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GREAT SEAL OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK 
 1 69 1 TO 1705 
 
BICENTENARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE CHARTER 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Beformeti 
 Protestant Butcf) C|)urcl) 
 
 OF THE 
 
 / 
 
 CITY OF NEW YORK 
 MAY ELEVENTH, 1896 
 
 % 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 PRINTED BY THE CONSISTORY 
 
 MDCCCXCVI 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introductory Note 7 
 
 The Service 11 
 
 Historical Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe ... 17 
 
 Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird 41 
 
 Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensnyder ... 50 
 
 Letter from the Rev. Dr. Dix 58 
 
 Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 60 
 
 Address by the Rev. Dr. Burrell 71 
 
 The Charter 7^ 
 
INTRODUCTORY NOTE 
 
 THE Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the 
 City of New York, now commonly known as 
 the Collegiate Church, was organized by the Rev. 
 Jonas Michaelius, soon after his arrival in New 
 Netherland on the seventh of April, 1628. It was 
 incorporated by a royal charter which was granted 
 by William III, and was signed by Governor Ben- 
 jamin Fletcher on the eleventh of May, 1696. As 
 this was the first charter bestowed on any church 
 in this country, the two-hundredth anniversary of 
 its issue seemed to the Consistory deserving of 
 suitable commemoration. A committee was ac- 
 cordingly appointed in February last, consisting 
 of the Rev. Dr. Coe, Hon. Henry W. Bookstaver, 
 and Professor Frederic R. Hutton, to consider an 
 appropriate mode of celebration and to make ar- 
 rangements for the same. At a subsequent meet- 
 
8 Introdttctory Note 
 
 ing of the Consistory a report of this committee 
 was received and approved, recommending that a 
 public service should be held in the church at Fifth 
 Avenue and Forty-eighth Street, on the eleventh 
 of May ; that an historical statement in reference 
 to the charter should be made by one of the Min- 
 isters of the Church; and that a representative of 
 each of those Churches which were established 
 here when the charter was granted should be in- 
 vited to make an address. 
 
 This order was duly carried out. Numerous in- 
 vitations were sent to the officers of public institu- 
 tions, of historical and other societies, and of the 
 Government of the City, as well as to the clergy of 
 all denominations, and to such other persons as the 
 committee judged likely to be interested in the 
 exercises. In spite of the unusual heat of the day, 
 a very large audience was assembled. The church 
 was elaborately decorated with banners represent- 
 ing the coats-of-arms of the several provinces of 
 the Netherlands, and with the flags of the United 
 States, Great Britain, and Holland, and the pulpit 
 was adorned with plants and flowers. A large 
 photograph representing the first and last lines of 
 the charter, with the signature of the Governor 
 and the seal of the province, was placed in the view 
 
Introductory Note 9 
 
 of the audience, and the great seal was also repro- 
 duced upon the programme. The music was finely 
 rendered by the choir of the church, augmented 
 by additional voices. The Rev. Dr. Coe, as the 
 Senior Minister of the Collegiate Church, presided, 
 delivered the Historical Address, and introduced 
 the speakers. These were the Rev. Henry M. 
 Baird, D.D., LL.D., Professor in the New York 
 University ; the Rev. Junius B. Remensnyder, 
 D.D., Pastor of St. James' Lutheran Church of 
 this city; and the Rev. Charles C. Tiffany, D.D., 
 Archdeacon of the Diocese of New York. To 
 their words of greeting, congratulation, and his- 
 torical reminiscence, the Rev. Dr. Burrell made in 
 the name of the Collegiate Church a hearty and 
 felicitous response. The exercises held to the close 
 the interested attention of all who were present, 
 and a large number of congratulatory letters were 
 received by the committee from prominent persons 
 who were unable to attend the service. 
 
 As a permanent memorial of the occasion, the 
 Addresses are now printed by the Consistory, to- 
 gether with the Order of Service and a letter from 
 the Rev. Morgan Dix, S.T.D., D.C.L., Rector of 
 Trinity Church. These are followed by the char- 
 ter. In publishing this record of the service, the 
 
lo Introductory Note 
 
 Consistory desire to express their thanks to all 
 those who united with them in doing honor to this 
 ancient Church — the oldest in the city, and the 
 oldest now in existence in the United States. 
 
31lnt][)Cm, Benedic anima mea . . . Ca^d Walter 
 ^^rapcr by the Rev. John Gerardus Fagg 
 
 ^lefato — Psalm cxlv. 
 
 Ktafl b? ti^e Keb. titxva (!0t)crt5on Cobb anu 
 
 1 T WILL extol thee, my God, O King; 
 
 X And I will bless thy name for ever and ever. 
 
 2 Every day will I bless thee; 
 
 A7id I will praise thy name for ever and ever. 
 
 3 Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised; 
 And his greatness is unsearchable. 
 
 4 One generation shall praise thy works to another, 
 And shall declare thy mighty acts. 
 
 5 I will speak of the glorious honor of thy majesty. 
 And of thy wondrous works. 
 
 6 And men shall speak of the might of thy terrible acts : 
 Atid I will declare thy greatness. 
 
^2 The Service 
 
 7 They shall abundantly utter the memory of thy great 
 
 goodness, 
 And shall sitig of thy righteousness. 
 
 8 The Lord is gracious, and full of compassion ; 
 Slow to anger, and of great fnercy. 
 
 9 The Lord is good to all : 
 
 And his tender mercies are over all his zvorks. 
 
 10 All thy works shall praise thee, O Lord; 
 And thy saints shall bless thee. 
 
 1 1 They shall speak of the glory of thy kingdom, 
 And talk of thy power; 
 
 12 To make known to the sons of men his mighty acts, 
 And the glorious majesty of his kingdom. 
 
 13 Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. 
 
 And thy dominion en dure th throughout all generations. 
 
 14 The Lord upholdeth all that fall, 
 
 And raise th up all those that be boived down. 
 
 15 The eyes of all wait upon thee; 
 
 And thou givest them their meat in due season. 
 
 16 Thou openest thine hand. 
 
 And satisfest the desire of every living thing. 
 
 17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways, 
 And holy in all his works. 
 
 18 The Lord is nigh unto all them that call upon him, 
 To all that call upon. hi?n in truth. 
 
 19 He will fulfil the desire of them that fear him : 
 He also will hear their cry, and will save them. 
 
 20 The Lord preserveth all them that love him : 
 But all the wicked will he destroy. 
 
 21 My mouth shall speak the praise of the Lord : 
 And let all flesh bless his holy name for ever and ever. 
 
 (^Joria ©atrt 
 
 By the Rev. Edward Benton Coe, U.D,, LL.D. 
 
The Service 13 
 
 I^pmn 692 Dzttck Air of the i6th Century 
 
 GLORIOUS things of thee are spoken, 
 Zion, city of our God; 
 He, whose word cannot be broken, 
 Formed thee for His own abode : 
 On the Rock of Ages founded, 
 
 What can shake thy sure repose ? 
 With salvation's walls surrounded, 
 Thou niay'st smile at all thy foes. 
 
 See, the streams of living waters, 
 
 Springing from eternal love, 
 Well supply thy sons and daughters, 
 
 And all fear of want remove : 
 Who can faint while such a river 
 
 Ever flows their thirst to assuage ? 
 Grace, which, like the Lord, the Giver, 
 
 Never fails from age to age. 
 
 Round each habitation hovering 
 
 See the cloud and fire appear, 
 For a glory and a covering. 
 
 Showing that the Lord is near : 
 Thus deriving from their banner 
 
 Light by night, and shade by day, 
 Safe they feed upon the manna 
 
 Which He gives them when they pray. 
 
 ^CtJtire^^ by the Rev. Henry M. Baird, D.D., 
 
 Of the New York University 
 
 ^ttsto^^ by the Rev. J. B. Remensnyder, D.D., 
 
 Of the Lutheran Church 
 
1 4 The Service 
 
 J^pmn ^^Z Em Feste Burg 
 
 A MIGHTY fortress is our God, 
 A bulwark never failing; 
 Our helper, He, amid the flood 
 Of mortal ills prevaiHng; 
 For still our ancient foe 
 Doth seek to work us woe ; 
 His craft and power are great, 
 And armed with cruel hate : 
 On earth is not his equal. 
 
 Did we in our own strength confide, 
 
 Our striving would be losing — 
 Were not the right man on our side. 
 The man of God's own choosing : 
 Dost ask who that may be ? 
 Christ Jesus, it is He ! 
 Lord Sabaoth, His name ; 
 From age to age the same; 
 And He must win the battle. 
 
 And though this world with devils filled 
 
 Should threaten to undo us, 
 We will not fear, for God hath willed 
 His truth to triumph through us : 
 The prince of darkness grim — 
 We tremble not for him ; 
 His rage we can endure ; 
 For lo, his doom is sure ; 
 One little word shall fell him. 
 
 That word above all earthly powers — 
 
 No thanks to them — abideth ; 
 The Spirit and the gifts are ours, 
 
 Through Him who with us sideth : 
 
The Service 15 
 
 Let goods and kindred go, 
 This mortal life also ; 
 The body they may kill, 
 God's truth abideth still; 
 His kingdom is forever. 
 
 ^tltltCjS^i^ by the Rev. Charl.es C. Tiffany, D.D., 
 Archdeacon of the Diocese of New York 
 
 lUej^jpon^e by the Rev. David J as. Burrell, D.D. 
 
 I^pmn J26 National Air of Holland 
 
 OGOD, our help in ages past, 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
 And our eternal home ; 
 
 Before the hills in order stood, 
 
 Or earth received her frame. 
 From everlasting Thou art God, 
 
 To endless years the same. 
 
 Time, like an ever-rolling stream, 
 
 Bears all its sons away ; 
 They fly forgotten, as a dream 
 
 Dies at the opening day. 
 
 O God, our help in ages past, 
 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 Be Thou our guard while troubles last. 
 
 And our eternal home. 
 
 2DOjiroiO0p» Praise God, from ivhom all blessings flow 
 
1 6 The Service 
 
 ^benediction 
 
 ilCtC^^iona!) The Marvelous Work . . . Haydn 
 ^O^tiU00) Saci^ed march in F Gounod 
 
 ■Efjt xmx%\t tDa;s rcnucwn b? a Double £luartrtti^, Cijorus, anD 
 31n^trumtnt;E(, unDetr tijc Direction of Carl ItDaltec* 
 
HISTORICAL ADDRESS* 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. EDWARD B. COE, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 IGHTEEN years ago, on the 21st 
 of November, 1878, the Collegiate 
 Church celebrated the two hundred 
 and fiftieth anniversary of its organ- 
 ization. "We have just established 
 the form of a church," wrote Rev. 
 Jonas Michaelius, on the i ith of August, 1628, from 
 the island of Manhatas, in New Netherland, to a 
 friend in Holland. Two elders had been chosen, 
 of whom one was the " Honorable Director" him- 
 self; "full fifty communicants, Walloons and 
 Dutch," had been received into membership, some 
 on confession of their faith, and others on certificates 
 from churches at home; and "the holy sacrament 
 of the Lord" had been duly administered. This 
 
 * Portions of this Address were omitted in the delivery. 
 
1 8 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 was two years after the beginning of civil govern- 
 ment on this island, under the direction of the 
 Dutch West India Company. Through the two 
 hundred and sixty-eight years which have since 
 elapsed, the life of this Church has been uninter- 
 rupted. 
 
 We are met this evening to celebrate a more re- 
 cent event in its history — the signing of its charter, 
 sixty-eight years later, by the English governor, 
 Benjamin Fletcher. The significance of this event 
 does not lie simply in the fact that a corporation 
 was then constituted which is still in existence. 
 The granting of the charter of the Reformed Pro- 
 testant Dutch Church in the City of New York was 
 a triumph of religious liberty. It set an effective 
 barrier in the way of the establishment here of 
 the ecclesiastical system which prevailed in Great 
 Britain. It settled the principle that there was to 
 be no union of church and state in this colony, but 
 that all Protestant bodies were here to have equal 
 rights. It is therefore worthy of more than a pass- 
 ing notice, and is of interest not only to those who 
 cherish a personal or hereditary regard for the 
 Dutch Church, but to all to whom the cause of re- 
 ligious freedom is dear. Your presence here this 
 evening indicates your recognition of this its 
 broader significance. 
 
 I am first to tell as simply and clearly as possible 
 the story of the way in which the charter was ob- 
 tained, and briefly to indicate its historic impor- 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 19 
 
 tance. It did not merely secure to the Church the 
 right to receive and hold property : other and 
 more serious questions were involved in it. 
 
 The Dutch who settled New Amsterdam were 
 not fugitives from religious oppression, nor were 
 they religious enthusiasts. They were for the 
 most part honest and God-fearing men who es- 
 tablished themselves here for purposes of trade. 
 They had at first no intention of erecting in the 
 wilderness a permanent state. They brought with 
 them, of course, the church of their fathers, and 
 they meant that this should be the church of the 
 colony. This island was the private property of 
 the West India Company, which purchased it from 
 the Indians for the sum of twenty-four dollars. 
 The government of the colony was therefore vested 
 in the Company, whose regulations covered the 
 subject of religion as well as other matters of gen- 
 eral concern. In an ordinance adopted by the 
 Directors and approved by the States General in 
 1640 it was provided that "no other religion shall 
 be publicly admitted in New Netherland except the 
 Reformed, as it is at present preached and prac- 
 tised by public authority in the United Netherlands; 
 and for this purpose the Company shall provide 
 and maintain good and suitable preachers, school- 
 masters, and comforters of the sick." Calls upon 
 ministers were not valid without its approval, and 
 their salaries were paid by it, in part if not wholly, 
 down to the English conquest in 1664. At the 
 
20 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 same time liberty of religious opinion and worship, 
 for which the Dutch Republic had waged such a 
 long and magnificent conflict, was not here denied 
 to representatives of other churches, and the few 
 Lutherans, Independents, Presbyterians, and Jews 
 who had come hither worshiped, for the most part, 
 unhindered, in private houses. As their numbers 
 increased, there was, indeed, for a few years, from 
 1656 to 1663, a deplorable manifestation of religious 
 intolerance toward them, both on the part of the 
 Dutch ministers and of that honest but arbitrary 
 and violent elder, Peter Stuyvesant, the last Di- 
 rector under the Dutch regime. He and his 
 council passed an ordinance forbidding all unau- 
 thorized conventicles and the preaching of un- 
 authorized persons ; and this law was enforced with 
 fines and imprisonments, first against the Lutherans, 
 and afterward on Long Island against the Quakers. 
 But the vigorous protests which it aroused brought 
 upon Stuyvesant the rebuke of the Company. The 
 true Dutch spirit appears in their words: "The con- 
 sciences of men ought to remain free and un- 
 shackled. Let every one remain free, so long as 
 he is modest, moderate, his political conduct irre- 
 proachable, and so long as he does not offend 
 others or oppose the government. This maxim of 
 moderation," they add, "has always been the guide 
 of our magistrates in this city [the city of Amster- 
 dam, in Holland], and the consequence has been 
 that people have flocked from every land to this 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 21 
 
 asylum. Tread thus in their steps, and we doubt 
 not you will be blessed." This noble utterance 
 terminated the brief spasm of persecution in New 
 Netherland. 
 
 The Dutch Church was, however, the only 
 church organized here for many years. It first met 
 for worship in a room prepared for the purpose 
 over a horse-mill which was built and owned by 
 one of the colonists. In 1633 the West India 
 Company erected on their own land the first church 
 building, a plain wooden structure which looked 
 like a barn, and which stood in what is now Broad 
 Street, near Pearl Street. Nine years later, in 
 1642, a large stone church was built in the fort or 
 stockade, toward the cost of which the Company 
 contributed a thousand guilders. The balance of 
 fifteen hundred guilders was contributed by the 
 people, who consequently had an interest in the 
 property after the Company's connection with it 
 had been terminated by the English conquest. 
 There was, however, no need of a charter or act 
 of incorporation so long as the Dutch rule con- 
 tinued. Neither the civil nor the ecclesiastical 
 rights of the church were questioned. 
 
 All legal relations were changed, however, when 
 New Amsterdam became New York. No revolu- 
 tion of equal importance has perhaps ever been so 
 quietly made. It is evident that the Dutch set- 
 tlers, who formed the great majority of the popula- 
 tion, welcomed the change from the authority of 
 
2 2 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 the Dutch West India Company to that of the Eng- 
 lish crown. They plainly expected thus to obtain 
 greater commercial advantages, while their civil 
 and religious liberties seemed to be amply secured. 
 Stuyvesant was, indeed, determined to hold the 
 place at any cost against the English fleet. But 
 the ministers and leading citizens, perceiving that 
 resistance would be futile and would result simply 
 in the wanton destruction of property and life, com- 
 pelled him to yield. Thus the surrender of the 
 most important post in the new world was made 
 without the firing of a gun or the striking of a 
 blow. In consequence of this, the terms of sur- 
 render granted by the conquerors were in the high- 
 est degree magnanimous. The Dutch were to 
 continue as free denizens of the colony, were to re- 
 tain their private property and dispose of it at their 
 pleasure, and were to observe without interference 
 their former customs as to inheritance and religion. 
 A special article provides that "the Dutch here 
 shall enjoy the liberty of their' consciences in divine 
 worship and in church discipline." They would 
 not indeed take the oath of allegiance until assured 
 in writing that these articles of surrender were not 
 in the least broken or intended to be broken by any 
 words or expressions in the oath. For a time even 
 the Dutch civil officials remained in power, and 
 they were directed to make provision for the sup- 
 port of the ministers. It was further stipulated in 
 these articles that " all public buildings should re- 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 23 
 
 main in their former use." This gave to the Dutch 
 exclusive right to the church in the fort, though the 
 latter was now held by British troops. By the 
 courtesy of the Dutch ministers and congregation, 
 the English chaplain was, however, allowed to offi- 
 ciate in this edifice. Thus it was that English 
 services were begun in New York, and thus they 
 continued to be held for twenty-nine years. 
 
 At the same time it was inevitable that an at- 
 tempt should be made, sooner or later, to introduce 
 and establish, in what had now come to be an Eng- 
 lish colony, the Church of England. And this 
 was the aim of the successive English governors 
 from the outset. It was the purport of their offi- 
 cial, especially of their secret, instructions. This 
 could not have been otherwise, though the number 
 of English Episcopalians in the colony was but an 
 inconsiderable fraction of the whole population. 
 But against this policy the adherents of the Dutch 
 Church set themselves in determined and uninter- 
 mitted opposition. For a long time no definite 
 steps toward its enforcement were taken, but en- 
 tire religious toleration was granted. It was ne- 
 cessary at first to conciliate the good will of the 
 people, and to comply with the liberal terms of the 
 articles of surrender. Not only were the city au- 
 thorities directed to lay a tax upon the inhabitants 
 in order to pay the Dutch ministers, but Governor 
 Lovelace in 1670 offered a salary to any Dutch 
 minister who would come over to help Domine 
 
24 Address by the Rev, Dr. Coe 
 
 Drisius. It was on the strength of this assurance 
 that Van Nieuwenhuysen came from Holland ; 
 though it does not appear that the governor's 
 promise was kept. In addition to this there was a 
 further reason why both Charles II and James II 
 should concede in matters of religion a large toler- 
 ation. Both were Catholics, and desired to leave 
 here a door open for the entrance of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. For twenty-one years after the 
 surrender the province of New York was not a 
 chartered but a proprietary government, held by 
 James, Duke of York, as a fief of the crown, and 
 laws were promulgated, courts established, and 
 justice administered in his name. The " Duke's 
 Laws " provided that a church should be built in 
 every parish ; that the means for building and for 
 the support of the minister should be raised by 
 churchwardens ; and that ministers must have been 
 ordained by some Protestant bishop or minister. 
 No congregation was to be disturbed in its meet- 
 ings, nor any person professing Christianity to be 
 molested, fined, or imprisoned for his religious 
 opinions, and every inhabitant must contribute to 
 all charges both in church and state. To these 
 laws were added, however, secret instructions re- 
 quiring Colonel Nicholls and subsequent governors 
 to establish episcopacy so far as they found this to 
 be possible. 
 
 The reconquest of New York by the Dutch fleet 
 in 1673, and its resurrender by the States General 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 25 
 
 in the following year, complicated somewhat the 
 question of the legal status of the Dutch Church, 
 but made no essential difference in its relation to 
 the English authorities. The people appear, how- 
 ever, to have become somewhat anxious about their 
 rights in the building in which they had so long 
 worshiped, and a special deed of it was obtained 
 from Governor Colve before the surrender. Now, 
 however, the English governors received enlarged 
 authority, and their efforts to establish the English 
 Church were more vigorously pressed. Governor 
 Andros came more than once in collision with the 
 Dutch churches in the matter of the calling and 
 ordaining of ministers. But in 1681 an act of his 
 council allowed this Church to issue a call to the 
 Rev. Henricus Selyns, a man to whose shrewdness, 
 prudence, and energy it is under deep obligation ; 
 and another act passed in the following year gave 
 him permission to erect a parsonage. 
 
 A far more important event in the history of the 
 colony, and one which is closely related to the 
 matter now before us, was the authority given to 
 Governor Dongan, in 1683, to convene a General 
 Assembly by the votes of the people. The object 
 of this was to facilitate the collection of taxes, but 
 it was the real beginning of popular government 
 under the English rule. The Assembly met in 
 October, 1683, a large majority of them being 
 Dutch. They immediately passed a Charter of 
 Liberties, which was approved by the governor. 
 
26 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 and signed a year later by the Duke of York. In 
 this the people, met in a General Assembly, were 
 fully recognized as an essential part of the supreme 
 legislative authority. In this it is also declared 
 that "all the respective Christian churches now in 
 practice in the city of New York and the other 
 places of this province shall from henceforth for- 
 ever be held and reputed as privileged churches, 
 and shall enjoy all their former freedoms of their 
 religion in divine worship and church discipline." 
 Nothing could promise better for the future than 
 this. But unfortunately before the copy to which 
 James had affixed his signature was sent back to 
 this country, the death of Charles advanced him to 
 the throne. New York consequently became a 
 royal province, and the new sovereign plainly did 
 not relish the idea of having the people fully asso- 
 ciated with himself in its government. He there- 
 fore repealed the Charter of Liberties, and a year 
 later, by his order, the General Assembly was dis- 
 solved. The province thus lay helpless in his 
 hands. 
 
 The instructions which he now sent out to the 
 governor pointed still more definitely to the estab- 
 lishment of the Church of England throughout the 
 province. They required that before any minister 
 should be preferred to any ecclesiastical benefice, 
 or even a schoolmaster permitted to keep school, in 
 New York, a certificate of license must be ob- 
 tained from the Bishop of Canterbury. But Gov- 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 27 
 
 ernor Dongan, who was himself a Roman Catholic, 
 plainly saw both the injustice and the absurdity of 
 these conditions. The great majority of the people 
 were Dutch Presbyterians, and the rest English 
 Dissenters. Only a handful of Episcopalians 
 could be found, and these had not a single church 
 edifice. The idea, therefore, of establishing in such 
 communities the Church of England, according to 
 the elaborate plan proposed by the king, was so 
 preposterous that it was not attempted. The gov- 
 ernor himself wrote that in seven years not more 
 than twenty families had come over from England, 
 while many French families were coming, and 
 several Dutch families had come. In the same 
 communication he makes an interesting reference 
 to the Dutch church in the fort. " A great church," 
 he says, ''which serves both the English and the 
 Dutch, is within the fort, which is found to be very 
 inconvenient. Therefore I desire that there may 
 be an order for their building another ; ground be- 
 ing already laid out for that purpose, and they not 
 wanting money in store wherewith to build it. The 
 most prevalent opinion is that of the Dutch Cal- 
 vinists." I shall refer again in a moment to this 
 project of erecting a new church. 
 
 Another important stage in the history of the 
 Dutch Church in this city begins with the deposi- 
 tion of James and the accession of William and 
 Mary in 1688. This great revolution in English 
 history, as it is properly called, led to the Act of 
 
28 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 Toleration, by which the era of enforced uniformity 
 and of consequent persecution in England was 
 ended. But it seemed at first to have an injurious 
 influence upon the cause of religious freedom in the 
 colonies. The secret purpose to open the way for 
 the progress of the Roman Catholic Church in this 
 country was now, of course, abandoned, and the 
 normal policy of establishing the Church of Eng- 
 land throughout the British colonies was resumed. 
 It remained, however, to be seen whether this 
 could be successfully carried out in a population so 
 peculiar as that of New York, where the great ma- 
 jority were neither members of the English Church 
 nor (properly speaking) dissenters from it, but ad- 
 herents of another national church which was a 
 collateral descendant of the Reformation. Happily, 
 however, in 1691 authority was given to the gov- 
 ernor to restore the popular Assembly, and this 
 served in future as a barrier ag-ainst the desio^ns 
 of the government in the matter of a religious es- 
 tablishment. The secret instructions given by 
 William to Governor Sloughter were in substance 
 the same as those which had been given by James 
 to his predecessor, Governor Dongan, except that 
 toleration was now withheld from the Roman Cath- 
 olics, and the proceeds of the tax imposed for the 
 support of ministers were to be allowed to the 
 minister of each orthodox church. Whether or not 
 this term "orthodox" was introduced with such in- 
 tention, it was afterward explained as referring to 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 29 
 
 the Church of England alone. The American 
 provinces were placed under the care of the Bishop 
 of London ; and if these secret instructions could 
 have been carried out, neither the ministers of the 
 Dutch churches nor even the schoolmasters could 
 have officiated without the bishop's certificate. It 
 was contended by American jurists that the king's 
 secret instructions did not have the force of law. 
 In accordance with them, however, the governor 
 presented an act to the Assembly for the proper 
 maintenance of a minister in every town of forty 
 families. But he had now a popular Assembly of 
 Dutchmen to deal with. They refused to pass the 
 act, and said that the towns had ministers enough. 
 He again introduced a similar bill, which met with 
 the same fate. In July, 1691, he died, and was 
 succeeded by Governor Fletcher, who pursued the 
 same policy with equal determination and with a 
 much greater display of temper. In 1693 he also 
 recommended a bill for settling a ministry. It was 
 rejected. Thereupon he dissolved the Assembly 
 with an angry speech, in which he said : " Gentle- 
 men, the first thing that I did recommend to you at 
 our last meeting was to provide for a ministry, and 
 nothing is done in it. There are none of you but 
 what are big with the privileges of Englishmen and 
 Magna Charta, which is your right ; and the same 
 law doth provide for the religion of the Church of 
 England against Sabbath-breaking and all other 
 profanity. But as you have made it last and post- 
 
30 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 poned it this session, I hope you will begin with it 
 the next meeting, and do somewhat toward it effec- 
 tually." The next year he repeated his recommen- 
 dation, and the Assembly appointed a committee 
 of eight to draft a bill in accordance with his sug- 
 gestions. This was the famous Ministry Act, which 
 has often been cited as establishing the Church of 
 England in this colony. This, however, it did not 
 do, and was not intended by the Assembly to do. 
 It provided that in certain parishes in four out of 
 the ten counties of New York there should "be 
 called, inducted, and established a good, sufficient 
 Protestant minister, to officiate and have the care 
 of souls." And it then went on to provide for the 
 raising of his salary by taxation. Considering that 
 the great majority of the Assembly were Dutch 
 Presbyterians, it is impossible to doubt what they 
 meant by a "good, sufficient Protestant minister." 
 The bill thus drafted was sent to the governor, who 
 returned it with the request that it be amended so 
 as to invest him with the power of inducting all 
 ministers into their office. The Assembly refused 
 to adopt the amendment, assuring the governor 
 that in the " drawing of the bill they had had a due 
 regard to his pious intent of settling a ministry for 
 the benefit of the people." The rejection of his 
 amendment, as well as the liberal character of the 
 bill, exasperated Fletcher, and he broke up the 
 session with a violent speech. "Gentlemen," he 
 says, " in this thing you have shown a great deal 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 31 
 
 of stiffness. You take upon you as if you were 
 dictators. I sent down to you an amendment of 
 three or four words in that bill, which, though very 
 immaterial, yet was positively denied. It seems 
 very unmannerly. It is the sign of a stubborn ill 
 temper. You have set a long time to little pur- 
 pose, and have been a great charge to the country. 
 Ten shillings a day is a large allowance, and you 
 punctually exact it. You have always been for- 
 ward enough to pull down the fees of other minis- 
 ters in the government. Why do you not think it 
 expedient to correct your own to a more moderate 
 allowance? I shall say no more at present, but 
 that you do withdraw to your private affairs in the 
 country. I do prorogue you to the loth of Janu- 
 ary next." 
 
 The act became a law, however, and it was in- 
 stantly interpreted by the governor, in precise op- 
 position to the intent of those who had framed it, 
 as establishing the Church of England. That this 
 was not its intention was, however, explicitly de- 
 clared by the Assembly itself, which, in answer to a 
 petition, asserted that a church had a right to call 
 a dissenting Protestant minister, who was to be 
 paid and maintained under the law. And Colonel 
 Morris, himself an earnest churchman, wrote that 
 it would "do little for the Church except with the 
 help of the governor; but it was the most," he 
 said, " could be got at that time, for had more been 
 attempted, the Assembly had seen through the 
 
32 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 artifice, being most of them Dissenters, and all had 
 been lost." The law was, however, almost a nul- 
 lity from the outset. Not a penny was collected 
 under it for nine years, and the installation of dis- 
 senting ministers went on. For some reason the 
 Ministry Act was not even signed by the king un- 
 til three and a half years later, viz., May ii, 1697. 
 This was five days after the charter of Trinity 
 Church had been granted (on the 6th of May, 1697), 
 though that charter bases itself upon the act. 
 
 This was certainly enough to make plain to the 
 people the persistent intention of the English 
 government in regard to a religious establishment, 
 and to cause the Dutch to feel anxious about their 
 ecclesiastical safety. I have referred to the sug- 
 gestion made by Governor Dongan, in 1687, that 
 the church of New York needed another church 
 edifice. They had already in the preceding year 
 petitioned the mayor for a grant of a piece of land 
 and permission to erect a church upon it ; but this 
 petition was for some reason not presented. In 
 April, 1688, they petitioned Governor Dongan for 
 a charter, as they could not raise money and buy 
 land unless they were incorporated ; but their 
 petition was denied. In 1691, however, they pur- 
 chased a plot of ground on what was called Garden 
 Street, and at once began building. The land at 
 the time was a peach orchard belonging to the 
 widow of Domine Drisius. It now bears the num- 
 bers 41-51 Exchange Place, and is on the north 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 2>Z 
 
 side of that street, between William and Broad 
 Streets. Here was erected the Garden Street 
 church, which has been made familiar by many de- 
 scriptions and prints. In view of the denial of the 
 request for a charter, the property was conveyed 
 by Samuel Bayard, merchant, "to Stephanus Van 
 Cortlandt, Esq., Nicholas Bayard, Esq., and Jonas 
 Kipp, in trust for the common and general use of 
 the minister, elders, and deacons of the Nether 
 Dutch Church and their successors, and for no 
 other use or uses whatever." The deed recites 
 that upon this plot of ground a suitable building 
 was to be erected for the use of the church above 
 named, professing the canons of the National Synod 
 of Dort. 
 
 Meanwhile the contest over the Ministry Act was 
 going on, and the Dutch people felt that their po- 
 sition would not be secure until a charter was ob- 
 tained. Twice in the year 1695, on the i8th of 
 April and on the 19th of June, they again petitioned 
 for this, but each time without success. Finally, 
 on the nth of May, 1696, a charter was granted, 
 signed by Governor Fletcher, and sealed with the 
 great seal of the province. The statement has 
 often been made that it was not obtained without a 
 bribe offered by the Consistory to the governor, in 
 the form of a service of plate. That such a present 
 was made to him is quite certain, but it was not 
 voted until the 26th of July, more than two months 
 after the charter had been signed ; and it was de- 
 
34 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 signed as a " compliment to His Excellency, instead 
 of the usual fee." There is no reason to suppose 
 that any such consideration was promised him as 
 an inducement for obtaining his signature ; but in 
 their gratification at finally obtaining the charter, 
 the Consistory simply voted a more generous 
 recognition of the service which had been rendered 
 them than that which the law prescribed. 
 
 The charter itself is like similar documents. It 
 begins with the name and title of the king, 
 " William III, by the grace of God, King of Eng- 
 land, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of 
 the Faith." It first enumerates the five pieces 
 of property which were owned by the Church. 
 It then affirms it to be the royal intention to pre- 
 serve to " our said loving subjects and their suc- 
 cessors the liberty of worshiping God according 
 to the constitutions and directions of the Reformed 
 churches in Holland, approved and instituted by 
 the National Synod of Dort." It further declares 
 that "our royal will and pleasure is that no person 
 in communion of said Reformed Protestant Dutch 
 Church within our said city of New York at any 
 time hereafter shall be any ways molested, punished, 
 disquieted, or called in question for any difference 
 in opinion in matters of the Protestant religion, 
 who do not actually disturb the civil peace of our 
 said province." It confirms the property specified 
 "unto the sole use and behalf of the members of 
 the said Dutch Church in the city of New York," 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 35 
 
 naming as the first incorporators Rev. Henricus 
 Selyns, with Nicholas Bayard, Stephen Cortlandt, 
 William Beeckman, and Joannes Kerbyle, elders, 
 and Joannes de Peyster, Jacobus Kipp, Isaac de 
 Forest, and Isaac de Reymer, deacons; and pro- 
 vides that they, "with all such others as now are, 
 or hereafter shall be, admitted into the communion 
 of said Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in our 
 said city of New York, shall be from time to time 
 and at all times forever hereafter a body politic 
 and corporate in fact and name." More important, 
 however, than the provisions concerning the prop- 
 erty is the following, viz., "that the patronage, 
 advowson, donation, or presentation of and to the 
 said Church, after the decease of the said first 
 minister or next avoidance thereof, shall appertain 
 and belong to, and be hereby vested in, the elders 
 and deacons of the said Reformed Protestant Dutch 
 Church and their successors forever ; provided al- 
 ways that all the succeeding ministers that shall be 
 by them presented, collated, instituted, and inducted 
 shall bear true faith and allegiance unto us, our 
 heirs and successors." 
 
 The document ends with the provision that there 
 shall be paid "unto us, on the feast day of the An- 
 nunciation of our Blessed Virgin Mary, an annual 
 rent of twelve shillings." 
 
 The care of this precious document was intrusted 
 to Domine Selyns, who, as he writes, accepted the 
 charge, "although not too willingly." There can 
 
36 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 be little doubt that it had been obtained largely 
 through his prudent and persistent efforts. In enu- 
 merating its contents in a letter written a few months 
 later, he puts first the power of calling one or 
 more ministers, choosing elders, deacons, chorister, 
 sexton, etc., and of erecting Dutch schools, all in 
 conformity to the church order of the Synod of 
 Dort ; and then mentions the right of possessing a 
 parsonage and other church property. The first 
 of these was the great thing for which he and his 
 associates had contended, and he truly observes 
 that "this is a circumstance which promises much 
 advantage to God's church, and quiets the formerly 
 existing uneasiness." 
 
 I cannot take time to pursue further the story of 
 the charter of this historic Church. Attempts were 
 made by succeeding governors to disturb it, but 
 they were unsuccessful, as similar attempts have 
 been in times more recent. Let me point out 
 in a few words two important results which fol- 
 lowed it. In the first place, it led to the granting 
 of similar charters to other Dutch churches through- 
 out New York and New Jersey. The liberty of 
 the Dutch Church at least was now secure, and 
 with that the principle of religious equality was 
 firmly settled. Although no other than Dutch and 
 Episcopal churches succeeded in obtaining charters, 
 down to the Revolution, the collection of church 
 rates from the freeholders of the colony for the 
 Episcopal Church could not be successfully made 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 37 
 
 where any other churches were thus recognized as 
 estabHshed by law. Even as late as 1765 Domine 
 Ritzema writes: " Our Netherlandish Church has 
 always been regarded by the Episcopalians as a 
 national church, and for that reason held in esteem ; 
 and the kings have always provided our churches 
 with charters." With the Revolution all danger of 
 an ecclesiastical establishment in this country passed 
 away, but the story of the successful effort of the 
 Dutch in New York to secure what they believed 
 to be their rights is an important chapter in the 
 history of the struggle for liberty throughout the 
 land. 
 
 The other result which followed the granting of 
 the charter to the Dutch Church was that it opened 
 the way to the conferring of similar privileges in the 
 following year upon Trinity Church. The charter 
 of Trinity, granted, as I have already mentioned, 
 on the 6th of May, 1697, interprets the Ministry 
 Act as establishing the Church of England, and 
 directs that the annual maintenance of £100 
 authorized by it must be paid to the rector of 
 Trinity Church, which is declared to be the only 
 parish church in the city of New York. Then fol- 
 lows this clause: "that nothing herein contained 
 shall be construed or taken to abridge or take away 
 any right, privilege, benefit, liberty, or license that 
 we have heretofore granted unto any church in 
 communion of our Protestant faith within our said 
 province of New York." This reservation is plainly 
 
38 Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 
 
 meant to apply to the special rights granted to the 
 Dutch Church in the preceding year. Bishop 
 Perry remarks that " it is even now a matter of sur- 
 prise that this Act establishing the church in the 
 city of New York against the evident intent and 
 will of the Assembly should have been carried 
 through without eliciting a protest." It is altogether 
 probable that the Assembly, who were chiefly 
 Dutchmen, were so rejoiced over their own charter, 
 and saw so clearly its legal effect, that they made 
 no objection to the claims now set up in behalf of 
 Trinity Church. And when the vast benefactions 
 conferred by that church upon the city are con- 
 sidered, no one will regret that the act by which it 
 was incorporated was not opposed. But what our 
 ancestors opposed was not the establishment of 
 an Episcopal Church in this city. Their relations 
 with the Episcopal clergy and congregation were 
 always most friendly. They opposed the establish- 
 ment of the English Church as a State church in 
 this colony, and the consequent treatment of other 
 evangelical Protestant bodies as dissenters. They 
 carried their point, and when this was gained, there 
 was no reason why they should not welcome the 
 incorporation of Trinity. Throughout this pro- 
 longed struggle against the official establishment 
 of the church to which but an inconsiderable 
 minority of the people belonged, the best qualities 
 of the Dutch character appear : their courage, their 
 perseverance, their moderation, their respect for 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Coe 39 
 
 authority and law, their firm devotion to liberty of 
 conscience. It was nothing in comparison with the 
 momentous struggle which their countrymen at 
 home had a generation before carried to a suc- 
 cessful issue, but it commends them to the honor 
 and gratitude of all who prize the great principle, 
 as truly Dutch as it is truly American, of a free 
 church in a free state. 
 
The Chairman : We have invited to be our 
 guests this evening representatives of those churches 
 which were in existence on this island two hundred 
 years ago: the French Church, the Lutheran 
 Church, and the Church of England. Our oldest 
 friends are the French. I need not remind you 
 that there were many Huguenots among the earli- 
 est settlers of New Amsterdam. In his famous 
 letter, written in 1628, Domine Michaelius mentions 
 the fact that he was preaching to them in their own 
 language, though he adds that he was obliged to 
 have his manuscript before him, as he could not 
 " trust himself extemporaneously." One of the two 
 first elders of the Dutch Church had been an elder 
 in the Huguenot Church at Wesel on the Rhine, 
 and the first Huguenot minister who came to this 
 colony was invited hither by the Dutch Consistory. 
 And when the French had afterward congregations 
 and edifices of their own, their relations with the 
 Dutch continued to be most cordial and happy. 
 
 We had hoped to have the pleasure of listening 
 this evening to the Rev. Mr. Wittmeyer, Rector of 
 the French Church du Saint Esprit, but he is un- 
 fortunately prevented from being present with us 
 by severe illness in his family. We are happy, 
 however, to have among our guests the distin- 
 guished historian of the Huguenots, himself one of 
 their descendants, who has done so much to make 
 us all familiar with their character and their 
 history ; and it gives me great pleasure to intro- 
 duce to you now the Rev. Professor Baird, of the 
 New York University. 
 
 40 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. HENRY M. BAIRD, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 EVEREND Sir, and Brethren of 
 THE Collegiate Church of New 
 York : It is certainly much to be 
 regretted that we shall not have the 
 opportunity of listening- to-night to 
 the pastor of the French Church "du 
 
 Saint Esprit," who could convey as no one else can 
 so properly convey, to the Collegiate Church of 
 New York, the heartfelt congratulations of the 
 modern successors of one of the few ecclesiastical 
 organizations in existence here in 1696. But, as 
 has been mentioned, he has been detained by grave 
 illness in his family ; and so I cheerfully accept the 
 invitation to speak a few words in his stead. 
 
 So ancient and venerable and indeed so highly 
 loved and greatly prized an element in our Chris- 
 
 41 
 
42 Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird 
 
 tian population as the Huguenot should not be de- 
 prived of the privilege of making its voice heard on 
 this jubilant occasion. Reformed Christians from 
 Holland and Reformed Christians from France did 
 not wait, sir, until they reached New Netherland 
 before finding out that they were brethren. Ever 
 since the time of William the Silent and Louis of 
 Nassau, ever since the time of Gaspard de Coligny 
 and La None of the Iron Arm, the Reformed who 
 were derisively styled the Beggars, in Holland, 
 and those other Reformed that were opprobriously 
 called the Huguenots in France, had stood shoul- 
 der to shoulder not merely in the contest for re- 
 ligious freedom, but equally in the moral contest 
 for the same religious profession. They had toiled, 
 they had suffered persecution, endured banishment, 
 encountered death in attestation of identically the 
 same faith. It matters not whether it was at the 
 hands of Philip II and the Duke of Alva or at 
 the hands of the Guises and Charles IX. Those 
 much-defamed articles of the Synod of Dort were 
 no less an expression of the creed of the Huguenots 
 of France than of the dwellers in the low countries. 
 The French National Reformed Synod of Vitre 
 chose its delegates to go to take part in the delib- 
 erations of Dort, and these delegates got so far on 
 their way as Geneva in 1618, when they were 
 overtaken by an order of the king forbidding them 
 to proceed further. So much afraid were the ene- 
 mies of Protestantism lest its professors should come 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird 43 
 
 to an open agreement and realize their doctrinal 
 unity ! But this interference of the government 
 did not prevent the Huguenots from approving the 
 conclusions reached. For not only did the next 
 Huguenot Synod meeting at Alais, in 1620, pub- 
 licly read and unanimously approve the Canons of 
 Dort, but all the members proceeded to swear and 
 protest each for himself that they consented to this 
 doctrine and that they would defend it with all 
 their ability to their last breath. Not only so, but 
 they prepared a formula of like import for every 
 member of all future synods, whether national or 
 provincial, to swear to and sign. 
 
 Agreeing perfectly both in doctrine and in church 
 polity, the Reformed Churches in the Netherlands 
 and the Reformed Churches in France did not re- 
 gard themselves as distinct communions, but as 
 what they really were — members of the same com- 
 munion, separated territorially because falling 
 within the bounds of two separate political jurisdic- 
 tions, and speaking two distinct tongues, but other- 
 wise in the most complete accord. Their members 
 would have scouted the suggestion that because 
 they were born on this side or that of the Scheldt 
 or Rhine and had a different language, they were 
 therefore of different religious denominations. It 
 was the happy lot of the Reformed of Holland to 
 secure their national independence and therewith 
 complete religious freedom. From this resulted the 
 circumstance that henceforth they became the hosts 
 
44 Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird 
 
 and the Huguenots became their guests. And this 
 not for a single year; no, not even for a single 
 century, but with little interruption for a century 
 and a half Many of these refugees came to 
 America. 
 
 Eleven years before the event we celebrate to- 
 night, in October, 1685, occurred the formal Revo- 
 cation of the Edict of Nantes, which may have sent 
 a round hundred thousand French Huguenots to 
 Holland. But the first Huguenots that came to New 
 Amsterdam and settled, some on this island and 
 some on the mainland, must have left their original 
 homes more than sixty years earlier. They were 
 mostly Huguenots from the French-speaking part 
 of Flanders or the Walloon country bordering upon 
 France, and hence were commonly styled Walloons. 
 It may, I believe, be regarded as pretty well estab- 
 lished that the company of emigrants that came 
 over in the good ship "New Netherland " in May, 
 1623, and effected the earliest permanent occupa- 
 tion of the site of our city, was composed of Hugue- 
 nots or Walloons — the same company which had 
 a year or two before been treating with the British 
 ambassador in Holland with a view to settling in 
 Virginia or the English territories. If so, the first 
 settlement of New Amsterdam was in effect a Hu- 
 guenot settlement. And certain it is that for many 
 years the French continued to constitute a very 
 important portion of the population — for a time 
 perhaps close upon one half of it. 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird 45 
 
 But although the Huguenots came over in such 
 numbers and continued to increase by successive 
 emigrations, they remained in an important sense, 
 for many years, the guests of the Dutch. Long 
 did they depend upon the natives of Holland for 
 the supply of their religious wants. Good Jonas 
 Michaelius, a clergyman of the Reformed Church 
 of the Netherlands, was the first Protestant minis- 
 ter, as we have heard, to officiate in our city and to 
 gather a church. This was in 1628, or five years 
 after the first settlement. At the first celebration 
 of the Lord's supper, as an extant letter certifies, 
 he had "fully fifty communicants — Walloons and 
 Dutch — not without great joy and comfort for so 
 many." On one occasion at least, of the celebra- 
 tion of the Lord's supper, the service was conducted 
 in French, and according to the French mode, the 
 worthy minister using his manuscript, as he says 
 he could not trust himself to preach extempo- 
 raneously in that language. The same kindness 
 that Rev. Jonas Michaelius displayed in this in- 
 stance was displayed by his clerical successors. 
 Not only did they extend a hearty welcome to the 
 Walloons and French Huguenots to worship with 
 their Dutch neigrhbours in the little church built 
 within the enclosure of the fort, and to derive what 
 benefit they could from the sermons and prayers 
 which they but imperfectly understood on account 
 of defective knowledge of English ; they preached 
 to them in French whenever they had gained a 
 
46 Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird . 
 
 sufficient command of French to render this prac- 
 ticable. 
 
 The first Huguenot pastor of New York began 
 his ministrations in or about the beginning of 
 1683. A native of France, an exile for his faith, 
 who had fled in the years immediately preceding 
 the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, Pierre Daille 
 had been invited, we are told on good authority — 
 and I am glad to hear it confirmed to-night — had 
 been invited by your predecessors, brethren of the 
 Consistory of the Collegiate Church, to come from 
 Holland, his place of refuge, to preach to the French 
 inhabitants of New York. Your Domine, Hen- 
 ricus Selyns, either brought him with him in 1682 
 or preceded him to America by a very few months. 
 At any rate, these two ministers were from the 
 start, or shortly afterwards became, warm friends 
 and associates in Christian work. And in October, 
 1683, Selyns wrote to the Classis of Amsterdam, 
 " Domine Pierre Daille, late professor at Saumur, 
 has become my colleague. He is full of fire, god- 
 liness and learninor. Banished on account of his 
 religion, he maintains the cause of Jesus Christ 
 with untirinor zeal." 
 
 O 
 
 You see, gentlemen, a good reason, additional 
 to the reasons I have given, based upon Dutch 
 hospitality, for congratulations from the Huguenots 
 of New York. The first Huguenot pastor of New 
 York was invited by your Consistory to become a 
 colleague of the excellent Domine Selyns. For a 
 
Address by the Rrc. Dr. Baird 47 
 
 time at least, the French congregation worshiped 
 the Almighty, through the kindness of the Dutch, 
 in the old Church in the Fort, during the intermis- 
 sion between mornino; and afternoon services. 
 There their numbers grew steadily under the favor- 
 ing influence of their hosts until in 168S the wor- 
 shipers had grown strong enough to leave this 
 shelter and build for themselves a home of their 
 own in Marketheld Street, or, as it was variously 
 called, Petticoat Lane, on ground now covered by 
 the Produce Exchano-e. It was in this small and 
 unpretending church that the Huguenots were 
 worshiping God when Daille resigned, to go to the 
 French Church of Boston, just two hundred years 
 ago, in the very year of the granting of the charter 
 of the Collegiate Church of Xew York, of which we 
 celebrate to-night the bicentenary. The friendly 
 and most cordial relations which have always ex- 
 isted between the Reformed Protestant Dutch 
 Church and the "Church of the French Refugees 
 in Xew York " as it was styled, and which never 
 ceased to subsist — the more than hospitable care 
 which the former for so long a time exercised for 
 the spiritual wants of the latter — the conscious- 
 ness of a common faith and a common trust in one 
 and the same Saviour — these of themselves would 
 be sufficient motives to prompt the descendants of 
 the Huguenots to entertain and to express devout 
 thanks to Almighty God for the long and honorable 
 existence of that ecclesiastical body in one of whose 
 churches we meet to-nieht. 
 
48 Address by the Rev. Dr. Baird 
 
 But weightier grounds for gratitude to heaven 
 and of feHcitations addressed to you are to be found 
 in the fidelity with which the Divine Word has 
 been preached during this long space of time, and 
 in the ofreat multitude of souls which that Word 
 under the influence of the spirit of the Lord has 
 won for Christ. Unum corpus sumus in Christo. 
 Your victories for the Master are our victories too, 
 for we are the followers of the same leader. In 
 the warm and certain anticipation of your future 
 usefulness, in the sure confidence that your past 
 successes are the presage of still greater successes 
 and triumphs during the centuries to come, we 
 congratulate you equally on the history that you 
 have made, and on the prospect that lies before 
 you. May God bless the Collegiate Church of 
 New York. 
 
The Chairman : We hope for a message of for- 
 giveness as well as of congratulation from the hon- 
 ored representative of the Lutheran Church who is 
 now to address us. For it must be confessed that the 
 Dutch were not very hospitable to the Lutherans. 
 Always zealous for the purity of the faith, they 
 were alarmed at the multiplication of sects on this 
 island, and expressed their fear that if this were not 
 checked, the place might becom.e a "receptacle for 
 all sorts of fanatics and heretics." They conse- 
 quently protested against the establishment of a 
 Lutheran church here, and the first Lutheran min- 
 ister who came over from Holland, without author- 
 ity either from the Classis of Amsterdam or from 
 the West India Company, was obliged to go home 
 again. 
 
 But the city has long since become large enough 
 for the followers of Luther and the followers of Cal- 
 vin to work and worship harmoniously side by side. 
 And we heartily welcome this evening the Rev. Dr. 
 Remensnyder, who holds so eminent a place in the 
 Lutheran Church of this city. 
 
 49 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. J. B. REMENSNYDER, D. D. 
 
 HE historian Froude says that of two 
 of the greatest characters in the reli- 
 gious regeneration of the sixteenth 
 century Holland contributed one, 
 Erasmus, and Germany the other, 
 Luther. And in 1525, four years 
 after Luther's celebrated stand at Worms, Erasmus 
 writes : "The greater part of the people in Holland, 
 Zealand and Flanders know the doctrine of Luther." 
 So rapidly was the evangelical movement of the 
 Reformation already spreading to Holland. There 
 also the first martyr blood was shed, so that it was 
 "to the dear brethren, in Holland, Flanders, etc.," 
 that Luther wrote his memorable letter beginning: 
 "To you it is given before all the world not only to 
 hear the restored gospel, but also to be the first for 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensityder 51 
 
 Christ's sake to suffer shame and loss, prison and 
 danger, pain and anguish, and to have sprinkled 
 and confirmed your testimony with your own blood." 
 Holland thus early imbibed the Reformation and 
 very nearly became Lutheran. But Calvin arising 
 upon the theological horizon, conflicts soon arose 
 between the Calvinists and the Lutherans. In 
 1567 the famous William the Silent, Prince of 
 Orange, urged: "Do what you have so often been 
 advised to do. Unite with the Lutherans. The 
 difference is too small for you to keep up separate 
 interests." But this good advice, as is so often the 
 case, was rejected, and Holland became Reformed. 
 However, there remained many Lutherans in Hol- 
 land, and particularly, the congregation in Amster- 
 dam with its two churches, six ministers and 30,000 
 members, had the distinction of being the largest 
 Lutheran congregation in the world. And from 
 Holland came the first Lutherans to America. 
 This was in 1628, the same year that the Dutch 
 Reformed Church was founded. These Dutch 
 Lutherans came to New York, or New Amsterdam. 
 It was a German, Peter Minuit, a native of Rhen- 
 ish Prussia, who, as Director General of the Dutch 
 West India Company, bought Manhattan Island 
 from the Indians for twenty four dollars. The Re- 
 formed and Lutherans got along very well together 
 in New Amsterdam, until the Lutherans made bold 
 to call a pastor, the Rev. John Ernst Goetwater, 
 from Holland. The new minister was not received 
 
52 Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensnyder 
 
 with the courtesies frequently extended by clergy- 
 men to a new pastor. But his arrival caused great 
 excitement in the city. Had it not been for his 
 severe illness he would not even have been per- 
 mitted to land. And as soon as he was able, this 
 Dutch Lutheran Minister was sent back to Holland 
 with several disorderly characters as all dangerous 
 to the peace of the community. And Peter Stuy- 
 vesant, the Governor, issued a proclamation, threat- 
 ening anyone with a penalty of one hundred pounds 
 for preaching in a Lutheran service, and twenty-five 
 pounds for attending one. Such was the ingrati- 
 tude shown by the daughter to the ecclesiastical 
 mother of Protestantism. And I am here to-night 
 to reciprocate these kindly and hospitable amenities 
 extended to my first clerical Lutheran predecessor 
 in New York. Later the Lutherans attained religi- 
 ous toleration and in 1663 built their first church, 
 and in 1684 erected a log church at Broadway and 
 Rector Street, opposite Trinity Episcopal Church. 
 Says a contemporary record of this epoch : " New 
 York has but four clergymen ; first, a chaplain be- 
 longing to the fort, of the Church of England ; 
 secondly, a Dutch Calvinist ; thirdly, a French 
 Calvinist; fourthly, a Dutch Lutheran." But even 
 this small number did not dwell quite in saintly 
 harmony. For the English rector relates the 
 amusing incident, that as the Dutch Reformed and 
 Lutheran ministers were not upon speaking terms, 
 he hit upon the expedient of inviting both them and 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensnyder 53 
 
 their wives to dinner, as a surprise. When their 
 first embarrassment had worn off, the belHoferent 
 clergymen became very sociable and entered into 
 an intimate talk in Latin, leaving their Church of 
 England host solitary and somewhat chagrined, as 
 he says he was unable to follow them. Thus he 
 bridged over this difficulty, but later the three 
 other ministers joined in a protest to the Governor 
 against the fourth, the Lutheran minister, on the 
 ground that he was receiving the lion's share of 
 fees, performing the larger part of the pastoral 
 offices. 
 
 The first Lutheran minister preached in the 
 Dutch language, and the Dutch Lutheran Church 
 in New York was under the care of the Dutch 
 Lutheran Consistory in Amsterdam. All these in- 
 timacies of origin, despite the little unpleasantness 
 we have noted, could not but leave many resem- 
 blances between the two churches. Especially in 
 the matter of government has the Dutch Lutheran 
 Church in New York, which took its polity from 
 the Amsterdam Lutheran Church, which was 
 modeled after the Reformed, exerted a moulding 
 and enduring influence upon the organization of 
 the Lutheran Churches in the United States. Our 
 theory being with Augustine that the identity and 
 unity of the Church consist not in the outward 
 order, which can be adapted to the needs of differ- 
 ent countries and times, but in the bond of truth, 
 in the pure doctrine and sacraments, this could the 
 
54 Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensnyder 
 
 more easily be done without compromise of prin- 
 ciple. Nor are the two churches without important 
 resemblances of a deeper character. Wrote that 
 eminent and revered servant of God and knightly 
 champion of truth, the late Dr. T. W. Chambers: 
 " The Reformed Church is eminently confessional ; 
 ministers are required to subscribe the Confession 
 and Catechism, and to pledge themselves in writing 
 not to promulgate any subsequent change of views 
 without previously consulting the classis to which 
 they belong." That is, Reformed believe with 
 Lutherans, that the creed is authoritative in a 
 Christian church ; that a minister is under some 
 responsibility to the church that gives him his holy 
 commission ; and that if he chooses to depart from 
 "the faith once delivered to the saints," and to 
 preach a new and individual gospel, the church is 
 not to be deterred by the cry of heresy-hunting, 
 and by the protests of foolish crowds and secular 
 journals, from withdrawing from him the authority 
 of its name. Indeed the late Dr. Krauth, an 
 eminent Lutheran scholar, said truly of both 
 churches, Reformed and Lutheran, that however 
 much they diverged as did Calvin and Luther, they 
 still had the affinity of those two great Christian 
 leaders, viz., an unbending moral backbone. Both 
 are orthodox to the core. Both stand fixed 
 and moveless on the Rock of Truth, their confession 
 firm and unwavering at a time of widespread un- 
 certainty and danger, when in many parts of Chris- 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensnyder 55 
 
 tendom thousands are sadly wondering whether the 
 sands under their feet are shifty or no. So even if 
 your church did once persecute ours, we can the 
 more easily forgive you, since it was the excess of 
 a loyalty to truth and conscience, of which we have 
 all too little in our day. Let us remember that 
 there is an excess of liberalism too, and that it is the 
 most dangerous and fatal of all excesses. Very 
 significant was the remark of that eminent Chris- 
 tian jurist, the late Judge Jeremiah Black, who 
 upon being told that the somewhat illiberal moral 
 notions of the past were fast going out of date, re- 
 plied, " Yes, and I notice that the finer shades of 
 conscientiousness are going out with them too." 
 
 As the two denominations then are bound by so 
 many links of history and moral affinity, it affords 
 me the greatest pleasure to bring to you on this 
 night of your 200th Anniversary, the heartiest 
 goodwishes and congratulations of the Lutheran 
 Church. She wishes that God may speed and 
 bless you in the future in your good work as He 
 has in the past. It is indeed to be regretted that 
 these two and all Protestant churches are not one. 
 The one Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of 
 the Nicene Symbol, certainly neither means nor 
 contemplates all these organic divisions. It did 
 not mean them in the Apostolic, Primitive or Me- 
 diaeval Acre. Nor do I believe that it means them 
 in this Modern Age. True Christian Unity means 
 not a mere sentimental meeting like this, now and 
 
56 Address by the Rev. Dr. Remensnyder 
 
 then, a somewhat empty exchange of courtesies 
 over Chinese denominational walls ; nor does it 
 mean separate organizations, conflicting confessions, 
 and divergent interests. But it means One Lord, 
 One Faith, One Baptism, One Fold and One 
 Shepherd, i. e., Church Unity. Such issues in- 
 deed wait long on time. But let us prayerfully, 
 patiently and sacrificingly keep before us the idea 
 and goal of One Holy Universal Church, in which 
 all our denominational divisions shall disappear, 
 and there shall be but one common worldwide 
 Christian army, the multitudinous columns march- 
 ing under the same banner of the Cross, the Lord 
 Jesus Christ over all. 
 
The Chairman : Strenuous as our fathers were 
 in their opposition to the poHcy of estabhshing a 
 State Church in this colony, the relations between 
 the Dutch Church and the Church of England 
 were from the outset most friendly. English ser- 
 vices were held for twenty-nine years in the Dutch 
 church in the Fort, through the hospitality of the 
 congregation to which it belonged, and when the 
 Rev. Mr. Vesey who had been ordained in England 
 was inducted into office as the first rector of Trinity 
 Church, two Dutch ministers took part in the ser- 
 vice. The service itself was held in the Dutch 
 church in Garden Street, where the English con- 
 gregation continued to worship for several months, 
 until their edifice was completed. This hospitality 
 was courteously reciprocated during the Revolu- 
 tion, when the Garden Street church was transformed 
 by the British into a hospital, and the use of St. 
 George's Chapel was offered by the Episcopalians 
 to the Dutch congregation, who worshiped there 
 until their own edifice was restored to them. 
 
 At our Quarter-Millennial Celebration, in 1878, 
 one of the most cordial addresses was delivered by 
 the Rev. Dr. Dix, the present Rector of Trinity 
 Church. I have before me a letter from him ad- 
 dressed to the Committee and explaining his 
 absence to-night, which I am sure you will be glad 
 to have me read. After this, we shall have the 
 pleasure of listening to the Rev. Dr. Tiffany, Arch- 
 deacon of the Diocese of New York. 
 
 57 
 
LETTER 
 
 FROM 
 
 THE REV. MORGAN DIX, S. T. D., D. C. L. 
 
 Trinity Rectory, 
 New York, May ii, 1896. 
 
 To THE Rev. Edward B. Coe, D.D., Mr. Henry 
 W. Bookstaver, and Mr. Frederic R. Hutton. 
 
 Dear Brethren : Being prevented by an impor- 
 tant engagement which cannot be evaded, from 
 attending the services to be held this evening, 
 commemorative of the two hundredth anniversary 
 of the granting of its charter to the ancient and 
 venerated Collegiate Church of New York, I send 
 you these lines, to thank you for your kind invita- 
 tion, to express my regret at being unable to take 
 part in the exercises of the evening, and to con- 
 gratulate you on this auspicious day. Your church 
 was founded, as is well known, many years before 
 you obtained your charter ; its existence dates from 
 1628. It is not so well known, perhaps, that your 
 charter was obtained from the English government, 
 before that government granted its charter to our 
 Trinity Church. We recall the fact, without grudg- 
 ing you the priority in time ; nay, we are glad of 
 that proof of the liberality of a State of which the 
 
 58 
 
Letter from the Rev. Dr. Dix 59 
 
 Church of England was, under Magna Charta, an 
 integral part. Moreover, it is gratifying to be able 
 to affirm, as I do after much study of the annals of 
 the Dutch Collegiate Church and the parish of 
 Trinity Church in this city of New York, that 
 the relations of the two bodies were, from the 
 beginning, kind and friendly, and that each was 
 indebted to the other, from time to time, for acts 
 of courtesy, often very valuable, and always illus- 
 trative of the respect and affection by which the 
 members of the two communions were drawn to- 
 gether. I may add that those sentiments have con- 
 tinued, from the first, through two centuries, to the 
 present day, which finds us still dwelling together 
 in this metropolis, in peace and concord. I now 
 send you, from our household of faith, a hearty 
 greeting, with the hope and prayer that the two 
 corporate bodies may work on together, as they 
 have been doing so long, in the sacred cause of re- 
 ligion. Christian education, and good manners, to 
 the edification of the community ; and that we may 
 be drawn nearer and nearer to one another in sym- 
 pathy and friendship, looking for the happy day 
 when the barriers shall fall, and Christians shall be 
 one in visible and organic unity, as now in the love 
 of God and faith in the Redeemer of mankind. The 
 Peace of our Lord be with you. 
 
 Very sincerely and truly your brother, 
 
 MORGAN DIX, 
 
 Rector of Trinity Church. 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. C. C. TIFFANY, D.D. 
 
 RIENDS AND BRETHREN OF THE COLLE- 
 
 GiATE Church : Your pastor, in his 
 kindly allusions to the comity which 
 has existed from the beginning be- 
 tween this ancient ecclesiastical cor- 
 poration and that which represented 
 the Church of England in the early days of the his- 
 tory of New York, and the very cordial and admir- 
 able letter of the venerable rector of Trinity Church, 
 have taken out of my mouth a good part of my 
 speech. 
 
 It is a matter of great regret to me that Dr. Dix 
 himself was not able to be present to-night ; repre- 
 senting as he does in his own person, as a scholar 
 and divine, so worthily the church of which he is 
 
 60 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 6i 
 
 the chief rector in this city ; and that in his absence 
 the Bishop of the diocese could not be here. The 
 Bishop most sincerely regrets his enforced ab- 
 sence, and when he asked me to take his place he 
 begged that I would not forget to state, and that 
 with emphasis, how much gratification it would 
 have given him to have been here to-night, and 
 to have spoken a few words of cheer and of con- 
 gratulation to this church and congregation. 
 
 But as you could not have those most fitting to 
 appear and whom you most wanted, I at least have 
 this consolation that neither of them could have 
 enjoyed being here more than I do. It is a delight 
 to me to know that I am here as representative of 
 a church which has always felt the kindest regard 
 for your own ecclesiastical body, and which will 
 continue so to do. I was introduced as the Arch- 
 deacon of New York ; you may wonder what such 
 a creature is. Simply this : that he was of old 
 called the Ociilus Episcopi, or the eye of the 
 bishop, and was appointed to do such work as a 
 presbyter might legitimately do to assist the Epis- 
 copal office. As old Canon Hakluyt said, ''Plus 
 vident oculi quain ocidiLSy^ and in order to look 
 and act where at the moment the bishop cannot 
 be, the archdeacon exists as a subordinate yet nec- 
 essary representative. 
 
 I meant to speak at length of the admirable 
 Christian courtesy shown in the early history of 
 these two churches on this island, but I will not 
 
62 Address by the Rev. Dr Tiffany 
 
 dwell upon that now. I will only remark that 
 when Trinity Church in 1780 loaned St. George's 
 Chapel to the Dutch congregation while their own 
 church was occupied by the British as a hospital, 
 the vestry of Trinity Church in making that loan 
 said that they cherished a most affectionate re- 
 membrance of the ancient courtesy, which had 
 been extended to their own communion more than 
 a hundred years before, in the use of the old Fort 
 church by the Dutch, and wished that this courtesy 
 might be interpreted as a continuation of the kind 
 feeling which existed of old. The Collegiate 
 Church, in thanking Trinity for this courtesy, 
 represented themselves as a congregation which 
 considered the interests of the two churches to be 
 inseparable, and trusted that this kindly exhibition 
 of courtesy would convey to future generations an 
 evidence of the cordiality and respect which their 
 communion had always cherished for the Church 
 of England. And I am free to-night, brethren, to 
 say that it does continue, and to cry Esto pcrpetua. 
 I think we do get nearer each other in these days 
 than we did in the days gone by. At least in one 
 particular we are nearer, and that is in the use of 
 language. For when, as your pastor has said, the 
 first rector of Trinity Church was inducted into 
 office, the edifice of Trinity Church not being yet 
 completed, the service was held in the Garden 
 Street church, out of which garden has blossomed 
 this gorgeous flower of Gothic architecture in which 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 63 
 
 we are gathered to-night. At that service, where 
 Domine Selyns of New York and Domine Nucella 
 of Kingston bore their part as subscribing witnesses, 
 the services were carried on in Latin because the 
 various parties understood Latin better than they 
 did the language of each other. I think if Pro- 
 fessor Peck of Columbia Collesfe were to make a 
 strict examination either of the ministers or of the 
 laymen of the respective churches to-day, he would 
 hardly find that to be the ca^e. But it was not 
 only that the two churches stood side by side in 
 mutual respect, there were undercurrents drawing 
 them very forcibly together, but at this late hour I 
 will only indicate them. These lay chiefly in two 
 particulars : in their common liturgical instinct and 
 in their theological tone. The historic Reformed 
 Church of Holland as well as the Church of Eng- 
 land worshiped in the use of a liturgy, and this 
 usapfe has pfreat influence in moldino- the form 
 and giving the tone to the Christian life. The 
 utterance of measured and chastened forms of de- 
 votion; the regular onward movement of the Chris- 
 tian year; the anticipation and celebration of the 
 o-reat festivals, Christmas, Easter, Whitsuntide; 
 give a serenity of tone and temper to the Chris- 
 tian's experience, which causes it to shrink from 
 excitements and individual eccentricities, and 
 makes it a calm progress rather than an agitation 
 of the soul. The religious type becomes one of 
 quietude and lack of self-consciousness. The atmo- 
 
64 Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 
 
 sphere generated of a liturgy thus draws those who 
 use it, though in different form and measure, into 
 a sympathy felt if not wholly understood. Thus 
 the liturgical uses of the two churches produced a 
 similar type of religious character which induced 
 mutual respect. 
 
 Again, the doctrinal tone of the two churches was 
 sympathetic. In both of them at this time it was 
 distinctly Calvinistic. Though with the Second 
 Charles and the Second James the Anglo-Catholic 
 theology rose into prominence in the English 
 Church, the great body was largely permeated 
 with the Calvinism which had been held and incul- 
 cated by the great bishops and theologians of the 
 age of Elizabeth and James I. The latter king 
 had sent delegates to the Synod of Dort. Cal- 
 vinism, save in some conspicuous individuals, was 
 always more subdued in the English Church than 
 in the Dutch, but it was as really there. It largely 
 infused the spirits of all the adventurers who sought 
 these shores, and bound together in mutual respect 
 those whose theological systems were in such near 
 accord. The salutary (if in this presence I may 
 use the adjective) influence of Arminius and of the 
 great law-giver Grotius leavened the subsequent 
 theology of England far more than that of Holland. 
 While I rejoice in it I am still free to say that he 
 who reads the history of that time and fails to rec- 
 ognize the worth and influence of Calvinism in 
 building up the strongholds of religious liberty, of 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 65 
 
 which we are the happy inheritors, as has been 
 well said, reads history with one eye shut. Though 
 it seems to me there are better expositions of 
 Christianity than that, the profound underlying 
 truths which constitute its basis are the very bul- 
 wark and fortress both of civil and religious liberty. 
 And it was that spirit which inflamed and which 
 made itself enthusiastic in both the old church of 
 Holland and the old church of England, which made 
 their successors on this continent and on this island 
 draw nearer and nearer together in friendly sym- 
 pathy and in mutual respect. 
 
 Not only that; for both communions this system 
 was modified and regulated, and, I think, elevated 
 and ennobled by the emphasis which is so strongly 
 placed both in the old Dutch communion and in 
 the comrnunion of the Episcopal Church, on the 
 value, the sacredness and the greatness of the 
 Christian sacraments. For you with us emphasize 
 them, those great institutes and witnesses of the 
 divine grace which, apart from all human feelings 
 and all human attainments, declare God's attitude 
 of love and blessing. As in baptism. He takes us 
 in our very childhood into His Kingdom, and 
 claims us as the heirs of His eternal life. As in 
 the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, He teaches us 
 of His constant access to the soul, which He vouch- 
 safes to transform and impenetrate by the very life 
 of the Redeemer. It is this great sacramental 
 system which your church emphasizes as does our 
 
66 Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 
 
 own, that evolves a unity of character, a community 
 of sympathy, a characteristic temper, which make 
 it very easy for one to find himself at home in the 
 fellowship of the other. 
 
 And so I say there were deep reasons for the 
 comity which existed, which were more powerful 
 than the mere external circumstances in which our 
 forefathers were placed. Providence had indeed 
 so ordered the affairs and the unruly wills of sinful 
 men at that time, that when the English came here 
 and became the supreme power in the island, it was 
 at a time when the Second James, because of his 
 own Roman Catholicism, sought to give a general 
 toleration to various religious opinions, in order 
 that his own communion might be shielded from 
 proscription. Thus the dissenting Protestants be- 
 came heirs of a grace which was not perhaps alto- 
 gether stimulated by affection for them. Then, in 
 the age of William III, whose name appears on 
 this venerable charter whose giving we celebrate 
 to-night, a higher reason for toleration arose. He 
 had been called to Eno^land from Holland because 
 he had married the daughter of the exiled king, 
 and he could not forget his compatriots. He was 
 sure to direct his ministers to grant them their 
 charter, that their rights might not be assailed. 
 
 And that charter, for which I rejoice with you, 
 and feel indebted for the clear elucidation which 
 your pastor has given of its meaning and signifi- 
 cance, was a beginning here of religious liberty 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 67 
 
 protected by law. Yet I very much doubt if in the 
 temper of those times it would have been given, if 
 it had not been intended to be the precursor of that 
 future charter of the English Church, which enabled 
 the governor as representing the English govern- 
 ment and the officers of the royal army here, and 
 all those who constituted its diplomatic service, to 
 appropriate to Trinity Church the enactment of 
 1693, which established a State support for five 
 ministers, one in each of the four counties of New 
 York. With diplomatic skill Governor Fletcher 
 managed so to treat the Dutch, who got what they 
 substantially deserved in their charter, that there 
 was no opposition, when the time came, to granting 
 the charter of Trinity Church, which pronounced it 
 to be the only and sole parish church of the city 
 and gave to its first rector the hundred pounds 
 which were gathered from all of you, so that you 
 all helped to support us. And, moreover, that first^ 
 rector of Trinity was called by the first City Vestry 
 (not by the Church Vestry but by the City Vestry), 
 which was elected by all the community irrespec- 
 tive of creed, and he was called first, not as an 
 Episcopalian, but as an Independent minister. He 
 was preaching on Long Island and was well-known 
 for his eloquence. That did not suit Governor 
 Fletcher at all. So he prorogued the Assembly 
 which had ventured to call a dissenter, and by the 
 next year the complexion of the City Vestry had 
 become much more Episcopalian. It proceeded to 
 
68 Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 
 
 call as rector the same man again, but now on con- 
 dition that he should go to London and get orders 
 from the Bishop of London. Thus Dr. Vesey 
 was individually persona grata to the Dutch be- 
 cause they had called him. He was also now ec- 
 clesiastically persona grata to the English Church 
 because he had consented to Episcopal ordination. 
 So it happened that at last everything was arranged 
 without struggle and without remonstrance. 
 
 Coming thus out of such conditions we have 
 managed to live together in harmony all these 
 years. One reason, it seems to me, why the growth 
 of the English Church was so great then — beyond 
 the Lutheran, beyond the Huguenots and be- 
 yond the Dutch — was this: that all those commu- 
 nions, very naturally perhaps, but not with the 
 sagacity of enlarged wisdom, insisted on worship- 
 ing in their own foreign tongues. Consequently, as 
 the children grew up, they grew impatient and 
 wandered and would go to the church where the 
 language of the worship was the language of the 
 land. And so it happened, for instance, that Zion 
 Church, of which I was for many years the rector, 
 began as an English Lutheran Church, the first 
 English Lutheran Church in this city. It was 
 looked upon askance by the Lutherans, and it 
 finally went over, rector and congregation, to the 
 Episcopal Church, and very largely for the reason 
 that the members wanted to worship in the lan- 
 guage of their country without a stigma being put 
 upon them on that account. 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 69 
 
 I think Dr. Remensnyder referred to the fact 
 that the fees of the Lutheran clergy excited the jeal- 
 ousy of the French and the Dutch. It is a fact 
 that the marriage fees during the first year that the 
 Zion English-speaking Lutheran Church was es- 
 tablished, were over 375 ; more than one a day for 
 the whole year, all the people wishing to be married 
 in the English language. The discontent was so 
 great that the other Lutheran pastors in the city 
 clamored and protested that they should have a 
 share in such fees. 
 
 In the providence of God, the English Church 
 of the Province of New York has been transformed 
 into the American Protestant Episcopal Church in 
 the United States, and has enlarged her borders, 
 and yet has lived in the friendliness and peace with 
 you characteristic of the olden time. There is 
 not to-day as much of theological identity as of yore 
 in the matter of confessions and the doctrinal sys- 
 tems of special times and special men. But is there 
 not a higher and nobler unity in this, that we are 
 all passing through the confessions to the creeds ; 
 from what special men with all their greatness — 
 Luther, Calvin, Cranmer — have said concerning 
 Christ, to what Christ, the Master, has said and 
 been to us ; from theories concerning revelation to 
 the great facts of revelation, all to be summed up 
 in "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and to-day 
 and forever." One Master, calling for one service in 
 the one church, "which is the blessed company of 
 all faithful people." To that unity I believe we are 
 
70 Address by the Rev. Dr. Tiffany 
 
 coming more and more. May God hasten its con- 
 summation! As a noble illustration of the spirit of 
 true Christian unity, I recall to-night the beautiful 
 image of one whom I have often seen standing 
 here, whom in his later life it was my privilege 
 to know, and knowing to love, in the country 
 village where I am wont to reside in summer, 
 the Rev. Dr. Vermilye, so long the preacher and 
 the pastor of this congregation, whose dignity 
 of countenance and nature made him, wherever he 
 went, a " living epistle, known and read of all men." 
 He was a veritable evidence for the Christianity 
 which produced him. By his very mien, temper 
 and disposition, by the placidity of his character, 
 and the serenity of his countenance, he reflected 
 the image of our own dear Bishop White. His per- 
 sonal friendship was a means of grace ; his individual 
 presence I always felt as a benediction. As I re- 
 member him and others who have gone out from 
 among you, and who have grown in the knowledge 
 and love of God among you, what can I do but ut- 
 ter words of thankfulness and joy for what God has 
 wrought among you, and pray: "The Lord bless you 
 and keep you, and make the light of His counte- 
 nance to shine upon you, and give you peace, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
ADDRESS 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. DAVID JAMES BURRELL, D. D. 
 
 should be noted that the differ- 
 ences which have been referred to 
 all occurred practically before the 
 beorjnninpf of the civil life of the 
 CoUeofiate Church. The sanction 
 of the powers that be, put upon our 
 ecclesiastical corporation, seemed to terminate what- 
 ever of unpleasantness there may have been previ- 
 ously between us. 
 
 How good and how pleasant it has been during 
 these two centuries for us to dwell together in 
 unity. It has been like the precious ointment that 
 ran down upon Aaron's beard even to the skirts of 
 his garment. 
 
 Here are four churches representing the great 
 historical church of the Reformation, and for two 
 
72 Address by the Rev. Dr. Burrell 
 
 hundred years, despite the aphorism which is com- 
 mon among some fault-finders, that Christian de- 
 nominationalism is equivalent to Christian strife, 
 we have dwelt together in Christian love and har- 
 mony, each working over against its own place in 
 the building of the Temple Wall. 
 
 Blest be the tie that binds 
 Our hearts in Christian love. 
 
 My dear Doctor Remensnyder, in so far as the 
 Lutherans, whom you represent, were to blame for 
 the unpleasantness to which you referred a moment 
 ago, in behalf of the Collegiate Church I now offi- 
 cially desire to extend our cordial forgiveness. I 
 assure you, sir, that we can never forget our in- 
 debtedness to your ecclesiastical father for nailing 
 the famous Ninety Theses to the castle-chapel 
 door. His hammer sent the thunders of the Refor- 
 mation reverberating around the world and down 
 through the ages. We never can forget how he 
 and those associated with him in that great move- 
 ment revived the almost forgotten doctrine of Jus- 
 tification by Faith — articuhun ecclesics, sta7itis 
 aut cadentis. This is the foundation of that Holy 
 Catholic Church of which Jesus said: "The gates 
 of hell shall not prevail against it." 
 
 My dear Dr. Baird, representing the historical 
 Huguenot Church in this fellowship to-night, I re- 
 member that our friendship began two hundred 
 years ago, when as yet the ink was scarcely dry 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Burrell jz 
 
 upon the Revocation of that Edict of Nantes. All 
 through the history of your venerable Huguenot 
 Church, we hear the clanging of the bells of Saint 
 Germain, that on a direful August night in 1572 
 gave the signal for the shedding of the noblest 
 blood of France. But you were not exterminated 
 Your presence here is proof of the Master's prom- 
 ise, all the Powers of Darkness shall not be able to 
 prevail against the Church that stands by the liv- 
 ing Truth. What was it that Theodore Beza said ? 
 *' Many hammers, sire, have been broken upon 
 this anvil." 
 
 Hammer away, ye rebel bands; 
 
 Your hammers break, God's anvil stands. 
 
 My dear Dr. Tiffany, representing the historical 
 Episcopal Church : we are for many reasons glad 
 to have heard so fraternally from you to-night, and 
 not less because of your explanation of the office 
 of the archdeacon. Some of us might other- 
 wise have confused things as the maid-servant 
 did, who, being instructed to say to visitors that 
 "The rector was absent, but the locum ^enens would 
 attend to the matter," said that "The rector was ab- 
 sent, but the local demon was on hand." I remem- 
 ber, sir, that your acquaintance and mine began at 
 a time when Dutch William was the official head 
 of the English Church. I shall always associate 
 most gratefully with my thoughts of the English 
 Church the memory of those gracious and learned 
 
74 Address by the Rev. Dr. Burrell 
 
 men, who gave the world the Scriptures in the 
 English vernacular and set up the proposition of a 
 free conscience with civil and ecclesiastical liberty. 
 It was in vain that they cast the ashes of Wickliffe 
 upon the waters; "the Avon to the Severn flows, 
 the Severn to the sea." I am sure, sir, that you 
 were right in saying that the Christian Church is 
 to be henceforward bound in a close spiritual fel- 
 lowship. We should not agree, probably, as to the 
 practical importance of any closer union of the 
 friendly denominations, until we can somehow man- 
 age to blot out of our copy-books the words that 
 we used to write over and over again when we 
 were boys, "Many men of many minds." But if 
 there must needs be denominational lines of separ- 
 ation, shall we not keep the fences so low, even as 
 they are here to-night, that in harvest-time we can 
 reach over the fences and clasp warm hands saying, 
 " It is a fair morning, neighbor, God be with you." 
 We have our work marked out for us severally ; 
 the Lord make us in our places faithful to it. 
 
 On this very day the Chief Executive of our 
 commonwealth has signed the bill that makes 
 New York City the second greatest city in the 
 world. It was one of the wise sayings of John 
 Foster that " Power to the last atom is responsi- 
 bility." We cannot abide as churches on Man- 
 hattan Island without bearing on our hearts and 
 consciences the burden of the great multitude of 
 immortal souls. The streets are thronged with 
 
Address by the Rev. Dr. Btirrell 75 
 
 them everywhere; and the profoundest need of the 
 average man to-day is after all a spiritual need. 
 Deep down in the heart of every man and woman 
 among them, throbs the desire to know the way of 
 everlasting life. And Jesus Christ is the great 
 lodestone of the ages ; as He said, " I, if I be lifted 
 up, will draw all men unto me." 
 
 To you, dear brethren, I return with all prayer- 
 ful cordiality your earnest salutations. I give you 
 joy in the fellowship of the Christian life and in the 
 high privilege of Christian service. Dr. Guthrie 
 used to say of the Cowgate in Edinburgh, "This is 
 my golden field." Here among these lapsed mul- 
 titudes who throng our streets is our golden field. 
 The Lord has put us here, brethren, to reap the 
 harvest and garner the sheaves. Perhaps the word 
 that helped Dr. Guthrie in his ministry may also 
 help us. It is my last word of greeting : 
 
 Sin worketh, let me work too ; 
 Sin undoeth, let me do ; 
 Busy as sin my work I ply, 
 Till I rest in the rest of eternity. 
 
 Death worketh, let me work too ; 
 Death undoeth, let me do ; 
 Busy as death my work I ply, 
 Till I rest in the rest of eternity. 
 
 The Lord be with you all in this fellowship of 
 service. The blessing of the Lord be with you. 
 
THE CHARTER 
 
 WILLIAM the third, By the grace of God, King of England, 
 Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the faith, &c. 
 To all to whom these presents shall come sendeth greeting 
 Whereas : Wee have been informed by the humble peticon of 
 Our loving Subjects, i Henricus Selyns, William Beeckman, 
 Joannes Kerbyle, Joannes De Peyster, Jocobus Kipp, Isaac De 
 foreest and Isaac De Reymer, the present Minister, Elders and 
 Deacons of the Dutch protestant congregacon in our City of 
 New yorke, presented to Our trusty and wellbeloved Benjamin 
 Fletcher Our Captaine Generall and Governour in Chiefe of 
 Our Province of New yorke and Territoryes depending thereon 
 in America, That the said Minister, Elders, Deacons and the 
 other members in Communion of the said Dutch protestant con- 
 gregacon in Our said City of New yorke, have at their own charge 
 built and erected a Church within our said City of New yorke, 
 and the same together with the Coemetry or Church Yard there- 
 unto adjoining, have dedicated to the service of God, situate, 
 lying, and being in a certaine street called the garden street, 
 being bounded on the south by the said garden street, and on 
 
 ' The form in which the names of the Elders and Deacons appear in the 
 text is doubtless due to the English scribe by whom the Charter was drawn up. 
 In the Minutes of the Consistory, which are in the handwriting of Domine Selyns, 
 they are as follows : Elders, Nicolaes Bayard, Stephanus van Cortlant, Willem 
 Beeckman, Johannes Kerfbyl: Deacons, Isaacg de Foreest, Johannes de Pey- 
 ster, Jacobus Kip, Isaacg de Riemer. 
 
 76 
 
The Charter 77 
 
 the north by the orchard, late in the possession of EHzabeth 
 Drisius, and on the west by the lott of John Hendrick De Bruyn> 
 and on the east by the lotts of John Sipkins and David Hen- 
 drix; containing on the south side, one hundred and eighty 
 foot, and on the north side, one hundred and seventy-five foot, 
 and on the west side eighty-four foot, and on the east side 
 eighty-four foot, all of English measure, together with another 
 lott of ground adjoyning to the north side of the said Church 
 lott, abutting on the north side upon the lott of Henricus 
 Selyns, on the west upon the alley newly laid out, on the east 
 the lott of John Weet, and on the south the said Church lott; 
 containing, on the north, sixty-three foot two inches, on the 
 south, sixty-five foot and a half, on the east, eighteen foot and 
 a half, and on the west, twenty-two foot, English measure, and 
 are also seized in their demesne as of ffee as in right of the 
 said Church, of and in a certain messuage or toft of ground, 
 situate, lying, and being within Our said City of New yorke, in 
 a certain streete called and known by the name of beaver streete, 
 being bounded on the west by the lott formerly belonging to 
 Paulus Vanderbeeck, and now in the possession of the widdow 
 of Nicholas Dupue, on the east by the lott heretofore belonging 
 to Thomas Wandall, and now in the occupation of Jacob Lennen, 
 on the north by the lott late appertaining to Ceonraedt Ten- 
 eyck, and now in the tenure of Theunis DeKey, and on the South 
 by the said be vers streete, containing in front towards the said 
 streete, fourty-four foot one halfe in depth, on the west one 
 hundred and thirty foot one halfe on the East side one hundred 
 thirty foot eight inches, and on the reere or North side fourty- 
 five foot tenn inches, english measure, As also of and in a cer- 
 tain Mannour commonly called and knowne, by the name of the 
 Mannour of Fordham, situate, lying and being within Our County 
 of Westchester, to the Eastward of Harlem River, near unto the 
 passage formerly called Spiten divell, and now known by the 
 name of Kingsbridge ; beginning at the high woodland that lyes 
 due northwest, over against the first point of the Maine land, 
 to the east of Paparinam, there where the kill Musketas is, and 
 
78 The Charter 
 
 so goes along the said kill; the said land stretching from the 
 high woodland afore-menconed, east south east until it comes 
 unto Bronx kill ; so westward up along the Maine land, to the 
 place where Harlem kill and Hudson's river meet, and then 
 further alongst Harlem kill to the fresh spring or fountaine lying 
 to the south of crab Island, so eastward along Daniel Tormer's 
 land, the high woodland belonging to Thomas Hunt, and then 
 to Bronx kill, aforemenconed. As also of and in a certain par- 
 cell of meadow. No. i situate, lying and being on the said Har- 
 lem river neer the said Mannour of Fordham, beginning in 
 the middle of a point to the north of Creger's house, beyond or 
 above the small cove that lyes above the said house, and south- 
 west in Harlem river, and extends further northward to the 
 highway where the wooden bridge lyes; and Whereas, in the 
 said humble Peticon they have likewise prayed our grant and 
 confirmacon of all and every of the premises, and that we would 
 be graciously pleased to make them and their Successours for- 
 ever capable to hold and enjoy the same, by incorporating 
 the members of the said Dutch protestant Congregacon in our 
 City of New yorke, aforesaid, into a body politick and corpor- 
 ate in deed and name, by the name and style of the minister, 
 elders and deacons of the reformed protestant Dutch Church 
 of Our City of New yorke. Now Know Yee, that in consider- 
 acon thereof as well as Wee being willing, in particular favour to 
 the pious purposes of our said loving subjects and to secure 
 them and their Successours in the ffree exercise and Enjoyment 
 of all their civill and religious rights^ appertaining unto them 
 in manner aforesaid, as Our loving subjects, and to preserve to 
 them and their Successours that liberty of worshipping God 
 according to the constitutions and direccons of the reformed 
 Churches in Holland, approved and instituted by the nationall 
 Synod of Dort, have therefore tliought fitt and do hereby pub- 
 lish, grant, ordaine, and declare. That Our royall will and plea- 
 sure is, that noe person in communion of the said reformed prot- 
 estant Dutch Church, within Our said City of New yorke, at any 
 time hereafter shall be any wayes molested, punished, disquieted, 
 
The Charter 79 
 
 or called in question, for any difference in opinion in matters of 
 the protestant religion, who do not actually disturb the civill 
 peace of Our said Province, but that all and every person and per- 
 sons in Communion of the said reformed protestant Dutch Church 
 may, from time to time, and at all times hereafter, freely and 
 fully have and enjoy his and their own judgments and consciences 
 in matters of the protestant religious concernments of the said 
 reformed protestant Dutch Church, according to the constitu- 
 tions and direccons aforesaid, they behaving themselves peacea- 
 bly and quietly, and not using this liberty to licentiousnesse 
 and profannesse, nor to the civill injury or outward disturbance 
 of others; any law, statute, usage or costume of Our realme of 
 England, or of this, our Province, to the contrary hereof in any 
 wayes notwithstanding. And that they may be in the better 
 capacity to hold and enjoy the premisses. Wee have further 
 thought fitt, and at their aforesaid humble request, wee are gra- 
 ciously pleased to Ordaine and declare that the aforesaid Church, 
 built and erected as aforesaid, and scituate, lyeing and being 
 within the limites aforemenconed, and the ground thereunto ad- 
 joyning and inclosed and intended to be used for Cemetry or 
 Church yard, shall be the Church and Church yard of the min- 
 ister, elders, and deacons, and other members of the reformed 
 protestant Dutch Church of Our City of New yorke, and the same 
 is hereby declared to be forever separated and dedicated to the 
 service of God, and to be applyed therein only to the use and be- 
 halfe of the members of the said Dutch Church Inhabitants from 
 time to time inhabiting and to inhabite within Our said City of 
 New yorke, and that there shall be a Minister to have care of the 
 souls of the members of the said reformed protestant Dutch 
 Church Inhabitants from time to time inhabiting and to inhabit 
 within Our said City of New yorke, and a perpetuall Succession 
 of Ministers there. And wee do by these presents, constitute Our 
 trusty and very loving subject, Mr. Henricus Selyns, the present 
 Minister of the said reformed protestant Dutch Church, in Our 
 City of New yorke aforesaid, who hath, since the building and 
 dedication of the said Church to the service of God, very well 
 
8o The Charter 
 
 and religiously supplyed the same in all divine offices for the 
 service of God and the instruccon of the members of the said re- 
 formed protestant Dutch Church inhabiting within Our said City 
 of New yorke, in the Christian faith according to the constitu- 
 tions and direccons aforesaid; Wee have further thought fitt, 
 and at the humble peticon of the persons aforesaid, are graci- 
 ously pleased to create and make them a body politick or cor- 
 porate, with the powers and priviledges hereafter mentioned, 
 and accordingly Our will and pleasure is, and of Our Special 
 grace certaine knowledge and meere mocon Wee have ordained, 
 constituted and declared, and by these presents for us, Our 
 heirs and Successours, do ordaine, constitute and declare, that 
 they, the said Mr. Hendricus Selyns, Nicholas Bayard, Stephen 
 Cortlandt, WilHam Beeckman, Johannes Kerbyle, Johannes De 
 Peyster, Jacobus Kipp, Isaac De foreest and Isaac De reymer, 
 the present Minister, Elders, and Deacons, and all such others as 
 now are, or hereafter shall be admitted into the Communion of 
 the said reformed protestant Dutch Church, in Our City of New 
 yorke, shall be, from time to time, and at all times forever here- 
 after, a body corporate and politick, in fact and name, by name 
 of the Minister, Elders, and Deacons of the reformed protestant 
 Dutch Church of the City of New yorke, and that by the same 
 name they and their Successours shall and may have perpetuall 
 Succession and shall and may be persons able and capable in the 
 Law to sue and be sued, to plead and be impleaded, to answer and 
 be answered unto, to defend and to be defended in all and singu- 
 lar suites, causes, Quarrells, matters, accons and things of what 
 kinde or natme soever; And alsoe to have, take, possess, acquire, 
 and purchase lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any goods 
 or chattells, and the same to lease, grant, demise, aliene, bar- 
 gaine, sell and disposfe of at their own will and pleasure as 
 other our Hedge people or any corporacon or body poHtick 
 within Our Realme of England, or this. Our Province, may 
 lawfully do over and above the rents, lands, Tenements, mes- 
 suges, Mannours and hereditaments hereby settled on the said 
 Corporacon and their Successours, not exceeding the yearly 
 
The Charter 8i 
 
 value of two hundred pounds, currant money of Our said Prov- 
 ince; And further, that they, the said Minister, Elders, and Dea- 
 cons, and their Successours, shall and may forever hereafter, 
 have a common seale to serve and use for all matters, causes, 
 things and affairs whatsoever, of them and their Successours, 
 and the same seale to alter change, break, and make new, from 
 time to time, at their will and pleasure, as they shall think fitt; 
 And further, Wee will and ordaine, And by these Presents, for us. 
 Our Heirs and Successours, doe declare and appoint that for the 
 better ordering and manageing the affairs and businesse of the 
 said corporacon and Successours, there shall be four Elders and 
 four Deacons, from time to time constituted, elected and chosen 
 out of the members of the said Dutch Church inhabiting in our 
 said City of New yorke, for the time being in such manner and 
 forme as is hereafter in these presents expressed, which persons, 
 together with the Minister for the time being, shall apply them- 
 selves to take care for the best dysposing and ordering the gen- 
 erall businesse and affairs of and concerning the lands and here- 
 ditaments herein menconed to be granted and of all others that 
 shall be acquired as aforesaid. And for the better Execution 
 of Our Royall pleasure herein, Wee do for us, Our heirs and 
 Successours, assigne, name, constitute and appoint the aforesaid 
 Mr. Henricus Selyns, to be the first and present Minister of the 
 said Church, and the aforesaid Nicholas Bayard, Stephen Cort- 
 landt, William Beeckman and Johannes Kerbyle, to be the first 
 and Present Elders of the said Church, and Johannes De peyster. 
 Jacobus Kipp, Isaac De Foreest and Isaac De Reymer, to be the 
 first and present Deacons of the said Church, which Elders and 
 Deacons are to continue in the said severall offices respectively, 
 untill the second Sunday of November, now next ensuing; And 
 further, Wee will, and by these presents for us, our Heirs and 
 Successours, do ordaine and grant to the Minister of the said 
 Church for the time being, or in his absence by sickness or other- 
 wise the first Elder for the time being shall and may from time 
 to time, upon all occasions, give order for the assembling or 
 calling together the said Elders and Deacons to consult and ad- 
 
82 The Charter 
 
 vise of the businesse and affairs of the said Church ; And further, 
 Our will and pleasure is, and Wee doe hereby for Us, Our Heirs 
 and Successours, establish, that yearly, once in the year, forever 
 hereafter, on the third thursday of October, at the said Church, 
 the Elders and Deacons of the said Church, by and with the con- 
 sent and approbacon of the members of the said Church for the 
 time being, shall nominate and appoint such of their Members 
 of the said Church that shall succeed in the office of Elders and 
 Deacons for the year ensuing. And if it shall happen that any of 
 the said Elders and Deacons so elected, nominated, and ap- 
 pointed as aforesaid, shall dye or be removed, before the said 
 yearly day of Eleccon, that then, and in every such case it shall 
 and may be lawfull for the Members of the said Church to pro- 
 ceed, in manner aforesaid, to a new Eleccon of one or more of 
 their members in the room or place of such officer dying or 
 removed, according to their discrecon; And further, our will 
 and pleasure is, and wee do for us. Our Heirs and Successours, 
 declare and grant, that the patronage, advowson, donation or 
 presentation of and to the said Church after the decease of the 
 said first minister or next avoidance thereof shall appertaine and 
 belong to and be hereby vested in the Elders and Deacons of 
 the said reformed protestant Dutch Church and their Succes- 
 sours forever. Provided always that all the succeeding Minis- 
 ters that shall be by them presented, collated, instituted, and in- 
 ducted into the said Church, shall bear true faith and allegiance 
 unto us. Our heirs and Successours, any thing contained herein 
 to the contrary hereof in any wayes notwithstanding. And that 
 the first Minister and all the succeeding ministers thereof shall 
 and may have, take and enjoy such and the like stipends, con- 
 tribucons, offerings. Free and voluntary gifts and other Ecclesi- 
 asticall dutyes, ariseing or used and accustomed to rise, from 
 the members of the said Church ; And Our further will and pleas- 
 ure is, and we do hereby declare that it shall and may be lawfull 
 for the said Minister, Elders, and Deacons of the said reformed 
 Protestant Dutch Church in Our City of New yorke, aforesaid, 
 and their Successours, to grant and demise such of the premises 
 
The Charter 83 
 
 or any part or parcell thereof (as are now in lease), at the expira- 
 con or other sooner determination of such lease, for the term 
 of fifteene years, upon a reasonable improved yearly rent, with- 
 out taking any fine for the same. And Our further will and 
 pleasure is, And Wee do hereby further declare that it shall and 
 may be lawfull for the Deacons of the said Church, or any other 
 person sufficiently authorized from them, at any time or times, 
 when they meet and assemble together in the said Church, for the 
 public worship or service of God, to collect and gather together 
 the ffiree and voluntary alms of the members of the said Church, 
 congregated as aforesaid, which is to be imployed by the Min- 
 ister, Elders, and Deacons, &c,, unto such pious and charitable 
 uses as they and their Successours, at their discrecon, shall think 
 convenient and needfuU ; And Our will and pleasure further is, 
 and we doe hereby declare that the Minister of the said Church 
 for the time being shall and may by and with the consent of the 
 Elders and Deacons of the said Church, for the time being, or 
 any four of them, whereof one of the Elders to be one, from time 
 to time as need shall require, nominate one or more other able 
 Ministers lawfully ordained according to the constitutions and 
 direccons aforesaid, to be preachers and Assistants to the said 
 Minister and his Successours in the celebracon of the divine 
 offices of praying and preaching, and other dutyes incident to 
 be performed in the said Church as the Minister, Elders and 
 Deacons of said Church shall require of him ; And likewise to 
 nominate and appoint a Clarke, Schoolmaster, bellringer or sex- 
 ton, and such other under officers as they shall stand in need of. 
 And Further, Wee do of Our Especiall grace, certaine knowledge 
 and meer mocon give and grant unto the said Minister, Elders 
 and Deacons, by and with the consent and advice of the mem- 
 bers in Communion of the said Church or the major part of them, 
 full power and authority to make rates and assessments upon all 
 and every of the members in Communion of the said Church, 
 which Minister, Elders and Deacons, together with the mem- 
 bers in communion of the said Church or the major part of them, 
 are hereby authorized, from time to time, to make rates and as- 
 
84 The Charter 
 
 sessments upon all and every of the members in communion of 
 the said church for the raising of money for the payment of the 
 yearly stipends and sallaryes of the aforesaid Officers of the said 
 Church, and also for repairing, amending and enlarging the said 
 Church and steeple, belfry, Coemetry or Church yard, and other 
 things necessary belonging to the said Church, which rates and 
 assessments shall be paid unto the Deacons of the said Church for 
 the time being, and disposed of to the uses aforesaid, by order of 
 the said Minister, Elders and Deacons ; And for the better and 
 more easy taxing and making of the rates and assessments afore- 
 said, Wee further grant and declare that the Minister shall on 
 every first Sunday in the month of May in the year, give notice 
 to the members of the said Church by name to appear, assemble 
 and meet with him and the Elders and Deacons of said Church, 
 on the second Monday then next following in the said Church, 
 to make the said assessment. And if upon notice so given, they 
 neglect or do not meet, then Our will and pleasure is that the said 
 Minister, Elders and Deacons do make the said assessment, any 
 thing contained herein to the contrary hereof in any wayes not 
 withstanding. And Wee doe of Our further speciall grace, certain 
 knowledge, and meer mocon, give and grant unto the said Min- 
 ister, Elders, and Deacons, and their Successours, That the said 
 Minister, Elders and Deacons, together with the members in 
 Communion of the said Church, Inhabitants from time to time 
 inhabiting and to inhabite in our said City of New yorke, shall 
 be called the reformed protestant Dutch Church of Our said 
 City of New yorke. And that they or the greatest part of them, 
 whereof the Minister, Elders and Deacons and the major part 
 of the members in Comrnunion of the said Church, shall have 
 and have hereby given and granted unto them, full power and 
 authority from time to time, and at all times hereafter to appoint, 
 alter and change such dayes and times of meeting as they shall 
 think fitt. And to choose, nominate, and appoint such and so 
 many of Our Hedge people as they shall think fitt and shall be 
 wilHng to accept the same to be members of their said Church 
 and Corporation and body politick, and them into the same to 
 
The Charter 85 
 
 admitt and to elect and constitute such other Officer and Officers 
 as they shall think fitt and requisite for the ordering, manageing 
 and dispatching of the affairs of the said Church and Corpora- 
 con and their Successours ; And from time to time to make, or- 
 daine, constitute, or repeale such rules, orders and ordinances 
 for the good discipline and weal of the members of the said 
 Church and Corporacon ; so that these rules, orders, ordi- 
 nances, be not repugnant to the laws of Our Realnie of Eng- 
 land, and of this Our Province, nor dissonant to the principles 
 of Our protestant religion, but as neere as may be agreeable to 
 our Laws of Our Kingdom of England, and consonant to the ar- 
 ticles of faith and worship of God agreed upon by the aforesaid 
 Synod of Dort; and further. Know Yee, that Wee of our more 
 abundant grace, certaine knowledge, and meere mocon, have 
 given, granted, ratifyed, and confirmed, and by these presents 
 for us, our heirs and Successours do give, grant, ratify and con- 
 firme unto the said Minister, Elders and Deacons, and their 
 Successours, all and every of the severall above recited lands, 
 tenements, messuages, Mannours, and hereditaments, within all 
 and every of their severall and respective limites and bounds 
 above specifyed, together with all and every of their severall and 
 respective houses, buildings, edifices, tenements, closes, yards, 
 tofts of ground, orchards, gardens, inclosures, fields, pastures, 
 feedings, woods, underwoods, trees, timber, Common of pasture, 
 meadows, marshes, swamps, lakes, ponds, pools, waters, water 
 courses, rivers, rivoletts, brooks, streams, fishing, fouling, hunting 
 and hawking, quaryes, mines, mineralls, (silver and gold mines 
 excepted) and all other royaltyes, jurisdiccons, franchises, pre- 
 heminencyes, libertyes, priviledges, benefits, profites, heredita- 
 ments, and appurtenances whatsoever, to all and every of the 
 severall and respective above recited lands, tenements, messuages, 
 Mannours, hereditaments and premises belonging, or in any wayes 
 appertaining or there withall used, accepted, reputed, or taken to 
 belong or in any ways to appertaine to all intents, construccons 
 and purposes whatsoever ; As also all and singular the rents, ar- 
 rearages of rents and issues of the premises heretofore ariseing, 
 
86 The Charter 
 
 due or payable. To have and to hold all and every of the sev- 
 erall above recited lands, tenements, messuages, Mannours and 
 hereditaments within all and every of their severall and respec- 
 tive limites and bounds above specifyed, together with all and 
 every of their severall and respective houses, buildings. Edifices, 
 tenements, closes, yards, tofts of ground, orchards, gardens, in- 
 closures, fields, pastures, feedings, woods, underwoods, trees, 
 timber, common of pasture, meadows, marshes, swamps, lakes, 
 ponds, pools, waters, water-courses, rivers, rivoletts, brooks, 
 streams, fishing, fowling, hunting and hawking, quarryes, mines, 
 mineralls, (silver and gold mines excepted) and all other Roy- 
 altyes, Jurisdiccons, franchises, preheminencyes, libertyes, priv- 
 iledges, benefits, profites, hereditaments and appurtenances 
 whatsoever to all and every of the severall and respective above 
 recited lands, tenements, messuages, Mannours, hereditaments 
 and premisses belonging or in any ways appertaining unto them, 
 the said Minister, Elders and Deacons of the Reformed protes- 
 tant Dutch Church of the City of New yorke, and their Succes- 
 sours, in Trust to the sole and only use, benefite and behoofe of 
 them the Minister, Elders and Deacons and other members in 
 Communion of the said reformed protestant Dutch Church in 
 the City of New yorke, and their Successours, for ever. To be 
 holden of us, our Heirs and Successours in ffree and common 
 soccage, as of Our Mannour of East Greenwich, in our County 
 of Kent, within our Realme of England ; yielding^ rendering and 
 paying therefore yearly and every year, forever, unto Us, our 
 Heirs and Successours, on the feast day of the annunciation of 
 Our Blessed Virgin Mary, at Our City of New yorke, the an- 
 nuall rent of twelve shilhngs. Currant money of our said Prov- 
 ince, in Lieu and steade of all other rents, dues, dutyes. Services, 
 claims and Demands, whatsoever, for the premisses. And 
 LASTLY WE do for US, our Heirs and Successours ordaine and 
 grant unto the said Minister, Elders and Deacons of the said re- 
 formed protestant Dutch Church, within the City of New yorke, 
 and their Successours, by these presents. That this our grant shall 
 be firme, good, effectuall and available in all things in the law, to 
 
The Charter 87 
 
 all intents, construccons and purposes whatsoever, according to 
 our true intent and meaning, herein before declared^ and shall 
 be construed, reputed and adjudged in all cases most favourable 
 on the behalfe and for the best benefite and behoofe of the said 
 Minister, Elders and Deacons of the reformed protestant Dutch 
 Church in the City of New yorke, and their successours; al- 
 though express mencon of the true yearly value or certainty of 
 the premises or of any of them in these presents is not named, 
 or any statute, act, ordinance, provision, proclamation, or restric- 
 con heretofore had, made, Enacted, ordained or provided, or 
 any other matter, clause or thing whatsoever, to the contrary 
 hereof notwithstanding. 
 
 IN TESTIMONY WHEREOF we have caused the great 
 seal of our said Province to be hereunto affixed. Witness our 
 trusty and well beloved Benjamin Fletcher, our Captaine Gene- 
 rail and Govemour in Chiefe of our Province of New yorke and 
 the Territoryes and Tracts of land depending thereon in America, 
 and Vice Admirall of the same, our Lieu* and Commander in 
 Chiefe of the militia, and of all the forces by sea and land within 
 our Colony of Connecticutt, and of all the fiforts and places of 
 strength within the same, in Councill at our ffort in New yorke, 
 the eleventh day of May, in the eighth year of our reigne, 
 Annoq Domini, 1696, 
 
 BEN FLETCHER 
 
 By his Excell! Command 
 
 David Jamison 
 
 D Secry 
 
BX9517.N5N52 
 
 Bicentenary of the charter of the 
 
 Princeton Theological Semlnary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00042 6231