10 October, 1645—They granted to the town of Flushing the "Liberty of Conscience according to the Custom and manner of Holland, without molestation or disturbance from any magistrate or any other Ecclesiastical minister."
19 December, 1645.—They made the same grant to Gravesend.
At a later day a change seems to have come over them, as witness the following:
"Ordinance
Of the Director and Council of New Netherland against Conventicles.—Passed 1 February, 1656.
"Whereas the Director and Council of New Netherland are credibly informed and apprized that here and there within this Province not only are Conventicles and Meetings held, but also that some unqualified persons in such Meetings assume the ministerial office, the expounding and explanation of the Holy word of God, without being called or appointed thereto by ecclesiastical or civil authority, which is in direct contravention and opposition to the general Civil and Ecclesiastical order of our Fatherland; besides that many dangerous Heresies and Schisms are to be apprehended from such manner of meetings. Therefore, the Director General and Council aforesaid hereby absolutely and expressly forbid all such conventicles and meetings, whether public or private, differing from the customary and not only lawful but scripturally founded and ordained meetings of the Reformed Divine service, as this is observed and enforced according to the Synod of Dordrecht," etc.
On 21 September, 1662, they enacted that "beside the Reformed worship and service, no conventicles or meetings shall be kept in the province, whether it be in houses, barnes, ships, barkes, nor in the woods nor fields."
In December, 1656, they enacted an ordinance containing this, among other things:
"Further, whenever, early in the morning or after supper in the evening, prayers shall be said, or God's word read, by any one thereunto commissioned, every person, of what quality soever he may be, shall repair to hear it with becoming reverence.