It is noteworthy that the most popular writer of this period, as well as the first to use the Dutch tongue with precision and grace, was Anna Bijns, a lay nun, violently anti-Lutheran in sentiment.

[Sidenote: Anna Bijns, 1494-1575] [1] Brabant, Limburg, Luxemburg, Guelders, Flanders, Artois, Hainaut, Holland, Zeeland, Malines, Namur, Lille, Tournay, Friesland, Utrecht, Overyssel and Groningen.
SECTION 2.

THE CALVINIST REVOLT When Charles V, weary of the heaviest scepter ever wielded by any European monarch from Charlemagne to Napoleon, sought rest for his soul in a monk's cell, he left his great possessions divided between his brother Ferdinand and his son Philip.

To the former went Austria and the Empire, to the latter the Burgundian provinces and Spain with its vast dependencies in the New World.
[Sidenote: Spain and the Netherlands] The result of this was to make the Netherlands practically a satellite of Spain.

Hitherto, partly because their interests had largely coincided with those of the Empire, partly because by balancing Germany against Spain they could manage to get their own rights, they had found prosperity and had acquired a good deal of national power.