1 the Americanization of the Dutch I Reformed Church

This dissertation has been microfilmed exactly as received 69-10,611 Ï LUIDENS, John Pershing, 1917- 1 THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE DUTCH I REFORMED CHURCH. The University of Oklahoma, Ph.D., 1969 History, modem University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan @ Copyright by JOHN PERSHING LUIDENS 1969 /> THE .UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA GRADUATE COLLEGE THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE FACULTY in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY BY JOHN PERSHING LUIDENS Norman, Oklahoma 1969 THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH APPROVED BY DISSERTATION COMMITTEE TO THE REV. ANTHONY LUIDENS But Christ's own lore, and His apostles' twelve | He taught, but first he followed it himselve. j (Chaucer's Parson) ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This dissertation could not have been completed without the generous assistance of many people. I am deeply indebted to Professor David ¥. Levy, whose wise and always constructive direction was valued through each phase of the work. Acknowledgment of indebtedness must also be extended to the other members of the doctoral committee, Professors Bryson D. Gooch, Rufus G. Hall, William E. Livezey, and Robert E. Shalhope. My research was greatly assisted by several li brarians and their staffs. In particular, gratitude is an obligation to Miss Mildred Schuppert of the Western Theo logical Seminary Library, Holland, Michigan; to Mr. Peter N. VandenBerge, lately of the Theological Seminary Library of New Brunswick, New Jersey; and to Mrs. Dorothea Ray and Mr. Tom Baker of the Central State College Library, Edmond, Oklahoma. A word of general appreciation is also due to the staffs of The New York Public Library, The New York Histor ical Society, Rutgers University Library, and the Hope College Library, Holland, Michigan. A colleague. Professor Herman Fullgraf, read part of the manuscript, and I recognize my debt to him for iv suggestions and for lending a' most patient ear. I also wish to thank Mrs. Charles Coyner and Mrs. Francis Olney for their excellent typing and patient cooperation. Finally, it is most fitting to pay tribute here to the late Professor Donnell M. Owings of the History Depart ment, University of Oklahoma, under whom this project was initiated, and to which he gave his approval and encourage ment. V TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION..................................... 1 Chapter I. EUROPEAN ORIGINS, AND THE COLONIAL CHURCH IN NEW NETHERLAND...................... 7 II. THE COLONIAL CHURCH IN NEW YORK, 1 664- 1720 POLITICAL PRESSURE AND ECCLESIASTICAL LOYALTY............................... 52 III. THE COLONIAL CHURCH, 1675-1775 TOWARDS AN AMERICAN CHURCH: DIVISION AND RE-UNION. 98 IV. THE DUTCH REFORMED IN THE REVOLUTIONARY ERA, 1 7 7 2 -1 7 8 3....................... 164 V. POST-REVOLUTIONARY PROBLEMS........... 245 VI. THE COMPLETION OF INDEPENDENCE, 1704-1793. 308 VII. A PERIOD OF ADJUSTMENT TO AMERICAN LIFE. 336 VIII. CONCLUSION........................... 392 BIBLIOGRAPHY...................................... 405 Vi THE AMERICANIZATION OF THE DUTCH REFORMED CHURCH INTRODUCTION At the opening of the Revolutionary era, the Dutch Reformed Church could look back upon almost a century and a half of colonial history, its arrival antedating that of all denominations except the Anglican Church in Virginia and the Congregational Separatists of Plymouth Bay. The tortuous path which led forward from their official planting at New Amsterdam in 1628 was marked by more difficulties and im pediments than beset any other colonial Church. Indeed, that it survived at all was regarded by some clergymen as nothing less than a "divine miracle." Many of the obstacles to the development of the Dutch Church were engendered simply by the frontier environ ment and were common to all colonial denominations and sects. These included a lack of clergymen and the funds to support them, a dispersal of the population, which hampered the ad vancement of institutional life, and capricious methods of communication. But there were other problems, peculiar to the Dutch Reformed Church, which retarded growth and limited 1 2 its influence chiefly to the provinces of New York and New Jersey. Among these were the ending of migration from the Netherlands, ecclesiastical dependence on the mother-church, the determination to maintain the Dutch language in church service and schoolroom, and the nationalistic sentiments pervading all of these. Finally, the English conquest pro duced ambivalent attitudes among the Dutch and left the Church in an anomalous position. Beyond an occasional transient wish expressed by some isolated clergyman, there was no movement, until the fourth decade of the l8th century, which seriously con sidered autonomy for the Dutch churches in America— an\. autonomy which might include organization higher than the congregational level with authority to settle ecclesiastical questions, provide higher education, and train, license and ordain ministers without reference to Amsterdam. The de velopment of an Americanizing movement stemmed from the ministry of the Reverend Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen, who arrived in New York in January, 1720. Before departing to take up his ministry along the banks of the Raritan in rural New Jersey, Frelinghuysen was invited to preach to the City congregation. His message, both in content and style of delivery, shattered the slumbers of orthodox clergy men and congregation alike, and pre-figured the religious movement known as the "Great Awakening." Frelinghuysen's vision of at least a semi-autonomous American Church had barely begun to take shape before his 3 death (ca. 1750)) but his sons and his colleagues (many of whom he had trained) persisted in their efforts. A nominal success was achieved before the Revolution, but only at the cost of creating a bitter division in the Church which lasted from 1755 to 1772. The Articles of Union, which brought the two factions together was the first modification of the strict control claimed by and exercised from the Classis of Amsterdam. Before the new arrangement could bear much fruit, however, the Revolutionary blaëts scattered the congregations, destroyed many churches and completely dis rupted communication with the Netherlands. Although the Dutch Reformed Church emerged from the Revolutionary era greatly weakened, there was little desire to resume the pre-war relationship with the Church in the Netherlands, or ..to plead for trans-Atlantic help in its re habilitation. On the contrary, the impetus supplied by the achievement of national political independence, the example of other religious denominations creating autonomous Churches, and the urgency of its own needs propelled the Dutch Church rapidly toward complete ecclesiastical inde pendence in the decade from I783 to 1792. Through the able leadership of the Reverend John H. Livingston, the Classis of Amsterdam was tactfully but firmly informed that the American Church was assuming full control in the conduct of its affairs. The titles of "Classis" and "Synod" were as sumed for the American judicatory units, replacing the anomalous "Particular Body" and "General Body" upon which the Classis of Amsterdam had insisted in 1771-1772 to indi cate an inferior relationship. The long-authorized Profes sorates in Theology and Languages were finally filled— but with American instead of Dutch appointments, thereby establishing the Reformed claim to the first theological seminary in America (178*+). And between I788 and 1792 a constitution was completed and adopted for the Dutch Re formed Church in the United States. The achievement of autonomy, of course, did not in itself solve any of the problems of the Church, but it did permit the Church to seek solutions without reference to European limitations, and in terms reflecting the modified and modifying conditions of the new nation. This it did with much success, along with very noticeable failure, during the decade of the 1790's. The Dutch Church simply did not have the human and material resources to extend its ministry to the frontier— even among its own pioneering members, who were soon lost to other denominations, espe cially the Presbyterian. Rather, this new American Church had to be content with building narrow but solid foundations within the boundaries of New York and New Jersey, and with a slow extension. There it remained until a new wave of im migrants arrived from the Netherlands in the mid-nineteenth century and carried the Church into the heart of the continent. 5 This dissertation presents an account of the process by which the Dutch Reformed Church was Americanized. It is a truism that American history begins in Europe. This nar rative originates in the Netherlands because the first step in the transformation of the Church was its transfer to America. As Europeans, the first settlers brought with them religious assumptions commonly shared by the people of the colonizing era. They accepted the principle of re ligious uniformity within a state, with disabilities for competing religions. All were accustomed to a close rela tionship between Church and State which cast them'in mutually supporting roles. Furthermore, the transplanted Churches were regarded merely as extensions of a Mother Church. With the settlement of America, the patterns of thought and habits of conduct resulting from these assump tions eroded with each generation; under the influence of novel time-space and environmental factors, a new set of American

Load more