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Show No Freedom of Worship Under Peter Stuyvesant Early in his administration Peter Stuyvesant Issued a proclamation forbidding for-bidding the people to assemble for any religious service other than that of the Dutch Reformed church, which was the established church in the fort, writes P. B. Cole in the New York World, in telling "The Story of New York." This law was vigorously enforced. Stuyvesant banished from the colony a Lutheran minister who had come from Holland to minister to the large number of Lutherans In the colony and even Imprisoned Lutheran parents par-ents who failed to have their children baptized in the Dutch Reformed church. Stuyvesant's iron hand fell heaviest, however, upon the Quakers, a large number of whom had settled on Long ; Island, In Hempstead. In this settle ment was Robert Hodgson, who began conducting Quaker meetings among his townfolk. Stuyvesant haled him to New Amsterdam, and without allowing al-lowing Hodgson to speak in his own defense, sentenced him to two years hard labor or a fine of 500 guilders. |