In the Rijksmuseum, the national museum of the Netherlands, there's a painting titled 'Fishing for Souls' by Adriaen van de Venne, from 1614. It shows different religious denominations battling for believers in a river, the Protestants from the northern Netherlands on the left bank, and the Catholics from the south of the country on the right.
The Protestants, who would go onto form the Dutch Republic, look to be more successful at "fishing for souls" in this allegory, while the Catholics on the right, who would eventually become Belgium, are less fortunate. The rivalry between Belgium and the Netherlands is nothing new, it has been going on for four hundred years, ever since the reformation, and the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch Republic and Spain over the future of the Low Countries.
