King William the Silent of the Netherlands
Following the success of the Dutch revolt against the Spanish Empire, Spain recognized the Kingdom of the Netherland’s existence in 1588 in the Fifteen-Year Truce between the two nations. With the cessation of hostilities, William the Silent began to focus on repairing the damage that had occurred throughout the Seventeen Provinces of the Kingdom. Officially both King and elected Stadholder, William concentrated his efforts on uniting the Catholic and Protestant segments of the people. He understood that in order for the Netherlands to become prosperous as an independent nation that the people would have to stop looking at each other as religious enemies. To this end, by working with the States-General in the Dutch capital of Brussels, William saw that the Act of Conscience was passed, thereby permitting freedom of worship throughout the provinces.
The Act of Conscience resulted in a myriad of effect that could not have been intended by William when he was pushing for its passing in the States-General. Among other things, the primary effect was that members of the Jewish faith throughout Europe began to immigrate to the Kingdom of the Netherlands in search of a more tolerant life free from the sanctioned persecution that they had become accustomed to in their homelands. In particular, the Sephardic Jews of Spain and Portugal, including many Conversos and Cryptic-Jews, and Morocco found the Netherlands to be rather attractive, moving in larger numbers than their Ashkenazi counterparts. Once in the Netherlands, the Sephardic Jewish community became increasingly prevalent in the mercantile community of the various larger cities, specifically Amsterdam, Antwerp, Brussels, Ghent, Rotterdam, and Utrecht.
Consequently, many of the less prosperous members of the Reformed Church began to see the Act of Conscience in a bad light, referring to it as the Act of Perversion. For these staunch members of the Dutch Reformed Faith, the idea of potentially being governed by Catholics and Jews in the States-General was abhorrent. As a result, with the increasing prevalence of news from the Americas pouring in, many of the religious leaders of the Calvinist communities throughout the Netherlands began preaching of building a new ‘Jerusalem’ in the New World. Particularly among those lighting fires within the hearts and souls of their parishioners, Cornelius Abrams began giving a series of sermons in 1598 about the importance of moving away from temptation and the evils of ill governance that earned him a special place in the minds of the faithful, gaining him an audience throughout many communities as his words were recited in church after church.
Directly as a result of Abrams’ sermons, a group of fifty families began planning to settle in the New World and transform it into their own Eden. Over the course of the next two years, the families sold off their farms and possessions in order to pay for the cost of the ship that would transport them and their supplies to North America. Finally, in 1601, the Hollanders left from Amsterdam having convinced Abrams to escort them and help them build a new Jerusalem. Reaching the eastern coast of North America, the families came together in deciding the location for their new settlement, finally deciding upon an island, which they named Manhattan based upon their encounter with the a local Lenape tribe.
Setting out to build their first settlement on the island, one of the first things that the families did was to hold a religious ceremony dedicating their descendants in service to God for protecting them on their journey across the Atlantic. By the end of the next year, another ship had arrived at New Amsterdam, so named after the capital of the province the original settlers had come from, bringing with it more families and more supplies, including the first cattle. By now, word was spreading throughout the Netherlands that a puritanical way of life was beginning in the Americas. Many families began pooling their resources together in hopes of joining their Calvinist brethren along the Mauritius River (Hudson River). In fact, following in Abrams’ stride, many religious leaders began planning to lead their congregations to join him and found their own communities.
Over the next five years, ten more voyages were made to the New World with the sole purpose of carving out a place in their world for the dogmatic religious communities. Enticed by tales of abundance and salvation, many hoped that just by making the journey that they would join the ‘Elect’ and earn entrance into Heaven. As a result, by 1608 about four hundred families had settled either in New Amsterdam or along the Mauritius River.
Calling their combined communities New Holland, the settlers attempted to eke out as amicable a relationship with the local Native Americans as they could at first, trading with them for crops and furs and learning the local languages. A few of the bachelors that made the journey to the settlements even went so far as to take native wives and bring them to live on their farms. However, this more-or-less peaceful situation would not continue to last in its present state as more and more Dutch, Flemish and Walloon families began to settle along the Mauritius River Valley in the coming years.
Calvinist Sermon Promising Salvation in the New World
