ABSTRACT
Prince Maurice strategy was that of a chess-player. And now he engaged upon the greatest game of his life, determined not to let it end in a draw. Maurice was establishing a precedent which his descendants and relatives were going to follow throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The challenge for which prince Maurice, knowing that it was bound to come sooner or later, had been waiting patiently, had been issued at last, however reluctantly. Driven into a corner, the party of the States of Holland and their leader Oldenbarnevelt had ventured to act. Suddenly prince Maurice perceived the opportunity for a strictly legal move, devoid of any risks and yet decisive, because it demonstrated the extent of his moral authority and the weakness of the legalistic thesis. The magistrates who championed toleration had been deprived of the means to enforce it, and the open season for the baiting of dissenters was about to provide the heresy hunters.
