There being no Synod in New Netherland, the care of the church there was entrusted to the Assembly or classis of Amsterdam, by whom the Dutch clergymen were approved and ordained, at the request, or with the assent, of the West India Company at Amsterdam. ' Except when as a matter of mere charity on their being driven from New England, the English settlers of the Congregational belief w'ere granted freedom of conscienceand to worship in their own way, and to choose their own civil officers,^ people of other denominations were not allowed to hold ofiice.' This was because the Reformed Religion in accordance with the doctrine of the Synod of Dort was the Established Religion of New Netherland, and the magistrates were bound to maintain it against all sectaries, and therefore they must have belonged, or been friendly, to that faith.*

Such were the provisions of the charters of Freedoms of Exemptions as to tenure of lands and the rights, powers and privileges of the Patroons, and the Masters or Free Colonists, of New Netherland, and the farm people, or boers, they brought over to cultivate the soil ; and as to the Church.

The total number of land grants of all kinds, from a Patroonship, to a single lot in Manhattan Island, issued by the Dutch Provincial Government from

1 Laws of N. N., v.

> See charter of Hempstead graated by Governor Kieft, in 1G44. Laws N.JJ., 42. » Ibid, 479.

* On Marcli 17, 1064, Stuyvesant and hi» conncil passed an ordinance, tiiat aU ecliool-masters sliould appear witli their Kchool-ohildren every Wediieediiy afternoon in tlie chnrcli. tliat they might be catechised by the Miniaters and Elders. Laws of N. N., 4G1.