CHAPTER II 

 THE FRENCH CHURCH IN NEW YORK 



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URING the earlier years of the colony the French The Earlier 

 had no church of their own. In 1628, when the 



first minister, Rev. Jonas Michaelius, of the Re- 

 formed Chui'ch of Holland, came to New Amsterdam, 

 services were conducted for both the French and the 

 Dutch. Of the two elders who were chosen, one was a 

 Huguenot, the '' honourable director" Peter Miuuit. 

 Pastor Michaelius himself left the following account of 

 this first organization : ' ' We have had, at the first ad- 

 ministration of the Lord's Supper, full fifty communi- 

 cants, Walloons and Dutch : not without great joy and 

 comfort for so man3^ Of these, a portion made their first 

 Confession of Faith before us (he probably is referring to 

 some of the unregenerate traders), and others exhibited 

 their church certificates. Some had forgotten to bring 

 their certificates with them, not thinking that a church 

 would be formed and established here ; and some, who 

 had brought them, had lost them unfortunately in a gen- 

 eral conflagration ; but they were admitted upon the sat- 

 isfactory testimony of others to whom they were known, 

 and also upon their daily good deportment. We admin- 

 ister the Holy Sacrament of the Lord once in four months, 

 provisionally, until a larger number of people shall 

 otherwise require. The Walloons have no services on 

 Sundays, other than that in the Dutch language, of which 

 they understand very little. A portion of the Walloons 

 live far away, and could not come on account of the heavy 

 rains and storms, so that it was neither advisable, nor 

 was it possible, to appoint any special service for so small 



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