of
these clerical letters.

Of their authors, Domine Megapolensis has been already treated, in the
introduction to his tract on the Mohawks. He remained at New Amsterdam
through the period of the English conquest, and died there in 1669. The
Reverend Samuel Drisius (Dries) was born about 1602, of Dutch parents,
but was throughout his earlier life a pastor in England, until the
troubles in that country caused him to return to the Netherlands. Since
he was able to preach not only in Dutch but also in English and even
in French, it was natural that the Classis should send him out to New
Netherland in response to the urgent requests made for assistance to
Megapolensis, especially in dealing with the non-Dutch population at New
Amsterdam. He began his pastoral service there in 1653, and continued
throughout the remainder of the period represented by this book. In 1669
he is reported as incapacitated by failing mental powers, and he died
in 1673. Domine Henricus Selyns was examined as a candidate for the
ministry in 1657, ordained by the Classis in 1660, called to Breukelen
and inducted there in that year. He returned to Holland in 1664, before
the surrender, but came back to New York in 1682 as minister of the
Collegiate Church, and died there in 1701.

John Romeyn Brodhead, at the time of his remarkable mission to the
Netherlands (1841), included in his endeavors a search for Dutch
ecclesiastical papers bearing on New Netherland. The letters which
follow were among those which he found in Amsterdam, in the archives of
the Classis. In 1842 they were Lent, in 1846 given, by the Classis
to the General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church in America. To this
material large Additions were made by a further search carried out in
1897-1898, by the Reverend Dr. Edward T. Corwin, acting as agent of that
church, who is responsible for the translations which follow. An account
of all this ecclesiastical material, under the title "The Amsterdam
Correspondence," was printed by him in 1897 in the eight volume of
the _Papers of the American Society of Church History_. He edited
the material for publication in the first volume of the series called
_Ecclesiastical Records, State of New York_, published by the state in
1901. The letters which follow are taken, with slight revision, from
various pages (from page 334 to page 562) of that volume.

LETTERS OF THE DUTCH MINISTERS TO THE CLASSIS OF AMSTERDAM, 1655-1664

Rev. Johannes Megapole