REFORMED (DUTCH) CHURCH IN AMERICA 255 were thought by his colleague Gomarus to be at variance with the standards of the church. A controversy arose, in which ministers and church members throughout the country took sides, the larger portion by far sympathizing with the Gomarists, while those who were high in political power for the most part fa- vored the Arminians. In a remonstrance to the states, the views of the Arminians on the fa- mous five points of predestination, redemption, depravity, conversion, and perseverance were defined. From this paper they were called Remonstrants, and their opponents were from their reply called Contra-Remonstrants. The (Sontra-Remonstrants urged the call of a na- tional synod to decide on the new opinions, and the Remonstrants opposed it. The former contended for the independence of the church in matters of discipline; the latter deferred much to the authority of the civil govern- ment. At length, after a protracted contro- versy under the stadtholder Maurice, a national synod met at Dort in 1818, and continued in session six months. By it the doctrines of the Remonstrants were condemned, and those who had taught them were deposed from the ministry and deprived of all ecclesiastical and academical offices. The decision of the synod was followed by the action of the states for- bidding all assemblies of the Remonstrants, and banishing many of the deposed ministers. The Remonstrants were afterward tolerated, and have continued as a small sect in the Neth- erlands, while their doctrines have spread widely into other countries. By this last na- tional synod of the church in the Netherlands her doctrines and order were finally settled. Through the remainder of the century she was greatly prospered, was zealously carried into all the Dutch colonies east and west, and was known especially for her tolerant spirit. The church and republic of the Netherlands fur- nished an asylum for the oppressed of every creed and nation. Of late, however, the min- isters and members of the national church have to a great extent departed from the evangel- ical doctrines of the standards, and rational- istic and Socinian ideas greatly prevail among them. The church was introduced into Amer- ica early in the 17th century. The first per- manent agricultural settlement in New Neth- erland was made in 1623, and soon the col- onists enjoyed the services of two TcranTcbe- soeclcers or consolers of the sick, who were officers of the church, and whose duty it was to visit and pray with the sick, and conduct public worship in the absence of a minister. These read the Scriptures and creeds to the people assembled in an upper room over a horse mill. In 1628 the Rev. Jonas Michae- lius arrived at Manhattan, organized a consis- tory, administered the sacraments, and per- formed all the functions of the ministry. He was succeeded in 1633 by the Rev. Everardus Bogardus, who was accompanied by the first schoolmaster, Adam Roelandsen. Bogardus 701 VOL. xiv. 17 married the widow Annetje Jansen, whose farm has now become the valuable property held by the corporation of Trinity church. In his time a plain wooden building was put up for worship in Broad street, between Pearl and Bridge. The second building was erected under the administration of Director Kieft in 1642, and stood within the walls of Fort Amsterdam on the Battery. After the sur- render of New Amsterdam to the English in 1664, this church was used by the military chaplains when not occupied by the consis- tory ; and after the Dutch people removed into their new edifice in Garden street, it was used by the English garrison for wor- ship down to 1741. Public worship was com- menced at Albany perhaps as early as at New Amsterdam, but the first minister there of whom we have knowledge was Johannes Me- gapolensis, who soon after his arrival in 1 643 preached the gospel to the Indians who came to Fort Orange to trade. During the Dutch rule churches were also established at Esopus (Kingston, N. Y.), Flatbush and Flatlands, and Brooklyn. New Amsterdam at the time of its surrender contained only about 1,500 inhabitants, and in the entire province of New Netherland there were five churches and six ministers. From that time until recently the progress of the church in America has been necessarily slow, for the following reasons : 1. The emigration from the Netherlands al- most entirely ceased, and many families, will- ing to live only under their native government, retiirned to the Netherlands. 2. Government patronage was removed on the transfer of the province to the British and the introduction of the English church, to which church also ad- vantages were given amounting to its virtual establishment by law in New York, "Westches- ter, Queens, and Richmond. 3. The Dutch lan- guage was used exclusively in worship down to the year 1763; consequently the church could not gather within her fold those who used an- other language, nor extend herself to new set- tlements. Meanwhile the English language was used in schools and in public business, and had at last become the prevailing and popular tongue. Although English preaching was in- troduced in 1763, the Dutch continued to be the prevailing language in the various pulpits down to the present century, but after that it rapidly gave way to the English, and now is no more heard in public worship, save in the churches composed of recent emigrants from Holland. The minutes of the general synod began to be kept in English in 1794. 4. The church suffered from a deficiency of ministers, and the obstacles that were in the way of ob- taining a supply. She had no educational in- stitutions, and no church judicatory with pow- er of ordination ; her ministers all belonged to the classis of Amsterdam, and to that classis she applied for ministers, and to it she sent her candidates to receive ordination. By these means the congregations were often subjected
