, that it was doctrine, not discipline, that was the chief concern.