Orang Nasrani. Protestantism and the establishment of the Protestant Church in Ambon,
1605 and 1625

by Dr. Hendrik E. Niemeijer
Leiden University – the Netherlands

1. Introduction – congratulations from the ThUK and Leiden University.
2. This week the GPM is commemorating 400 years of Protestantism. Today I would like to take you back in time, and bring you to the events of February 1605. 400 years ago Maluku was a well-populated and famous area at the heart of Asian trade. Indian and Malay traders came to Banda and Hitu to take part of the famous spice trade. The Portuguese also came, after the conquest of the trading port of Melaka. They settled first on Ternate and also came to Ambon. Missionaries like Franciscus Xavier came to Maluku to convert the local people to Catholicism. In 1575, the Portuguese were forced to leave Ternate. In a conflict with the sultan, they had killed the sultan, but they could not maintain their position. They came to their friends in Ambon and in 1576 they started building the town of Ambon.
3. After 30 years the Dutch VOC captured Ambon. This was remarkable. The VOC was only three years old, and they did not intend to have colonial possessions. It was a trading organization. Ambon was the first VOC-conquest of a Portuguese possession in Asia. But they could not conquer it by their own. Catholic Ambon was taken with the help of Muslims of Hitu. Both the Dutch and the Muslims of Hitu were at war with the Portuguese. And so, Catholic Ambon was wiped off the map because of the alliance between the VOC and Hitu and also the Muslims of Hoamoal on Ceram.
4. Now let me turn to the specific circumstances of that last week in February 1605.We know that the VOC-crews of admiral Steven van der Haghen took the Portuguese fortress without a single shot. They were no soldiers but sailors, and first they resisted because their contract did not say that they had to be soldiers. Fortunately, the Portuguese did not resist. This happened on the 23rd of February 1605. On the next day, February 24th, two Catholic, Jesuit priests came on board of Van der Haghen’s ship. Father Lorenzo Masonio gave the admiral information on the Catholic Ambonese, who had been subject to the Mission for over 70 years. The aim of father Masonio was clear: he wanted the Catholics under the protection of the VOC as quickly as possible, in fear for an attack by the kora-kora of Hitu. Most of the Catholic families were hiding in the mountains of Leitimor.
5. The fear for an attack by the Muslims of Hitu was very serious. The same day, the 24th of February, an old Portuguese man named Diego Barbudo came on board of the admiral. Several radja’s and captains of Catholic villages accompanied him. Barbudo introduced the radja’s to the admiral, and said that they had always been loyal partners to the Portuguese crown. Now they wanted to submit themselves to the States General of the Dutch Republic. And the same day the Portuguese governor don Gaspar de Mello came on board, with tears in his eyes. He said that he was very much ashamed and dishonoured that his men had not defended the castle.
6. One day later, on 25th February, father Masonio came on board of the Admiral’s ship again. He had been working very hard. He presented a written contract that guaranteed the safety of the Catholic population. Another day later, on the 26th of February, father Masonio came on board again with 24 village radja’s. They all promised loyalty to the Dutch, in return for protection. On the next day, the 27th of February, the Admiral himself went finally on land. He walked through the town; he inspected the houses, the beautiful gardens, the church, the square, and the castle. In the castle, the Admiral and his staff held a short prayer meeting. They thanked God for the victory of the Catholics. There was also a Dutch schoolmaster who read a sermon. But the most important thing that day was that the Admiral appointed the first Dutch governor of Ambon, Frederick de Houtman.
7. The question is now, what exactly are we commemorating this week. The word commemorating means ‘re-thinking’, thinking over again what had happened during these days of February of the year 1605, and during the four centuries the followed. The best we can say at this point is that the for the first time a group of Protestant people held a simple Protestant worship. As such that can be seen as the beginning of Protestantism on Ambon. This worship took place under the responsibility of a Christian government that had taken possession of Ambon. Third, the Christian radja’s had formally subjected themselves to that government.
8. The first foundation of a formal Protestant Church, however, took place much later. A few years ago, in Arsip VOC in Jakarta, I found the first correspondence of the first consistorium or church council of Ambon. On the 22 august 1625 the first church council of Ambon was elected. That is twenty years later. Before I tell you more about this event, let me explain why it took 20 years to establish a formal church in Ambon.
9. The first reason is that the VOC was a business organization, not a missionary society. Basically, they didn’t care about the Christian population of Ambon in the first few decades. At the same time, the VOC took the possession of the town of Ambon. On Ternate they started building a fortress two years later, in 1607. In and around the settlements some Dutch founded families. And both the VOC personnel on land and these families needed spiritual care. For that reason, the VOC started to contract some ministers and schoolmasters. The first productive minister in Ambon was Casparus Wiltens. He arrived in 1615. Before he came to Ambon, he worked for the VOC in Labuha. He died three years later. Then came Sebastianus Danckaerts, who worked in Ambon from 1618 – 1622.
10. We can imagine that only two ministers could not do much for the Ambonese Christians. The Ambonese Christians were also disturbed by the drunkenness of the Dutch settlers, and the bad behaviour of the VOC personnel. More and more they were forced to plant cengkeh trees, almost like slaves. In 1619 the first big revolt started. It began in Hattiwe, were most of the people had already become Muslim. Other villages also wanted to get rid of the VOC, and join with the Muslims. Only after a few years of bloody war, the VOC could bring the Leitimor villages back to Christianity.
11. The second reason for the delay of a church council. In Ambon itself, there were only three church members in 1623. This was not enough to celebrate the Holy Supper. Only in 1625, when there were more members, the governor approved the plan to establish a church council. So the reason to begin with a church council was the celebration of the Holy Supper. For this celebration, you need a church council that takes care of the church discipline, the censura morum, and that controls the moral lives of the church members. Without a church council, no celebration.
12. We have to imagine that the first community of Dutch people in Ambon was a very annoying group of people. They were mostly drunk, and the first Dutch women were send away from Holland because they were prostitutes or sitting in prisons and orphan houses. Together with a bunch of rough soldiers, this was not a civil society to promote Protestantism. They were swearing, cursing and making the streets unsafe.
13. It took the VOC five bloody wars to pacify the Ambon region. The last war ended in 1656. Half a century of conflict had costs thousands of lives, had destructed dozens of villages. The ruthlessness of colonial occupation for the sake of the spice monopoly is hard to describe. Only during the last phase of that war the Christian faith was slowly adopted in the villages that were formally Catholic. At the end of the 17th century, Protestantism was firmly rooted in Ambon.
14. During the 17th and 18th centuries, some 160 Dutch ministers served the Church of Ambon. They were paid by the VOC, and mostly stationed in Ambon. Now and then they took a visitation tour to the islands of Haruku, Saparua and Nusalaut, and to the villages of Ceram that also had become Christian, like Piru, Elpaputy and Amahai. Most of these ministers died within five years, or they were called to another place. It is hard to believe that they had much influence on the Ambonese people.
15. What was more important was the fact that they educated local schoolmasters. Around 1700, the VOC paid a total of 100 schoolmasters in Maluku. More then 50 of them were working in the Ambon province. They were not only responsible for the village schools, but also for the daily religious practises, like the daily prayers, catechism lessons, Sunday services and administration. The Dutch predikant only came to baptize and to confirm marriages. The challenge for historians is now to find out what specific character this gave to Ambonese Reformed Christianity, agama christen Ambon. And also how agama Ambon developed itself next to agama Muslim Ambon.
16. Here I will stop my lecture, but I would like to make a last statement. I think it would be best when Ambonese historians would describe the historical process of Protestantization in Maluku. Prof. Holtrop, Dr. van den End, Dr. de Jong and myself have done our best for some ten years now to make a beginning with the archival sources. There is much more to discover. But after this pioneering job, Ambonese historians should take over. It is their history in the first place, and they know the region best. The problem is education. Historians need a proper language training in the Netherlands. They also need the supervision of experienced scholars. Therefore I appeal both the Synod of the GPM and the board of UKIM to come forward with a good plan to train more church historians.
17. Dates of consistories: Banda 10 april 1622 election of elders, 24 april confirmation in church; Ambon 22 august 1625, 23 august confirmation; Ternate: 1626?