Dutch Reformed Congregationalism in New Netherland: The Case of Rev. Wilhelmus Grasmeer

In 1642, Kiliaen van Rensselaer, patroon of Rensselaerswijck, contracted with Rev. Johannes Megapolensis Jr. to serve the religious needs of the colonists of the patroonship for a term of six years.¹ At the time, Megapolensis was minister for the congregation at Schoorl in the Classis of Alkmaar, both of which had to formally dismiss him before he could take on a new charge.² The Classis of Amsterdam, the regional church council in the Netherlands that had assumed a dominant role in religious affairs in New Netherland, also needed to draft a call to the minister, in accordance with special policies it established in 1636 regarding the appointment of colonial ministers.³ The classis penned such a call and instructed its deputies appointed to manage colonial affairs to assist Van Rensselaer and Megapolensis in expediting his dismissals.⁴ After receiving dismissals from both his consistory and classis,⁵ Megapolensis, his wife Machtelt, and their four children set sail in June 1642 for New Netherland, where he became only the third minister to serve in the colony. Megapolensis intended to serve in New Netherland only briefly, but he ultimately served there until his death in 1670, as the West India Company (WIC) hired him for the Manhattan congregation after his contract with the patroon expired.⁶

The process by which Megapolensis came to serve in New Netherland reflected that which was followed in the Netherlands in accordance with the Church Order of Dort (DCO), the 1619 document that provided guidance for how ecclesiastical power within the Dutch Reformed church in the United Provinces should be defined and structured. This church order was grounded in an aversion to both ecclesiastical independence and hierarchy and therefore aimed to link church members, congregations, ministers, and governments in a tight-knit web of collaborative relationships. Slight adjustments were nevertheless made to account for the colonial situation, such as Megapolensis's appointment being only for a limited term and his being sent by the Classis of Amsterdam rather than being called directly by the congregation that he was to serve. Unfortunately, the calling of Dutch ministers in or for New Netherland did not always go so smoothly, particularly when ministers and colonial congregations acted independently of classical authority. This independence deeply troubled the Classis of Amsterdam, as it ran contrary to principles of Dutch Reformed church polity and had the potential to undermine the orderly development of the New Netherland church.

As a form of congregationalism was developing in North America, alternatives were nevertheless possible, as the history of other Dutch colonies reveals. That no formalized solutions to counter congregationalism were developed for New Netherland set the stage for conflict that lasted for more than a century after the English conquest. Many Dutch Reformed ministers in the eighteenth century on both sides of the Atlantic interpreted the ongoing struggles as being the fault of those who refused to adhere to the Church Order of Dort and the directives of the Classis of Amsterdam, and in doing so, challenged the way it had always been. As the Classis of Amsterdam noted in 1743 to three prestigious ministers serving in New York, the "subordination," of the American churches and ministers to the Classis of Amsterdam, "has already existed from early times. When the provinces, wherein your congregations are situate, belonged to the Honorable West India Company, this relationship came into existence as a matter of course; and it remained unaltered after they passed under the power of England."⁷ Historians have generally interpreted the situation similarly.⁸ The ministers' understanding of the ecclesiastical history of the Dutch Reformed church in America was nevertheless flawed. It was also built on what ministers rather than congregations did and thought, even though congregational power was integral to the Dutch Reformed church. Eighteenth-century ministers were not aware that New Netherland congregations had not always bowed to the power of the Classis of Amsterdam, nor that they had had legitimate grounds for not having done so. Those in the eighteenth century who therefore claimed that conflict arose because some American...