Consistory of Amsterdam for a minister, but nothing was done for them.
In 1653 the request was renewed. When the Reformed ministers heard of
it, they strenuously objected to the admission of a Lutheran minister;
they said this would open the door for all manner of sects and would
disturb the province in the enjoyment of its religion. Their attitude
was supported by Governor Stuyvesant, who indeed went to great lengths
in the enforcement of these views? [sic] Even the reading services,
which the Lutherans held among themselves in anticipation of the coming
of a minister, were forbidden, and fines and imprisonment were inflicted
upon those who disobeyed.

Candor compels us to admit that this was the spirit of the age. The
Thirty Years' War was going on at this time, and in a time of war
ruthless methods are the vogue.

In 1657, to the joy of the Lutherans and the consternation of the
Reformed, Joannes Ernestus Gutwasser (or Goetwater, as his name is often
printed) arrived from Amsterdam to minister to the waiting congregation.
But Governor Stuyvesant had no use for a Lutheran minister and Gutwasser
was ordered to return forthwith to the place from which he had come.
However, he succeeded in delaying his departure for nearly two years.

The congregation, unmindful of Stuyvesant's fulminations against all
who taught contrary to the Acts of the Synod of Dort, secured as their
minister in 1662 a student by the name of Abelius Zetskoorn, whom the
authorities soon transported to a charge on the Delaware, without the
violence, however, shown in the case of Gutwasser.

In 1664 the island was captured by the English and the Lutherans
succeeded in obtaining a charter with permission to call a minister and