CHAPTER XVIII 1656-1658. THE Indian ravages of 1655 repeated to the people of сH. XVIII. New Netherland the lesson which they had first learned in 1656. 1643. Their losses were mainly owing to the isolated situation of the farmers. To prevent future calamity, Stuy- 18 Jan. vesant issued a proclamation, ordering all who lived in se- tion to form cluded places in the country to collect themselves together by the next spring, and to form villages "after the fashion of our New England neighbors." Proclama villages. Stuyvesant burgomas schepens. The burgomasters and schepens of New Amsterdam now 17 Jan. renewed the demand to be allowed the right to name their successors. Almost all the villages in New Netherland possessed this privilege. Why should it be denied to the capital of the province? The director explained that the privilege had been conferred on those places on account of their distance from the seat of government. He would now 18 Jan. make the same concession to New Amsterdam, provided yields to the the magistrates actually in office should always be under- ters and stood as nominated for approval; that only persons well qualified, and not unfriendly to the provincial authorities, should be named; and that a member of the council should have the right to assist, when the nominations were made. The city authorities accepted these conditions, and propos- 31 Jan. ed their candidates. But Stuyvesant objecting to some of his promthem, "on account of former disputes," refused to sanction the nomination. The question was earnestly discussed in the council; but the director maintained his ground. Eventually, five of the old officers were continued for another year; and Willem Beeckman and Hendrick Kip 2 Feb. were appointed new schepens, to fill two vacancies.* *Alb. Rec., X., 220, 260; xii., 169; New Amst. Rec., i., 37; ii., 323-342. Retracts ise. CH. XVIII. New Netherland was now to witness within her own borders a gross violation of the rights of conscience. Un1656. til 1654, the ecclesiastical policy of her government had Religious affairs. of the Amster dam. not, practically, departed from that of the Fatherland, where, notwithstanding the establishment of a national Reformed Church, we have seen that all other sects were tolerated, and allowed the use of their several forms of worship. The West India Company recognized the authority of the Established Church of Holland over their coAuthority lonial possessions; and the specific care of the TransatlanClassis of tic churches was early intrusted by the Synod of North Holland to the Classis of Amsterdam. By that body all the colonial clergy were approved and commissioned. With its committee, "ad res exteras," they maintained a constant correspondence. The Classis of Amsterdam was, in fact, the Metropolitan of New Netherland. For more than a century its ecclesiastical supremacy was affectionately acknowledged; and long after the capitulation of the prov ince to England, the power of ordination to the ministry, in the American branch of the Reformed Dutch Church, remained in the governing Classis in Holland, or was exercised only by its special permission.* Colonial clergy. The clergymen commissioned by the Classis of Amsterdam were, of course, Calvinists. They were generally men of high scholarship and thorough theological training; for the people, who at Leyden preferred a university to a fair, insisted upon an educated ministry. The colonial clergy had much work to do, and peculiar difficulties to encounter. A lax morality, produced by the system of government and the circumstances of the province, undoubtedly prevailed among many of the New Netherland colonists. It was difficult to minister the offices of religion to scattered farmers and isolated traders. It was still more difficult to teach the word to the savages. Yet, Megapolen * Dr. Gunn's Memoirs of Dr. Livingston, 78-92; Dr. De Witt, N. Y. H. S. Proc., 1844, 68-76. While in Holland, in 1841, I had an interview, in behalf of the General Synod, with the Classis of Amsterdam, and obtained from its archives extracts of its proceed ings, and much valuable correspondence with the clergy and churches in New Netherland and New York, from 1641 to 1775, of which I have availed myself in this work. 1656. the people. sis, contemporaneously with Jogues, had attempted to in- c. xvIII. struct the Mohawks several years before Eliot began his missionary labors near Watertown and Dorchester. At Manhattan, too, the work was tried, but with very indif ferent success. The Dutch colonists themselves, gladly Feelings of listened to the Gospel which they had heard in the Fatherland; and churches were built, partly by voluntary contributions of the commonalties, at Manhattan, Beverwyck, and Midwout. To these churches the country people made toilsome journeys, to bring their children to baptism, to hear the words of the preacher, and to join in that simple but majestic music which they had first sung far across the sea, where the loud chorus overpowers the diapasons of Haerlem and Amsterdam. and church Amster erwyck, Island. In the beginning of the year 1656, there were four Re- Clergymen formed Dutch clergymen in New Netherland. Megapo- es at New lensis and Drisius were colleagues at New Amsterdam; dam, BevSchaats ministered at Beverwyck; and Polhemus had the and Long joint charge of Breuckelen, Midwout, and Amersfoort. Besides his regular services at New Amsterdam, Drisius occasionally visited Staten Island, where a number of Vaudois or Waldenses soon settled themselves; and his knowledge of the French language enabled him to preach satisfactorily to these faithful men, who fled to Holland and to America from the tyranny of their despotic sovereign. Flushing, which had obliged Doughty to quit the place and Flushing. go to Virginia, had been for more than a year without a minister. At Heemstede, where there were many Dutch Heemstede. and English Calvinists, Richard Denton, a Presbyterian clergyman, and "an honest, pious, and learned man," had preached since 1644. He had "in all things conformed" to the Established Church of the province. The Puritan Independents of the place "listened attentively" to his preaching; but when he began to baptize the children of such parents as were not communicants, "they sometimes burst out of the church." At Middelburgh, or New- Middeltown, where the Independents outnumbered the Presbyterians, John Moore, who did not administer sacraments, burgh. CH. XVIII. preached with acceptance. The people of Gravesend were understood to be "Mennonists," or Anabaptists. They re1656. jected infant baptism, the Sabbath, the office of preacher, Gravesend. West Esopus. er. 66 and the teachers of God's word, "saying that through these have come all sorts of contention into the world." Whenever they met together, one or other "read something for them." The English settlers at West Chester were Puritan Independents. They had no preacher, but held Sunday meetings, "reading a sermon from an English book, and making a prayer." At Esopus, or "Atkarkarton," the few Dutch inhabitants, having no clergyman, had conducted divine service themselves on Sunday, one of them reading something out for a postille," or commentary. On the South Riv- South River, Lokenius, the Lutheran clergyman, continued his ministrations to the Swedes and Finns near Fort Christina. He was represented to lead "a godless and scandalous life," and to be "more inclined to look into the wine kan than to pore over the Bible." At Fort Casimir, the Dutch residents, being without a minister, appointed a layOnondaga. man, "who should read every Sunday." In the Far West, Jesuit missionaries preached to the Onondagas. So stood New Netherland with regard to religion. As to popular education, excepting at Manhattan, Beverwyck, and Fort Casimir, there was no schoolmaster. Though the people at large were anxious that their children should be instructed, they found great difficulty, because many of them, coming "naked and poor from Holland," had not sufficient means, and because there were few qualified persons, except those already employed, who could or would teach.* In their correspondence with the Classis of Amsterdam, the Dutch clergymen at Manhattan had frequently referred to the increase of Mennonists and Lutherans in the province. At New Amsterdam, the Lutherans, as we have seen, had been refused permission to worship publicly in a church of their own. Nevertheless, the directors of the Amsterdam Chamber did not sanction in their province Schools. Jealousy of the metropolitan clergy. * Letters to Classis, 5th Aug. and 22d Oct., 1657; Doct. Hist. N. Y., iii., 103-108, 189, 190; Dr. De Witt, in N. Y. H. S. Proc., 1844, 69, 70; Thomps. L. I., ii., 20; ante, p. 375. a sectarian persecution unknown in the liberal Father- CH. XVIII. land. 1656. Proclama against un conventi The immediate cause of the first exhibition of religious intolerance in New Netherland was ecclesiastical jealousy, and a too rigid constuction of official duty. Early in the year 1656, the metropolitan clergymen, Megapolensis and Drisius, complained to the director general that unqualified persons were preaching and holding conventicles at Middelburgh, "from which nothing could be expected but discord, confusion, and disorder in Church and State." Stuyvesant was himself a zealous son of the Church. He was an over-strict constructionist, and loved the display of arbitrary power. A proclamation, assuming "to pro- 1 Feb. mote the glory of God, the increase of the Reformed relig-tion ion, and the peace and harmony of the country," soon ap- authorized peared, forbidding preachers, "not having been called there- cles. to by ecclesiastical or temporal authority," from holding conventicles not in harmony with the established religion as set forth by the Synod of Dort," and here in this land, and in the Fatherland, and in other Reformed churches observed and followed." Every unlicensed preacher who should violate this ordinance was subjected to a penalty of one hundred Flemish pounds; and every person who should attend such prohibited meetings became liable to a penalty of twenty-five pounds. The ordinance, however, expressly disclaimed "any prejudice to any patent heretofore given, any lording over the conscience, or any prohibition of the reading of God's holy word, and the domestic praying and worship of each one in his family." A simi- 10 March. lar proclamation was immediately published by De Decker, the vice-director at Fort Orange. The invidious law was enforced. Recusants were fined and imprisoned. Complaints to Holland followed; and the West India Company promptly rebuked their director for his bigoted zeal. "We would fain not have seen," wrote 14 June. they to Stuyvesant, "your worship's hand set to the pla- tions of the card against the Lutherans, nor have heard that you op- Company. pressed them with the imprisonments of which they have Instruc West India |