Simon Episcopius (January 8, 1583 - April 4, 1643), the Latin form of the name of Simon Bischop, Dutch theologian, was born at Amsterdam. In 1600 he entered the University of Leiden, where he studied theology under Jacobus Arminius, whose teaching he followed. In 1610, the year in which the Arminians presented the famous Remonstrance to the states of Holland, he became pastor at Bleyswick, a small village near Rotterdam; in the following year he advocated the cause of the Remonstrants at the Hague conference.