The First Dutch Academy (Dutch: ) was an institution set up by Samuel Coster (with the important support of Bredero and Hooft) in Amsterdam. The institution was set up to offer better theatre than the old rederijkerskamers could then manage. Another (perhaps more important) aim was to offer higher education to common people. The academy was inaugurated on 23 September 1617 with 'Apollo' by Suffridus Sixtinus, and the tragedy "" (the murder of William of Orange) by Gijsbert van Hoghendorp. This all occurred in a wooden building. The coat-of-arms of the academy consisted of a beehive under an eglantine with the word "IJver" ("zeal") as a motto. Calvinistic preachers of that time put pressure on the new institution to close. The theatre did not give in, particularly since its first two professors were Mennonites (Sibrant Hanses Cardinael in Arithmetic and Jan Thonis in Hebrew). In 1631, Vondel wrote his "" (Questions of the Amsterdam Academics to all poets), provoking further vehement Calvinist reactions. Finally the 'Oeffenschool', that was meant to go with the academy, was founded. The Athenaeum Illustre was later set up in the city, but here no teaching was presented in the native language. The main figures of the academy wrote comedy and farce: Coster: Teeuwis de boer en Tysken vanden Schilde Bredero: Lucelle, De Koe, Symen, De Meulenaer, Het Moortje, Spaansche Brabander Hooft: Warenar External links Toneelagenda Amsterdam 1617-1665 Theatre in the Netherlands 17th century in Amsterdam Culture in Amsterdam 1617 establishments in the Dutch Republic Educational institutions established in the 1610s