ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 



13 



the Indian Churches did not admit of such a combination of 

 clergy; fifthly, that the instructions 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 Bata- 

 via was the seat of the Supreme Indian Government, its clergy 

 imagined themselves primates in the Indian Churches. On 

 several occasions they took upon themselves to appoint pro- 

 ponents and supply various stations, and even ordained a pro- 

 ponent and sent him as a minister to Ceylon. On his arrival 

 the Ceylon clergy hesitated to receive him as their colleague, 

 as they were not authorized to recognize the Batavian Consis- 

 tory in such matters. 



In connection with this subject I may mention a repre- 

 sentation of the Jaffna Consistory in 1663 to the classis of 

 Amsterdam, pointing out that the sending out from Holland 

 of proponents instead of ordained persons for the use of the 

 Dutch congregations in the colonies generally, as also for the 

 seamen on board of Men-of-War, did more harm than good ; 

 that these unordained persons had no position in the Church, 

 and that the dissolute seamen and Navy officers Avould be far 

 better influenced by clergymen of some standing and experi- 

 ence. They found also that at the factories the proponents 

 attended more to Civil than Ecclesiastical matters. They 

 further complained that the Batavian Consistory made propo- 

 nents of persons who had been sent out as Soldiers. These 

 remonstrances were presented by the classis to the East India 

 Company, who appear to have employed proponents instead of 

 ordained men, partly on account of the scarcity of ministers in 



