revious knowledge, but suffer the matter to pass in silence, and
permit them their free worship in their houses." (314.)

18. Johannes Ernestus Gutwasser.--Evidently, to the Lutherans the time
seemed favorable to renew their urgent requests for a pastor of their
own. And in July, 1657, Johannes Ernestus Gutwasser (not Goetwater, or
Gutwater, or Goetwasser), a German, sent by the Lutheran Consistory of
Amsterdam, arrived on Manhattan Island. Great was the fury of the
Reformed domines and vehement their clamor for his immediate return.
They wrote a letter to the classis in Amsterdam in which, according to
Cobb, "they relate that 'a Lutheran preacher, Goetwater, arrived to the
great joy of the Lutherans and the especial discontent and
disappointment of the congregation of this place, yea, of the whole
land, even the English. We went to the Director-General,' who summoned
Goetwater, and found that he had as credentials only a letter from a
Lutheran consistory in Europe to the Lutheran Church in New Amsterdam.
The governor ordered him not to preach, even in a private house. The
domines lament, 'We already have the snake in our bosom,' and urge
Stuyvesant to open the consistory's letter, which, oddly enough, he
refused to do, but consented to the ministers' demand that Goetwater be
sent back in the ship that brought him. [']Now this Lutheran parson,'
the Dutch ministers conclude, 'is a man of a godless and scandalous
life; a rolling, rollicking, unseemly carl, who is more inclined to
look into the wine-can than to pore over the Bible, and would rather
drink a can of brandy for two hours than preach one.'" (315.) But,
though maligned and persecuted, Gutwasser did not suffer himself to be
intimidated, and even begun to preach. So great and persistent, however,
was the fury of the fanatics that he was finally compelled to yield and
return to Holland, in 1659. The second Lutheran pastor to arrive on
Manhattan Island while the Dutch were still in power was Abelius
Zetskorn, whom Stuyvesant directed to the Dutch settlement of New Amstel
(New Castle) on the Delaware. The tyranny of Stuyvesant, however, was
abruptly ended when in 1664 the English fleet sailed into the harbor and
compelled the surrender of New Amsterdam. In the Articles of
Capitulation it was specifically agreed that "the Dutch here shall enjoy
the liberty of their consciences in divine worship and church
discipline." And according to the proclamation of the Duke of Yo