ABSTRACT
The ruthless and purposeful efficiency of calvinism marked the Dutch Republic and the Dutch nation with an indelible stamp. Towards the end of the sixteenth century and at the beginning of the seventeenth, the effect of calvinism upon the life of the nation was considerable and immediately perceptible. Later on in the seventeenth century this effect became even more marked. Religious history even more than literary history presupposes a knowledge of general history. After all, Shakespeare is the world reflected in the mind and the sensitiveness of Shakespeare. Social differences, differences between the haves and the have-nots, grew sharper. In France, in Germany, and in the Low Countries, there was a marked proletarisation of the lower classes. Public order, prosperity, and the inviolability of their own class privileges were all the fruits which the regents expected from the good government.
