Outline, Brainstorming

Outline, Brainstorming
Tuesday, December 1, 2015

7:54 AM
1.
2.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Literature Review
The West India Company's Provisions
a.
Prescribed purpose for sending Ministers to New Netherland
b.
Countering the Spanish Catholicization of the Heathens
Prior Missionary Efforts in Brazil
a.
Methods
b.
Degree of Success
Dominie Jonas Michalius
a.
First Impressions of the Natives
b.
Hopes and Plans for Missionary Efforts
c.
Reports of Success/Failure
d.
Perceived Reasons for Success/Failure
Dominie Edvardus Bogardus
a.
b.
c.
d.
Dominie Johannes Megapolensis
a.
b.
c.
d.
Contemporary Perspectives
1.
Literature Review
a.
The Commerce Argument
b.
Recent Reevaluations
2.
The West India Company's Provisions

a.
Prescribed purpose for sending Ministers to New Netherland
b.
Rhetoric and Lip Service
c.
Responses to Petition and Remonstrance
3.
Prior Missionary Efforts in Brazil

a.
Environment
b.
Methods
c.
Degree of Success
4.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Contemporary Reports
1.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Views of West India Company
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
3.

a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
4.
Until fairly recently, the majority of the historiography of the New Netherland colony has tended
to lean toward a rather singular evaluation of the reason for the limited success of the Dutch's
missionary efforts among the natives. It is possible that this general consensus has persisted on
account of historians' neglecting to explore the subject comprehensively. The highly commercial
focus of the West India Company's endeavors in North America has drawn much more historical
attention, with the religious motives being typically confined to brief summaries of the overall
failure of the Dutch clergy to convert many Natives to the Reformed faith, due to the W.I.C.'s
primary concern with trade and commerce.
While a great many documents concerning the history of New Netherland have been translated
into English, a number of peripheral writings which shed light on religious motives of the W.I.C.,
colonists, and clergy of the day remain untranslated into English in any published form. Such
primary documents have been the focus of some of the more recent research on the subject, with
the historians' own translations and interpretations providing the only windows into some of
these factors.
The aforementioned consensus has typically identified a few factors unique to the environment
and situation in New Netherland as the reasons for the notably limited success of the Dutch
missionary efforts. A broad evaluation of the W.I.C. as principally concerned with trade has long
appeared to be a sufficient explanation for a number of historians. While more recent research
affirms this attitude, it has undergone revision, and emerged as a much more nuanced factor. The
intent, and assumed obligation, to make Reformed Christian converts out of the Natives of the
New World was very present in the minds and correspondence of the W.I.C. The However,
whether because of cost or lack of candidates, the company never sent any single minister to the
colony with the sole vocation of pursuing missionary goals. The predikaten were first and
foremost sent to minister to the colonists, and build Reformed congregations in the new world.
The Classis of Amsterdam charged them to pursue the conversion of the natives in addition to
their primary clerical duties, which proved, due to a number of additional factors, a tremendous
challenge. Beyond the time restraints that limited the missionary efforts of the Dutch clergy, the
Classis also appears not to have treated requests for materials for the religious instruction of the
Natives with much urgency.
While the Calvinist rhetoric which payed lip service to their duty to spread the Reformed religion
among the "heathens" endured for the duration of the colony's autonomy, and despite a number
of frank admissions of failure to achieve this by the predikaten themselves, surviving records of
correspondence from the Classis of Amsterdam dispatched to the colony do not appear to include
admonishment of the clergy for said failures. In one instance, a letter from the Classis to
Dominee Megapolensis includes a congratulatory remark, referring to an apparently lost letter
that reported notable success in bringing the heathens to convert. A confused Megapolensis
replied that not only had he not reported any such thing, but also that quite the contrary was the
case.
Somewhat recently, more insight into this has been gained through historical comparison to the
Dutch efforts toward the same goal in the colony of Brazil around the same time.
1. Literature Review
Sunday, December 6, 2015
3:47 PM
Allen W. Trelease, "Dutch Treatment of the American Indian, with Particular Reference to New
Netherland," in Attitudes of Colonial Powers toward the American Indian, eds. Charles Gibson
and Howard H. Peckham (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1969).
p.
49
"Missionary impulse was not altogether lacking among the Dutch. Conversion of the
Indians to Christianity was always sought in theory, and it was commonly regarded as a
prerequisite to (or accompaniment of) a more general civilizing mission."
Disadvantages:
o Connection between symbolic importance in other faiths and the religion of the
natives
o
o
More demanding requirements for baptism and nominal conversion (education,

understanding) -p.49-50
p. 50 - Catholics had arrived first
Donna Merwick, The Shame and the Sorrow: Dutch Amerindian Encounters in New Netherland
(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006), ___.
p.117
"At home, the call for evangelizing New World natives was increasingly demanding, and
certainly the company's many Calvinist backers were concerned that missionizing be a
prominent consideration."
Meuwese, Mark. Dutch Calvinism and Native Americans: a comparative study of the
motivations for Protestant conversion among the Tupis in Northeastern Brazil (1630-1654) and
the Mohawks in Central New York (1690-1710), in The Spiritual Conversion of the Americas,
ed. James Muldoon (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004).
p. 121
"But because the word of God could be properly understood only by reading the Bible,
Dutch Calvinists consequently saw reading and writing as primary tools for the
evangelization of the native societies."
"First, religious personnel in the two colonies were often badly paid by their WIC
employer."
"
p. 134
"Whereas the evangelization program of the Dutch Reformed Church in Brazil was
extensive because it was an intrinsic part of the global Calvinist Dutch struggle against the
Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown, Dutch attempts to convert the Indians of North
America to Protestantism lacked any strong ideological fervor.
Willem Frijhoff, "Everardus Bogardus (1607-1647): A Dutch Mystic in the New World," in
Transatlantic PietiesDutch Clergy in Colonial America, ed. Leon van den Broeke, Hans
Krabbendam and Dirk Mouw (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2012), p. 79100.
p. 96
"He was presumably unaware that many of them did not fully understand the Protestant
rejection of rituals as superstition. Both African and Native Americans considered ritual as
the true form of religion.
Allen W. Trelease, "Indian-White Contacts in Eastern North America: The Dutch in New
Netherland," Ethnohistory 9, no. 2 (1962): 141.
p.141
The Dutch colonists (like the Dutch nation) were comparatively Worldly in outlook by the
standards of their time and lacked any serious Motivation in this respect; Moreover their
standards for conversion Were high, requiring evidence of a genuine spiritual regeneration
be- fore baptism; and finally the Indians had not sufficiently lost their own culture or values
by 1664 to manifest much interest in the unadorned and introspective Calvinism offered
them by the Dutch Reformed Church.
Allen W. Trelease, Indian Affairs in Colonial New York (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press,
1960), ___.
p.170
Too often the Dutch pastors sent out to America were those who had failed to get a call in
the Fatherland, and once here they contented themselves with the minimum ministrations to
their flocks of European birth.
2. Ideologies and Influences

Thursday, December 10, 2015
1:47 AM
Martine J. van Ittersum, Profit and Principle: Hugo Grotius, Natural Rights, Theories and the
Rise of Dutch Power in the East Indies (1595-1615) (Leiden: Brill, 2006), ___.
p. 74
The political message was clear: the Spanish had not just failed to convert the Indians to
Christianity, but actively prevented their conversion by severely mistreating them.
p. 80-81
He was faced with the difficulty that neither the VOC, nor the regional trading companies
that preceded it, had made much of an effort to convert indigenous peoples to Christianity.
The Spanish Black Legend offered him a way out. Brevsima Relacin helped to create the
stereotype of the hypocritical Catholic missionary, a man so preoccupied with deathbed
conversions to Christianity that he failed to attend to the material and spiritual wellbeing of
his Indian flock Grotius may well have had this archetypal image in mind when he equated
true religion with the humane treatment of Indians:
Care must be taken to keep men safe, lest the hope of converting them (as the Church
Fathers were formerly wont to say) should perish with their bodies. The Indian peoples
must be shown what it means to be a Christian, in order that they may not believe all
Christians to be as the Spaniards are. Let those peoples look upon religion stripped of false
symbols, commerce devoid of fraud, arms unattended by injuries. Let them marvel at the
faith which forbids that even infidels should be neglected. In achieving these ends, we shall
be preparing men for God.
In
p. 81
...there was no urgent need for the VOC directors to employ Protestant ministers who could
baptize the natives or teach them the fine points of Christian theology. For the purpose of
preparing men for God, it was sufficient to liberate indigenous peoples from Portuguese
tyranny and trade with them in an honest and upright fashion.
Joris van Eijnatten, "War Piracy and Religion: Godfried Udemans' Spiritual Helm (1638)" in
Property, Piracy and Punishment : Hugo Grotius on War and Booty in "De Iure Praedae," ed.
Hans W. Blom (Leiden: Brill, 2009), ___.
p.206
UDEMANS
For concerning the commerce of the two Companies mentioned, their aim is in fact not to
commit piracy, but to trade peacefully: to cut off the nerve of war, that is, the treasures in
the East and West Indies, from our public enemy, the Spaniard and his adherents: to secure
for our state new alliances, towns and forts in those wealthy lands: to expand the borders of
the Kingdom of Christ through the conversion of those poor, blind heathens: to deliver the
same poor Indians from the Spaniards tyranny etc.
Mark Meuwese, Dutch Calvinism and Native Americans: a comparative study of the
motivations for Protestant conversion among the Tupis in Northeastern Brazil (1630-1654) and
the Mohawks in Central New York (1690-1710), in The Spiritual Conversion of the Americas,
ed. James Muldoon (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004), ___.
p. 120
"the militant Dutch Calvinists were strongly motivated by the belief in the universal
character of the Protestant church. According to this ideology, Calvinism was the only true
religion and to honor God it was the duty of every Calvinist to evangelize all the peoples on
earth."
"This aggressive missionary ideology also had strong millenarian overtones because the
militant Calvinists believed that the conversion of non-Christians across the world would
directly lead to the return of Christ to earth."
"In a number of Calvinist sermons the company was called upon to use its recently gained
profits for spreading Protestantism among the indigenous peoples of the Americas."
"But because the word of God could be properly understood only by reading the Bible,
Dutch Calvinists consequently saw reading and writing as primary tools for the
2. WIC's Provisions / Intentions

3:47 PM
a.
Calvinism and Clerical Voices at Home

motivations for Protestant conversion among the Tupis in Northeastern Brazil (1630-1654)
and the Mohawks in Central New York (1690-1710), in The Spiritual Conversion of the
Americas, ed. James Muldoon (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2004).
p. 120
"the militant Dutch Calvinists were strongly motivated by the belief in the universal
character of the Protestant church. According to this ideology, Calvinism was the only
true religion and to honor God it was the duty of every Calvinist to evangelize all the
peoples on earth."
"This aggressive missionary ideology also had strong millenarian overtones because
the militant Calvinists believed that the conversion of non-Christians across the world
would directly lead to the return of Christ to earth."
"In a number of Calvinist sermons the company was called upon to use its recently
gained profits for spreading Protestantism among the indigenous peoples of the
Americas."
"But because the word of God could be properly understood only by reading the
Bible, Dutch Calvinists consequently saw reading and writing as primary tools for the
Danny L. Noorlander. "'For the maintenance of the true religion': Calvinism and the
Directors of the Dutch West India Company," Sixteenth Century Journal 44, no. 1 (2013):
91.
p. 91
If their rhetoric is any indication, they believed that theirs was a godly work. The Zeeland
hoofdparticipanten once resolved that no one should hold any posi- tion of importance
within the company unless he professed the true Christian Reformed Religion. That likely
never became an official policy, and some non- Reformed officers did serve the WIC in
time. But the directors at least agreed that they should hire the most capable, god- fearing
men available.45 As they equipped ships and worked with the church to obtain clergy and
other ecclesiastical needs, they said that nothing was more dear to [their] hearts than
Reli- gion, that spreading the gospel was one of their principal objectives.
Joep de Koning. "Governors Island and the Origins of Religious Tolerance," in Opening
Statements : Law, Jurisprudence, and the Legacy of Dutch New York, eds. Albert M.
Rosenblatt and Julia C. Robert (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2013), ___.
p. 169
Willem Usselincx
His plan was designed for the furtherance of Gods honor through the propagation of
the holy gospel; moreover to inflict [economic] loss on the enemy; thirdly to increase
the countrys revenues [through barter-trade] and discharge its overload population
[because of a dearth of employment prospects]; finally for the general welfare of all
residents of these united lands.
p. 169-170
He envisaged that colonists would show natives the way, by attitude and example, and
thus help civilize the aboriginals and make them equal partners in the success of the
colonies economies.
b.
Purpose for sending the Ministers to New Netherland
A. J. F. van Laer, ed. Documents Relating to New Netherland 1624-1626 in the Henry E.
Huntington Library (San Marino, CA: The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery,
1924) ___.
p. GET PAGE NUMBERS
Document A
Provisional Regulations for the Colonists adopted by
the Assembly of the Nineteen of the West India Company,
March 28, 1624
They shall within their territory practice no other form of divine worship than that of
the Reformed religion as a t present practiced here in this country and thus by their
Christian life and conduct seek to draw the Indians and other blind people to the
knowledge of God and His Word, without however persecuting any one on account of
his faith, but leaving to every one the freedom of his conscience. But if any one
among them or within their jurisdiction should wantonly revile or blaspheme the name
of God or of our Saviour Jesus Christ, he shall according to the circumstances be
punished by the Commander and his Council.
p. GET PAGE NUMBERS
Document C
Instructions for Willem Verhulst Director of New Netherland,
(January, 1625)
First, he shall take care that divine service be held at the proper times both on board
ship and on land, enable the comforter of the sick, Sebastiaen Janssz Crol,2 to perform
his duties in conformity with the authorization and instructions given him by the
Consistory,3 maintain him in proper respect, and see that the community there is
properly served by him in the ministration of holy baptism, in reading sermons,
[offering] prayers, and in visiting the sick, and that the Indians be instructed in the
Christian religion out of God's Holy Word. He shall also prevent all idolatry, in order
that the name of God and of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ be not blasphemed
therein by any one and the Lord's Sabbath be not violated, but that by the example of
godliness and outward discipline on the part of the Christians the heathen may the
sooner be brought to a knowledge of the same.
Arnold J. F. Van Laer, ed. and trans. Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany:
University of the State of New York, 1908), ___.
p, 137
Charter of Freedoms and Exemptions
June 7, 1629
XVII. The patroons and colonists shall in particular endeavor as quickly as possible to
find some means whereby they may support a minister and a schoolmaster, that thus
the service of God and zeal for religion may not grow cool and be neglected among
them, and they shall for the first, procure a comforter of the sick there.
J. Franklin Jameson, ed. Narratives of New Netherland: 16091664 (New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1909), ___.
JOHANNES DE LAET
p. 49-50
Church elder (Leyden)
Synod of Dort
(Founding) Director in Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company,
Accounts likely collected from journals of
o Cornelius Jacobsen Mey
o Hendrick Christiaensen
o Adriaen Block
Johannes de Laet. "New World," in Narratives of New Netherland: 16091664, ed. J.
Franklin Jameson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. Originally published as
Nieuwe Wereldt Ofte Beschrijvinghe van West Indien (Leiden: Isaack Elzevier, 1625),
___.
p. 49-50
They have no religion whatever, nor any divine worship, [but serve the Devil yet not
with such ; ceremonies as the Africans. They call him Menutto; and every thing that is
wonderful and strange or that surpasses human understanding, that they also call
Menutto].
p. 50
But with mild and proper treatment, and especially by intercourse with
Christians, this people might be civilized and brought under better regulation;
particularly if a sober and discreet population were brought over and good order
preserved.
p. 58
but if humanely treated, hospitable and ready to perform a service; they ask only a
small remuneration for what they do, and will make very long journeys in a short time
with greater fidelity than could be justly expected from such a barbarous people.
Nor is it to be doubted that by associating with Christians they could be imbued
with civilized manners and with religion, especially if there should be planted
among them colonies of well ordered people, who would employ their services
without violence or abuse, and in return accustom them to the worship of the
true God and the habits of civilized life.
Hugh Hastings, ed., Edward T. Corwin, trans. Ecclesiastical Records: State of New York,
Vol. 1 (Albany: James B. Lyon, 1901), ___.
p. 150
Classis of Amsterdam
Apr. 22, 1642
"We beseech him as Lord of Lords (or Sovereign) of the most hardened, that it may
please him to open also the door among the Americans (the Indians), so that the
ministration of his Holy Word may have free course among them; and that those blind
heathen may be delivered from the thick darknesses of their idolatries and the service
of the devil, and brought to the knowledge and fear of the true God and Saviour, to the
glory of His name and their own salvation."
p. 351
May 26, 1656
J. Heydamus, Casparus de Carpentier (Members of the Classis of Amsterdam)
"We greatly desire, moreover, to learn...what efforts towards the conversion of the
heathen, whether adults or children, are made, or ought to be made, or might be made;
in particular, what wants the Rev. Brethren would wish to have supplied in the way of
Catechisms and Compendiums. Perhaps ere long, a wide door will open for the spread
of the Gospel among the heathen. To this end you and we should use all diligence,
trusting that our labor will not be in vain in the Lord."
SEE REPLY BY MEGAPOLENSIS & DRISIUS
o
o
Countering the Spanish Catholic Missions in the New World

Financial Concerns
Charles T. Gehring, ed. and trans. Correspondence: 16541658 (Syracuse: Syracuse
University Press, 2003), ___.
p.52
April 26, 1655
LETTER FROM THE DIRECTORS AT AMSTERDAM TO THE DIRECTOR
GENERAL AND COUNCIL
"we have no objections to his becoming minister there provisionally and until our
further order at a salary already provided or to be provided for by the congregation,
without becoming a burden to the Company."
e.
f.
Accusations of / Defense of Lack of Support for Missions

Hugh Hastings, ed., Edward T. Corwin, trans. Ecclesiastical Records: State of
New York, Vol. 1 (Albany: James B. Lyon, 1901), ___.
p. 266
Jan 27, 1650
Digest of Excesses and Neglect of New Netherland under the West India Company.
Exhibited, January 27th, 1650, to the meeting of the Deputies of their High
Mightinesses, and given to the Directors.
"The Directors have made no effort to convert to Christianity either the Indians, or
the Blacks or Slaves, owned by the Company there."
p. 267
Jan. 31, 1650
W.I.C. Response to Remonstrance
"Every one conversant with the Indians in, and around New Netherland, will be able
to say, that it is morally impossible to convert the adults to the Christian faith.
Besides, 'tis a Minister's business to apply himself to that, and the Director's duty to
assist him therein."
g.
3. Brazil Efforts
3:48 PM
a.
Methods
Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America
(Leiden: Brill, 2005), ___.
p. 319-320
Johannes Polhemius, who had experienced in Brazil that some ministers were
exempted from other ecclesiastical duties to apply themselves exclusively to
missionary work, was of the opinion that the Company showed too little zeal.
That does not alter the fact that in the first part of their reaction the directors
recognized that considerable practical drawbacks had to be overcome.
p.
q.
Degree of Success
Comparison
motivations for Protestant conversion among the Tupis in Northeastern Brazil (16301654) and the Mohawks in Central New York (1690-1710), in The Spiritual
Conversion of the Americas, ed. James Muldoon (Gainesville: University Press of
Florida, 2004).
p.
119
"However, in the late 1680s many Mohawks suddenly became interested in the
Dutch Reformed religion. From 1691 to 1710, Calvinist ministers baptized no less
than 170 Mohawk men, women, and children at the Dutch Reformed church in
Albany."
p. 123
"northeastern Brazil was a much more popular destination for Calvinist
ministers and lay-preachers than North America."
"No less than fifty-three fully ordained or candidate ministers were active in
Brazil during the relatively short period between 1625 and 1654, whereas only
twelve Calvinist ministers were employed in New Netherland between 1628 and
1674.
p. 134
"Whereas the evangelization program of the Dutch Reformed Church in Brazil
was extensive because it was an intrinsic part of the global Calvinist Dutch
struggle against the Catholic Church and the Spanish Crown, Dutch attempts to
convert the Indians of North America to Protestantism lacked any strong
ideological fervor.
4. Dm. Jonas Michaelius

3:49 PM
a.

11 August 1628 Letter to Rev. Adrianus Smoutius, minister,
Amsterdam
"As to the natives of this country, I find them entirely savage and wild,
strangers to all decency, yea, uncivil and stupid as garden stakes, proficient in all
wickedness and ungodliness, devilish men, hwo serve nobody but the Devil, that is,
the spirit which in their language they call Menetto, under which title they
comprehend everything that is subtle and craft and beyond human skill and power." p.
132
They have so much witchcraft, divination, sorcery and wicket arts, that
they can hardly be held in by any bands or locks. They are as thievish and treacherous
as they are tall, and in cruelty they are altogether inhuman, more than barbarous, far
exceeding the Africans."
"..through the gracious guidance of the Lord, for our good, who, when it
pleases Him, knows how to pour, unexpectedly, natural impulses into these unnatural
men, in order to prevent their actions." p.132
"they do not speak so jeeringly and so scoffingly of the godlike and
glorious majesty of their Creator as the Africans dare to do." p. 132
"Their language, which is the first thing to be employed with them,
methinks is entirely peculiar. Many of our common people call it an easy language,
which is soon learned, but I am of a contrary opinion." p.133
Eekhof, Albert. Jonas Michalius: Founder of the Church in New Netherland.
(Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff's Publishing Company, 1926).
b.
Hopes, Expectations, and Plans for Conversion

8 August 1628 Letter to Joannes van Foreest, Executive Council of the
States of North Holland and West Friesland (Hoorn)
"the small possibility I see of leading this blind, perverse, Nation to the
true knowledge of God, through Christ."
(Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff's Publishing Company, 1926). p. 111
11 August 1628 Letter to Rev. Adrianus Smoutius, minister, Amsterdam

"How these people can best be led to the true knowledge of God and of the
Mediator Christ, is hard to say. I cannot myself wonder enough who it is, that has
imposed so much upon your Reverence and many others in the Fatherland,
concerning the docility of this people and their good nature, the proper principia
religionis and vestiga legis naturae, which are said to be among them, in whom I have
as yet been able to discover hardly a single good point, except that they do not speak
so jeeringly and so scoffingly of the godlike and glorious majesty of their Creator as
the Africans dare to do."
"But it may be because they have not such a certain knowledge of Him, or none at
all. If we speak to them of God, it appears to them like a dream, and we are
compelled to speak of Him, not under the name of Menetto, whom they know and
serve, for that would be blasphemy, but of one great, yea, most high Sackiema, by
which name they, having no king, call those, who have the command over several
hundred among them, who by our people are called Sackemakers; and as they hear it,
some begin to mutter and shake their heads, as if it were a silly fable, and others, in
order to get out of the difficulty with honour and friendship, will say Orith, that is
good. Now, by what means are we to prepare this people for salvation, or to make a
salutary breach among them? I take the liberty of enlarging somewhat on this point
to your Reverence." p.132-3
"Shall we then leave the parents as they are, and begin with the children, who are
still young. Let it be so. But they ought in youth to be separated from their parents,
yea, from their whole nation. For, without this, they would forthwith be as much
accustomed as their elders to the heathenish tricks and devilries, which of itself are
kneaded in their hearts by nature by a just judgment of God, so that having once, by
habit, obtained deep root, they would with great difficulty be brought away from it." p.
134
"But this separation is hard to effect, for the parents have a strong affection for
their children, and are very loth to part with them, and when this happens, as has
already been proved, the parents are never fully contented, but take them away
stealthily, or induce them to run away."
Nevertheless we must proceed in this direction, although it would be attended with
some expense, to obtain the children by means of presents and promises, with the
gratitude and consent of the parents, in order to place them under the instruction of
some experienced and godly schoolmaster, where they may be instructed not only to
speak, read, and write our language, but especially in the fundamental of our
Christian religion, and where, besides, they will see nothing but good examples of
virtuous living;"
"but they must sometimes speak their native tongue among themselves, in order
not to forget it, as being evidently a principal means of spreading the knowledge of
religion through the whole nation. p. 134
"Perchance God may finally have mercy upon them, that the fulness of the
heathen may be gradually brought in and the salvation of our God may be here also
seen among these wild and savage men. I hope to keep an watchful eye on these
people, and to learn as much as possible of their language and to seek better
opportunities for their instruction than hitherto it has been possible to find." p. 134-5
(Leyden: A. W. Sijthoff's Publishing Company, 1926).
13 September 1830 Letter to Joannes van Foreest, Executive Council
of the States of North Holland and West Friesland (Hoorn)

See explanation of difficulties
5. Dm. Everardus Bogardus

3:56 PM
a.
b.

Frijhoff, Willem. Fulfilling God's Mission: The Two Worlds of Dominie Everardus
Bogardus, 1607-1647, trans. Myra Heerspink Scholz (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
p. 526
"Michaelius and Bogardus presumably shared the opinion put forward in the
treatises of Justus Heurnius and Godfried Udemans, namely that trade was an
effective means for converting the heathen."
p. 543
"'the hope that there is for the conversion of the Americans [Indians] and the
blacks.'"
"'that He will be pleased to open the door among them, and deliver the blind
heathen from the heavy darkness of idolatry and service of the devil and bring
them to the knowledge and fear of the true God and Savior.'"
Hastings, Hugh, ed. Ecclesiastical Records: State of New York, Vol. 1 (Albany: James
B. Lyon, State Printer, 1901).
p. 150
"we heartily rejoice, and thank the good God for the great grace and blessing
which He bestows upon the proclamation of his saving Word in those strange
and far distant lands, and that He vouchsafes a reasonable degree of prosperity
to his church there; also that good hopes exist for the conversion of the Negroes.
We beseech him as Lord of Lords of the most hardened, that it may please him to
open also the door among the Americans (the Indians) that the ministration of
his Holy Word may have free course among them; and that those blind heathen
may be ^delivered from the thick darknesses of their idolatries and the service of
the devil, and brough to the knowledge and fear of the true God and Saviour."
p. 151
"Rev. Bogardus and his entire Consistory are admonished and exhorted to hold
correspondence and com- munion, so far at least as the circumstances and the
place permit; and thus with united hands to proclaim the Word of the Lord not
only among our own nationality, but also among the blind heathen in America.
Thus will we all heartily rejoice that the kingdom of Christ Jesus is more widely
extended there. May the Lord bless the labors of both these ministers
abundantly, strengthen them by the power of the Holy Ghost, and grant that they
may faithfully use their talents to the magnifying of His Holy Name, to the
extension of the kingdom of our Saviour Christ, and to the conversion and
salvation of men."
c.
Frijhoff, Willem. Fulfilling God's Mission: The Two Worlds of Dominie Everardus
Bogardus, 1607-1647, trans. Myra Heerspink Scholz (Leiden: Brill, 2007).
p. 527
"Already in 1641the classis recorded from a letter by Bogardus (now lost):
"[They] tell of the good state and the daily growth of their congregation. The
Americans are not yet coming to the proper knowledge of God. The blacks living
with them come closer and give more hope."
d.
Frijhoff, Willem. "Everardus Bogardus (1607-1647): A Dutch Mystic in the New World," in
Transatlantic PietiesDutch Clergy in Colonial America, ed. Leon van den Broeke, Hans
Krabbendam and Dirk Mouw (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2012),
p. 79-100.
p. 96
"He was presumably unaware that many of them did not fully understand the
Protestant rejection of rituals as superstition. Both African and Native Americans
considered ritual as the true form of religion."
6. Dm. Johannes Megapolensis / Schaets /

Drillius
3:56 PM
a.
Call to New Netherland

p. 147
Mar. 22, 1642
Classis of Amsterdam's Call of Megapolensis
"...so that he may perform the duty of the Gospel to the advancement of God's Holy
name and the conversion of many poor blind men. May the Almighty God, who hath
called him to this ministry,
and instilled this good zeal in his heart, to proclaim Christ to christians and heathens
in such distant lands, strengthen him, more and more, in this his undertaking; enrich
him with all sorts of spiritual gifts ; and bless overflowingly his faithful labors : and
when the Chief Shepherd, Christ Jesus, shall appear, present him with the
imperishable Crown of Eternal Glory. Amen."
A. J. F. van Laer, ed. and trans. Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany: University of
the State of New York, 1908).
p. 645
Mar. 13, 1643
Kiliaen van Rensselaer to Johannes Megapolensis
"to make your reverence a blessed instrument in His service to establish there a church
and community both among the Christians and the blind heathen; for the Christians,
that they may see the day of their holy baptism and confession and practise
righteousness more and more; for the heathen who live among and about us, that their
stony hearts may be softened, their blind eyes opened and their deaf ears unstopped by
the power of the Holy Ghost, in order that they may see and understand the wonders
of His law, recognize their sins and His grace and that they may be brought to the fold
of Jesus Christ and go among other heathen bringing forth righteous fruits of
confession and gratitude."
b.
c.
d.

p. 309
May 8, 1652
Contract for Rev. Gideon Schaets 3 years fo service
"To use all Christian zeal there to bring up both the Heathen and their children in the
Christian Religion."
...
"And, in case his Reverence should take any of the Heathen children there to board
and to educate, he shall be indemnified therefor as the Commissioners there shall
think proper."
p. 326-7
Jul 15, 1654
Revs. Megapolensis and Drisius to the Classis of Amsterdam.

"In addition to this, you make mention in your letter, that you have gathered from our
letters, that the knowledge of the Gospel is making great progress among the Indians
here. Speaking with all deference, we do not know or think that we have furnished any
such intelligence in our letters. "We greatly wish indeed, that such were the state of
things among the Indians, but as yet, there is little appearance of it. It is indeed true
that a sachem of the Indians has sojourned for a length of time among us at the
Manhattans, who was diligent in learning to read and write, which he learned to do
tolerably well. He was also instructed in the principal grounds of the Christian faith,
and publicly joined in recitations on the catechism by Christian children. We gave him
a Bible that he might peruse it and teach his own countrymen from it. We hoped that
in due time he might be the instrument of accomplishing considerable good among the
Indians. But we acknowledge that he has only the bare knowledge of the truth, without
the practice of godliness. He is greatly inclined to drunkenness, and indeed, is not
better than other Indians. We do not indeed expect much fruit of religion among these
barbarous nations, until they are brought under the government of Europeans, as these
latter increase in numbers. Finally, we commend you to the care and protection of the
Most High. Pray also for his blessing on our ministry."
p. 398
Aug. 14, 1656
Johannes Megapolensis, Samuel Drissius.
"We can say but little of the conversion of the heathens or Indians here, and see no
way to accomplish it, until they are subdued by the numbers and power of our people,
and reduced to some sort of civilization; and also unless our people set them a better
example, than they have done heretofore. We have had an Indian here with us for
about two years. He can read and write Dutch very well. We have instructed him in
the fundamental principles of our religion, and he answers publicly in church, and can
repeat the Commandments. We have given him a Bible, hoping he might do some
good among the Indians, but it all resulted in nothing. He took to drinking brandy, he
pawned the Bible, and turned into a regular beast, doing more harm than good among
the Indians."
p. 493
Oct. 19, 1660
Michael Siperus, new Minister-to-be
"Requests instruction and advice of Classis how he shall conduct himself with regard
to the negroes and their children in the matter of baptism, as also in regard to the
Indians."
p. 543-4
April 21, 1664
Rev. J. T. Polhemus to the Classis of Amsterdam
There is no communication among as, in reference to the administration of divine

services nor plans provided for propagating the Gospel among the savages and the
English. We recieve, indeed, our dues, etc., . but in reference to a teacher, for
them, we must bear the expense ourselves, or leave them uninstructed, and thus they
grow up wild, more and more ignorant of God.
Allen W. Trelease. Indian Affairs in Colonial New York (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
Press, 1960), ___.
p.170
By 1649, when he took up a pastorate in New Amsterdam, Megapolensis had almost
certainly failed to convert a single Indian.
e.
6. - 2 Other Reports
1:23 AM
Hugh Hastings, ed., Edward T. Corwin, trans. Ecclesiastical Records: State of New York, Vol. 1
(Albany: James B. Lyon, 1901), ___.
p. 142
Nov. 19, 1641
Report from Elders ad Deacons in New Amsterdam.
"The Americans (Indians) come not yet to the right knowledge of God..."
Arnold J. F. Van Laer, ed. and trans. Van Rensselaer Bowier Manuscripts (Albany: University of
the State of New York, 1908), ___.
p. 686
Redress of the abuses and faults in the colony of Rensselaerswyck
Sep. 5, 1643
Full paragraph, the lack of godliness among the colonists.
(cont.)
p. 687
Sixthly, to persuasion, on the part of other freemen coming up the river, who make them forget
their bounden duty and the fidelity which they owe their patroon, all of which being duly
considered will go to prove that there are greater and worse sins among those who profess to be
Christians than among the heathen themselves.
7. Contemporary Perspectives of Laypeople

3:57 PM
JOHANNES DE LAET
p. 49-50
Church elder (Leyden)
Synod of Dort
(Founding) Director in Amsterdam Chamber of the West India Company,
Accounts likely collected from journals of
o Cornelius Jacobsen Mey
o Hendrick Christiaensen
o Adriaen Block
Johannes de Laet. "New World," in Narratives of New Netherland: 16091664, ed. J. Franklin
Jameson. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. Originally published as Nieuwe Wereldt Ofte
Beschrijvinghe van West Indien (Leiden: Isaack Elzevier, 1625), ___.
p. 49-50
They have no religion whatever, nor any divine worship, [but serve the Devil yet not with
such ; ceremonies as the Africans. They call him Menutto; and every thing that is
wonderful and strange or that surpasses human understanding, that they also call Menutto].
p. 50
But with mild and proper treatment, and especially by intercourse with Christians, this
people might be
civilized and brought under better regulation; particularly if a sober and discreet population
were brought over and good order preserved.
p. 58
but if humanely treated, hospitable and ready to perform a service; they ask only a small
remuneration for what they do, and will make very long journeys in a short time with
greater fidelity than could be justly expected from such a barbarous people.
Nor is it to be doubted that by associating with Christians they could be imbued with
civilized manners and with religion, especially if there should be planted among them
colonies of well ordered people, who would employ their services without violence or
abuse, and in return accustom them to the worship of the true God and the habits of
civilized life.
Adriaen van der Donck. A Description of New Netherland, eds. Charles T. Gehring and William
A. Starna, trans. Diederik Willem Goedhuys. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008.
Originally published as Beschryvinge van Nieuw-Nederlandt (gelijck het tegenwoordigh in staet
is) (Amsterdam: Evert Nieuwenhof, 1655), ___.
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN 1655 IN DUTCH
p. 75
The original natives of that country were all called wilden by our people as a
general appellation That name, as far as can be ascertained, was given them from
the first and is quite appropriate for a number of reasons. First, on account of
religion, because they have none or so little as to be virtually in a state of nature.
p. 77
And since the first opinion of women and the uneducated is best, it seems appropriate
that they be called wilden, because they are quite wild and are strangers to the
Christian religion.
p. 95
The Indians are notably melancholy, unaffected, calm, and of few words. The little
they do say is long considered, slowly spoken, and long remembered. W
p. 96
Cursing, swearing, and scolding are foreign to them, unless they learned it by mixing
with our people. Surpassing wisdom and outstanding intelligence are not encountered
among them, merely a reasonable knowledge based on experience. Nor are they keen
to learn or diligent in that respect. Good and evil they are quick to recognize. By
themselves they are simple and ignorant, but when they have spent some time among
our people they become quite clever and [can be] taught anything.
p. 107
They appreciate hearing about God and our religion, and during our services and
prayers they keep very quiet and seem to pay attention, but in reality they have no
notion of these matters. They live without religion and inner or outward devotion;
even superstition and idolatry are unknown to them, and they follow the dictates of
nature alone. For that reason some suppose that they may all the easier be led to the
knowledge and fear of God.
When one berates them, individually or generally, for some wicked act or speech on
the ground that it incurs the wrath of God in heaven, they reply, We do not know that
God or where he is and have never seen him; if you know and fear him, as you say
you do, how come there are so many whores, thieves, drunkards, and other evildoers
among you; surely that God of yours will punish you severely, since he warned you of
it. He never warned us and left us in ignorance; therefore we do not deserve
punishment.
Very seldom do they adopt our religion, nor have any particular official measures
been resorted to or applied to induce them to do so. When their children are still
young, it happens that our people take them into the home as servants and as
opportunities arise give them some slight religious instruction, but when they grow to
be young men and women and begin to mix with the other Indians, they soon forget
what they never learned thoroughly and revert to Indian ways and manners.
p. 108
In all that country I know no more than just one person [among the Indians] who is an
ornament to religion. Nor is it to be expected, as long as the matter is thus suffered to
drag on, that many Indians will through instruction be led to religion. Public authority
ought to become involved and provide for sound teaching of our language and the
elements of the Christian religion to their youth in good schools, established in
suitable locations in that country, so that in due course they could and would teach
each other further and take pleasure in doing so. It would take a deal of effort and
preparation, but without such measures not much good can be achieved among them.
The neglect of it is a very bad thing, since the Indians themselves say they would be
happy to have their children instructed in our language and religion.
p. 111
When we refute these absurdities easily, we do so by telling them that God is
omniscient and omnipotent; knows the nature of devils exactly; quietly observes their
doings; and will not permit a puffed-up and faithless servant to tyrannize man, who is
the most glorious creature of all and made in Gods image, provided he duly puts his
trust in God and does not forsake his commandments in favor of evil.
You Dutch say so, and seen superficially it may seem to be as you maintain, but you
do not understand the matter aright.
8. The Jesuits in New France and Elsewhere

1:20 AM
Hugh Hastings, ed., Edward T. Corwin, trans. Ecclesiastical Records: State of New York, Vol. 1
(Albany: James B. Lyon, 1901), ___.
p. 436
Sep. 28, 1658
Johannes Megapolensis, re: Isaac Jogues
"He told me that he had lived about twenty years among the Indians. When he was asked
what fruit had resulted from his labors, and whether he had taught the Indians anything
more than to make the sign of the cross, and such like superstitions, he answered that he
was not inclined to debate with me, but wanted only to chat."
de Charlevoix, Pierre F. X. History and General Description of New France, Vol. 3. Translated by
John G. Shea, New York: J. G. Shea, 1868.
p.12
1657
"What a difference," said the Indians, " between these [Huron] Christians and the Dutch!
They all acknowledge the same God, they say ; but the conduct of the latter is far from
being as well ordered as that of the former. When we go to see the French, we always
return with a true desire to pray : at [Fort] Orange they never speak to us of the Prayer, and
we do not even know whether they do pray there."
p.403
September 28, 1658
He told me that he had lived about twenty years among the Indians. When he was asked
what fruit had resulted from his labors, and whether he had taught the Indians anything
more than to make the sign of the cross, and such like superstitions, he answered that he
was not inclined to debate with me, but wanted only to chat.
9. Ending Notes, Facts, Thoughts

4:09 PM
Jaap Jacobs, New Netherland: A Dutch Colony in Seventeenth-Century America (Leiden: Brill,
2005), ___.
p. 285
The growth in the population led to the existence of eleven congregations with a total of six
ministers at the time of the surrender to the English.
p. 323
it was beyond question that the wic had to take measures for the spiritual care of its
employees. From the outset, the primacy within the wic lay with the chambers, thus in the
case of New Netherland with the Amsterdam chamber. However, on the ecclesiastical side
it was not clear which body should be responsible.
In the early years this task fell to the Amsterdam consistory, but during the course of the
1630s the supervision was transferred to the Amsterdam classis, which delegated it to a
small committee, the deputati ad res Indicas. The authority of the Amsterdam classis was
challenged by the synods in other provinces, which forced the North Holland synod to
concede that it would keep the other synods informed about religious matters.
Mark Meuwese, For the Peace and Well- Being of the Country: Intercultural Mediators and
Dutch-Indian Relations in New Netherland and Dutch Brazil, 1600 1664 (PhD diss.,
University of Notre Dame, 2003).
p. 379
440
During the period 1689-1720, a considerable number of Mohawks embraced Protestant
Christianity and was baptized in the Dutch Reformed Church in Albany. Following Dutch
Reformed regulations, baptismal candidates needed sponsors who were already members of
the Calvinist church. Many of the sponsors for Mohawk baptism-candidates were therefore
Dutch officials and fur traders from Albany, suggesting a close bond between the two
peoples. However, there were considerable limits to this relationship. The Mohawks and
Dutch always remained segregated from each other in separate towns; the Mohawks only
visited Albany for baptisms and trade. Moreover, the Mohawks primarily were attracted to
Dutch Protestantism in order to revitalize their own communities that had become divided
by French Jesuit missionaries and weakened by French and Algonquian attacks during the
1680s and 1690s. By establishing close relations with the nearby, predominately Dutch,
residents of Albany, the Mohawks attempted to secure military aid from the colony of
English New York. In addition, some colonial observers noted that the Mohawks only
partially converted to Christianity and continued to practice their own religious traditions.
Finally, by the 1720s-1730s, the Mohawks increasingly turned to Anglican missionaries in
order to strengthen diplomatic ties with English colonial authorities. The number of
Mohawk baptisms in the Dutch Reformed Church of Albany significantly declined after the
1720s. Although the Mohawk conversions to Dutch Protestantism in this period cemented
the Mohawk alliance with the Anglo-Dutch residents of Albany, the two cultures remained
separate from each other and did not truly blend. See Lois M. Feister, Indian- Dutch
Relations in the Upper Hudson Valley: A Study of Baptism Records in the Dutch Reformed
Church, Albany, New York, Man in the Northeast 24 (1982): 89-113; William Bryan Hart,
For the Good of Our Souls: Mohawk Authority, Accommodation, and Resistance to
Protestant Evangelism, 1700-1780, (Ph.D. Dissertation, Brown University, 1998), 68-84;
Daniel K. Richter, Some of Them ... Would Always Have a Minister with Them:
Mohawk Protestantism, 1683-1719, American Indian Quarterly XVI, no. 4 (1992): 471484.
-----"All Christian Zeal": The Wanting Missions

of Dutch New Netherland (1624
3:32 PM
"All Christian Zeal": The Impotent Missions of

Dutch New Netherland (1624-1664)
Fruitless
"And thus they grow up wild"
House Upon the Sand
BIG IDEAS
The Calvinists may not have achieved
what the Jesuits achieved in terms of
numbers of converts, but the fact
remains that the Catholic notion of
conversion would be unacceptable in
terms of results for the Dutch
missionaries.
WERE THE MISSIONARY GOALS OF THE
WIC IN TRUTH RELIGIOUSLY-MOTIVATED
OR TRADE OR EVEN CULTURALCONQUEST-MOTIVATED?
BRINGING THE GOSPEL TO THE HEATHEN

OFTEN MENTIONED AT END OF
THOUGHTS AND LETTERS

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Tuesday, December 1, 2015

The West India Company's Provisions

Prior Missionary Efforts in Brazil

First Impressions of the Natives

Hopes and Plans for Missionary Efforts

Perceived Reasons for Success/Failure

More demanding requirements for baptism and nominal conversion (education,

2. Ideologies and Influences

2. WIC's Provisions / Intentions

Calvinism and Clerical Voices at Home

Purpose for sending the Ministers to New Netherland

Countering the Spanish Catholic Missions in the New World

Accusations of / Defense of Lack of Support for Missions

4. Dm. Jonas Michaelius

First Impressions of the Natives

Hopes, Expectations, and Plans for Conversion

11 August 1628 Letter to Rev. Adrianus Smoutius, minister, Amsterdam

Perceived Reasons for Success/Failure

5. Dm. Everardus Bogardus

First Impressions of the Natives

6. Dm. Johannes Megapolensis / Schaets /

Call to New Netherland

First Impressions of the Natives

Revs. Megapolensis and Drisius to the Classis of Amsterdam.

There is no communication among as, in reference to the administration of divine

Perceived Reasons for Success/Failure

7. Contemporary Perspectives of Laypeople

8. The Jesuits in New France and Elsewhere

9. Ending Notes, Facts, Thoughts

-----"All Christian Zeal": The Wanting Missions

"All Christian Zeal": The Impotent Missions of

BRINGING THE GOSPEL TO THE HEATHEN

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