12 CEYLON BRANCH ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



Bezoeker to the ministry. The Colombo Consistory objected ttf 

 it on the ground that it was contrary to Ecclesiastical regulations 

 that a local body like the Consistory of Batavia should on their 

 own authority assume a power which was not vested in them,. 

 The Batavian clergy nevertheless insisted on their right of or- 

 daining him. The classis strongly disapproved of the step; re- 

 ferring to their Synodal Acts of various dates first, that a 

 Consistory had no such power ; secondly that the rule of two 

 or more Consistories joining and forming a Presbytery for the 

 purpose of ordination did not apply to India; thirdly, that it 

 was their wish that the Colonial Churches should in this respect 

 also be entirely dependant on the classes of Holland; fourthly, 

 that though such power might be supposed to be vested in the 

 Colonial clergy from the instructions given them, yet that nothing 

 of the kind was expressly intended, as it was generally under- 

 stood that the isolated position of the Indian Churches did not 

 admit of such a combination of clergy ; fifthly^ that the in-* 

 structions referred to only authorized the employment of local 

 krankbezoekers and other Church servants, as occasion demanded 

 and fit subjects presented themselves. When the arguments of 

 the Batavian clergy were thus refuted, these represented the main 

 ground of their proceeding to be the existing urgent demand. 

 From this and other correspondence of various dates it appears 

 that, as Batavia was the seat of the Supreme Indian Govern- 

 ment, its clergy imagined themselves primates in the Indian 

 Churches. On several occasions they took upon themselves to 

 appoint proponents and supply various stations, and even or- 

 dained a proponent and sent him as a minister to Ceylon. 

 Oi his arrival the Ceylon clergy hesitated to receive him as 

 their colleague, as they were not authorized to recognize the 

 Batavian Consistory in such matters 



In connection with this subject I may mention a represen- 

 tation of the Jaffna Consistory in 1663 to the classis cf Am- 

 sterdam, pointing out that the sending out from Holland of 



