Johannes Megapolensis

Background

Johannes Megapolensis was the son of Catholic parents and adhered to their faith until he was twenty-three years of age.

Career

Megapolensis became a minister of the gospel, serving in a couple of parishes in Holland from 1634 to 1642. In the latter year, he signed a contract with Kiliaen van Rensselaer by which he bound himself for a period of six years to minister to the patroon's colony at Rensselaerswyck at an annual salary of 1, 000 florins for the first three years and of 1, 200 for the remainder. He arrived at New Amsterdam on August 4. Thirteen days later, he preached his first sermon in the packhuys, the patroon's storehouse, to an audience of about one hundred. In the following year, he began to preach to the Indians, with whose language he had somewhat familiarized himself at great pains. Letters that he wrote to correspondents in Holland about the Mohawk Indians, their country, language, religion, and government, were printed there without his consent. The University Library of Ghent, Belgium, possesses the only extant copy known of this pamphlet, which was published at Alkmaar in 1644.

Megapolensis, in this booklet, shows himself entirely free from that haughty scorn for the ignorant Indians that Jonas Michaelius expressed in his letters. He lived with them on friendly terms, he let them come to his services, which sometimes ten or twelve would attend, each smoking a long tobacco pipe, and had, at one time, "eight at once lying and sleeping upon the floor near my bed. " He frankly admitted his failure to convert them; they never would be converted, he said, "until they are subdued . .. and reduced to some sort of civilization; and also unless our people set them a better example". He found fault with his Catholic fellow missionaries for baptizing the Indians in their ignorance of what baptism meant, and his refusal to follow their example may account for the confidence that the Indians showed him; for they looked upon the christening ceremony as a form of magic that would do them harm. Thanks to these good relations with the Indians, Megapolensis was able, in 1642, to rescue Father Isaac Jogues, of the Society of Jesus, from their hands. When his six years' term had expired, he arranged, in 1649, for his return to Holland, but Governor Stuyvesant and his Council persuaded him to accept a call to New Amsterdam as a successor of the Rev. J. C. Backer. He requested the authorities in Holland to put a stop to the immigration of Jews; yet he took pity on the twenty-three who, in 1654, arrived at New Amsterdam from Brazil and had his consistory appropriate a few hundred guilders for their immediate needs. He also opposed and prevented the establishment of a Lutheran church at New Amsterdam. In 1657 he received a visit from the Jesuit missionary Simon le Moyne; a sequel to this call was a Latin treatise which the latter sent to Megapolensis urging him to return to the Mother Church. Le Moyne's plea is lost, but its contents may be guessed from the domine's acrimonious Latin reply, which has been published with English translation in Reply of Rev. Johannes Megapolensis to a Letter of Father Simon Le Moyne (1907). On August 29, 1664, Megapolensis and his son Samuel, with two of the city magistrates, acted as messengers between Stuyvesant and Col. R. Nicholls, but their names do not appear in the "Remonstrance, " signed by ninety-three citizens, urging capitulation. On October 2, however, he swore the oath of allegiance to the King of England, and he continued to minister to his congregation until his death.

Achievements

• Megapolensis is best known as the author of A Short Account of the Mohawk Indians, their Country, Language, Figure, Costume, Religion, and Government, first published from his letters by friends in 1644 in North Holland, and being translated into English in 1792 and printed in Philadelphia. He is also known for having assisted the French missionary, Father Isaac Jogues in the 1643. The priest had been serving as a missionary to the Hurons and had been taken captive by the Mohawk. After his tenure in Rensselaerwyck, Megapolensis went to New Amsterdam intending to return to Holland. Governor Stuyesant prevailed upon him to remain and undertake the duties of pastor. In 1664, he was instrumental in facilitating a smooth transition to British rule.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Reply of Rev. Johannes Megapolensis

    (This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curat...)

  • Reply of Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, Pastor of the Church of New Amsterdam, to a Letter of Father Simon Le Moyne, a French Jesuit Missionary of Canada, 1658 (Classic Reprint)

    (Excerpt from Reply of Rev. Johannes Megapolensis, Pastor ...)

Personality

Megapolensis had the reputation as a humane Christian, though he was far from being a tolerant man.

Connections

Megapolensis was married to Machtelt, daughter of Willem Strengthen. They had four children.

Father:

Johannes Megapolensis

Wife:

Machtelt Strengthen Megapolensis

References

• Ecclesiastical Records State of New York (Volume I)
• The Iconography of Manhattan Island, 1498-1909: Compiled From Original Sources and Illustrated by Photo-Intaglio Reproductions of Important Maps, ... and Private Collections (Classic Reprint)