John Donne wrote the above famous passage in 1624. This was the year when, at a time of profound danger for European Protestantism, England entered the Thirty Years War. Therefore, as Brendan Simms has argued, Donne's must be understood as not simply a moral but also a geopolitical rumination. Donne's point, however, was not simply that England, one of the clods which could be washed away, was part of Europe, its continent and maine. Europe's geography was continent and islands in complex relationship. Donne, while using geographic language, was not talking about geography. The ‘maine’ of which islands, promontories and continents were all part was ‘Mankinde’. At a time of religious crisis ‘No man’ could escape his fate as a creature of one God, or therefore doubt for whom the bell tolled.

Early modern writers using geographical language frequently turn out to be talking, not about geography, but about politics, history or religion.