Iconoclastic fury (Beeldenstorm)

   In 1566, during the initial phase of the Dutch Revolt against the Spanish king Philip II, a rabid anti-Catholic movement ran through the provinces. Calvin ists destroyed sculptures and damaged pictures and other sacred dec orations in Roman Catholic churches. This protest seems to have been inspired not only by religious objections against the supersti tious worship of statues but also by opposition to the persecutions of the Catholic Inquisition and by social protest against the poor living conditions in those years.