He was now in his thirty-eighth year, having been born at Amersfoot on
the 14th of September, 1547. He bore an imposing name, for the Olden-
Barnevelds of Gelderland were a race of unquestionable and antique
nobility. His enemies, however, questioned his right to the descent
which he claimed. They did not dispute that the great grandfather, Class
van Olden-Barneveld, was of distinguished lineage and allied to many
illustrious houses, but they denied that Class was really the great
grandfather of John. John's father, Gerritt, they said, was a nameless
outcast, a felon, a murderer, who had escaped the punishment due to his
crimes, but had dragged out a miserable existence in the downs, burrowing
like a rabbit in the sand. They had also much to say in disparagement of
all John's connections. Not only was his father a murderer, but his
wife, whom he had married for money, was the child of a most horrible
incest, his sisters were prostitutes, his sons and brothers were
debauchees and drunkards, and, in short, never had a distinguished man a
more uncomfortable and discreditable family-circle than that which
surrounded Barneveld, if the report of his enemies was to be believed.
Yet it is agreeable to reflect that, with all the venom which they had
such power of secreting, these malignant tongues had been unable to
destroy the reputation of the man himself. John's character was
honourable and upright, his intellectual power not disputed even by those
who at a later period hated him the most bitterly. He had been a
profound and indefatigable student from his earliest youth. He had read
law at Leyden, in France, at Heidelberg. Here, in the head-quarters of
German Calvinism, his youthful mind had long pondered the dread themes of
foreknowledge, judgment absolute, free will, and predestination: To
believe it worth the while of a rational and intelligent Deity to create
annually several millions of thinking beings, who were to struggle for a
brief period on earth, and to consume in perpetual brimstone afterwards,
while others were predestined to endless enjoyment, seemed to him an