In comparison with volume I (1972) the author has extended the scope of the term 'Reformation'. In this book the term indicates the sum of religious, social and political reforms which presented themselves as a result of work of the reformers of the 16th century.
After giving consideration to Luther and particularly to Calvin in part I, attention is paid in part II to the development and the distinctive nature of the Reformation in the Northern Netherlands, with an accent on the variety of Dutch Calvinism. In part III the relations of these churches with those in England and Scotland are elucidated. More attention is paid to the British churches than has been usual in the traditional continental writing on church history. In every chapter the author is trying to overcome deep-rooted and persistent prejudices in traditional historiography.

Willem Nijenhuis is professor emeritus of Church History at the University of Groningen. His works include Calvinus Oecumenicus: Calvin and the Unity of the Church in his Correspondence (1959, in Dutch), Ecclesia Reformata. Studies on the Reformation Vol. I (1972), Adrianus Saravia (c. 1532-1613). Dutch Calvinist, first Reformed defender of the English episcopal church order on the basis of the ius divinum (1980), Matthew Slade 1569-1628. Letters to the English Ambassador (1986). He wrote many articles on the Reformation and the German Church Struggle in the Nazi period.