Religion in nsselaer First Church of Albany HbBorBan e was in the 16th century that the Dutch first became thereby terminated his clerical career. It would be identified with an autonomous republic, following another two decades before the Dutch church was William the Silent’s liberation of the northern provinces formally representedin this region again. of the Netherlands from the tyranny of Spain’s Philip II. This achievement was inspired by religious as well as This brings us to the era of the patroonship of Kiliaen political convictions and representeda triumph of the van Rensselaer.ThePatroon was a fascinating admixture Reformation. From their inception, therefore, the States of idealistic dreamer and astute business man, as General of the United Netherlandswere committed to the demonstrated in his voluminous correspondence. In Reformed religion of Calvin and adherence to the contemplating his colony, he had the best of intentions Reformed Calvinist worship of the homeland becamea “to have the Christian Reformed Religion proclaimed standard mandate for all their overseasventures. Under there in order that the blind heathen might also be thesecircumstances, many have assumedthat the earliest brought to the knowledge of our Savior, JesusChrist.“2 Dutch fur traders should be credited with bringing Yet other pressing needs of his colonists to assuretheir religion EOour area.This presumption overlooks the fact economic survival, together with their own refusal to that fur trading was a seasonalbusiness, conducted in the tithe themselves in order to support a minister, left the late summer and fall. In the early years, transient traders young colony bereft of formal religious worship? The operated without the support of any year-round settle- Patroon was constantly berating his agent, Arent van ment. To what extent these traders interrupted their Curler, for failure to collect these tithes and build a carousing with the Indian women to conduct formal church.4 It is significant that Van Curler never defended religious exercisesduring their annual excursions up the himself against these scoldings by describing any river must remain a matter for speculation. organized religious worship in Rensselaerswijckduring its first decade.One therefore suspectsthat the colonists The earliest official representation of the Dutch did not take very seriously the Patroon’s instructions “to Church arrived at Fort Orange in 1624, when Sebastian causethe people to assembleevery Sunday to train them Krol accompanieda group of Walloon immigrauts as a in the commandments, the psalms, the reading of the “Comforter of the Sick”. The Classis of Amsterdam,the Holy Scriptures and Christian authors in modesty, love arm of the Dutch Church responsible for its overseas and decency? activities, used this designation for individuals with minimal formal training who substituted for an ordained It was not until 1642, when discord between the pastor. Krol had been given strict instructions to read partners appearedto threaten the survival of his colony, scriptures, standard liturgies, and approved sermons that Van Rensselaerbecame convinced that it was essen- “without presuming to compose anything himself’.’ tial to sendover a minister, not only to establish a church Becauseno one else was available to sanctify them, Krol for his colonists but also to provide him with a mature was also given a special dispensation to perform representative of impeccable honesty whom he could baptisms and marriage ceremonies, although the trust. He recruited a minister who had been serving a legitimacy of these sacramentswould be challenged by couple of churches on the west coast of North Holland theological purists. Unfortunately the Walloons had and who expresseda desire to see the New World. This scarcely settled in the neighborhood of Fort Orangewhen domine had been christened with the good Dutch name they were caught in a crossfire between the Mahicans of JohannesGrootstadt, but, in keeping with the custom and the Mohawks who were vying for control of the of the times, he had hellenized his family name to Hudson Valley. Most-if not all-of the Walloons fled “Megapolensis” when he assumed his clerical collar. to safer ground to the south. Krol respondedto this flight Domine Megapolensis arrived in Rensselaerswijck on of his congregation by negotiating an appointment as August 13 and conducted his first worship service on Commissary to the trading post at Fort Orange and August 17, 1642. His initial services were held on the 309 310 SELECTED RENSSELAERSWIJCK SEMINAR PAPERS Fig. 52. A View of the LateProtestant Dutch Church of 1715. Courtesy of Albany Institute of History and Art. eastside of the river, probably in spaceimprovised in the houseChurch” in the very center of town to serve as both Patroon’s grain storehousenear the Mill Creek, although a fort and a house of worship. The ground floor of this we lack detailed descriptions of theseearly services.6 building served as the main sanctuary for worship, with its benches assigned to the women of lthe village. The ’ The first structure of which we have definite evidence men sat in the overhanging balcony where canon were was a warehouseon the west side of the river near Fort mountedbehind loopholes pointed north, west and south. Orange that was remodelled in 1647 and provided with In principle the men were “at the ready” to defend against a pulpit and nine benchesfor the congregation in addition any attackers;in practice there is no record that the canon to benches for the Elders and Deacons.7Unfortunately in the Blockhouse Church were ever discharged in the the annual spring floods, especially those of 1654, defense of the village. Yet it served the town well as a encouragedmost of the townspeople to move to higher church for more than half a century, with as many as four ground north of the Ruttenkil which flowed down the site hundred worshippers crowded into its sanctuary on a of modem Norton Street. The citizens thereby isolated Sunday morning. themselvesfrom their church and from the fort intended for their protection. Representativesof the patroonship By 1715, the timbers of the old Blockhouse Church and the Dutch West India Company sat down together were starting to rot and a new fort had been constructed and decided to solve their problem in a very direct if at the head of State Street. Although thle town had now unconventional manner: in 1656 they erecteda “Block- been an English colony for decades,the Dutch did not RELIGION IN RENSSELAERSWIJCM 311 wish to relinquish their prestigious location at the very the First Church in Albany is an old book of baptismal heart of town. They therefore built a much larger stone records in which numerous Indian names are inter- edifice at the same site in the middle of the intersection spersed between those of the Van Rensselaers, the of Broadway and State Street. This Stone Church Schuylers, the Van Schaicks,and the Livingstons. remained in use until 1807. IJntil the British takeover in 1664, the Dutch Church The correspondenceof the ministers who servedthese had a monopoly on religious observancesin the town. churches throws some interesting and not particularly The charter establishing the patroonship defined the favorable light on the early citizens of our town. Domine Dutch Reformed Protestant Religion as the sole Megapolensiswas profoundly disturbed by the dishones- authorized religion within any territory controlled by the ty, immorality, and alcoholic dissipation which he ob- West India Company. Nevertheless,there were at least a served in his flock. The Patroon had to explain to him few Lutherans in town from the time the colony was that “the best people seldom go so far across the sea”* founded. The first of whom we have definite record were and remind him that many of the colonists had elected to the Andriessen-Bratt brothers who arrived from Scan- emigrate becauseof the troubles which their evil ways dinavia in 1637,one of whom built a sawmill on the bank had created at home. The Pattoon was also doubtlessly of a creek which would henceforth be known as the correct in his speculation that, in migrating to the wilder- Norman’s Kill. After 1650 the Lutherans began arriving ness, many people were seeking a licentious freedom in greaternumbers and were undoubtedly rankled by the from the censorship of their neighbors, a peer pressure prohibition against the practice of their own religious which Van Rensselaerregarded as a greater deterrent to faith in the town. In 1649 they had joined with their misbehavior “than the penetrating eye of the Lord.“’ fellow Lutherans in New Amsterdam in signing a Drunkenness was a constant plague to be dealt with by petition requesting permission to establish a Lutheran both the civil authorities and the spiritual leaders, and church. Their plea went unrequited, but this petition has stiff fines had to be imposed against “the scandalous been formally recognized as the first official act of the practice that the Christians should mingle themselves Albany Lutherans, even though they would not be strong unlawfully with the wives or daughtersof Heathens.“” enough to support a church with a full time resident A successorto Megapolensis, Domine Schaats,painted pastor for more than a century (1784). While many of the a similarly dismal picture: Lutherans moved on to other communities where they Much could be said of the sinful ways of many. We have many would not be so overwhelmed by the Reformed Dutch hearers, but few are. saved. We have been so grievously deceived majority, their places were soon filled by other Lutheran by the sinful behavior of certain of our members that I have felt immigrants following in their wake. obliged to suspend them from the Lord’s table.” This earnest struggle to lead their Dutch The conflict betweenthe “High Dutch” Lutherans and communicants towards righteous living was not the sole the “Low Dutch” Reformed should neither be ignored endeavorof the domines.