CHAPTEE XXXL
 

BeIigioDS->-Bonian Catholic
 

Advent of the Seot in the City—Oreat Intolerance Shown to It—Opening

of a Latin School—^Liberty of Conscience Granted

to All Except "Fapists,'*

It would bo easier to write the history of the Catholic denomination In
the city of New Tork aftor 1S25 than prior to that date, as the Church has
been wofully lax In the keeping of records.

This may he attributed to two causes: First, tbo non-toloration, under
tbe Dutch, of any religion but the Calvinlet, and, second, tbe proscription,
under British rule, wltb the exception of tbe period of the Dongan admlnis*
tratton, of Catholicity and Catholic worship under penalty of the law.
Other religious bodies were subject to certain Intolerant rules during both
administrations, and, as bas been told In the short histories of the denomina¬
tions, members of them were punished for the Infraction of these rules, hut
no statute law existed prohibiting the entrance Into the colony of any
other sect but the Catholic,

As far back as 1643, twenty-eight years after the settlement was
founded, it Is recorded that the Dutch ransomed from the Mohawks ono
Father Isaac Joques, who had been a slave in the tribe for nearly a year,
and brought him to their settlement, and tbat there he found two of his
own faith; that after the dejiarture of this priest for Holland, another, the
Rev. Francis Joseph Bressanl, who had also fallen Into tho bands of tho
Indians, was rescued by the Dutch and brought to New Amsterdam. No
rscord exists, however, of either having performed priestly functions.

Under the administration of the Duke of York In 1&G4 no person who
professed Christianity was "to be molested, fined or Imprisoned for differing
In opinion on matters of religion," and tbe now colony was opened to the
Catholics, but few of the sect were In New York to avail themselves of tho
new order of things. In 1674 Qovernor Andros arrived, and with him, as
Lieutenant Governor, came Anthony Brockbolls, a Lancashire Catholic, The
Ueutonant Oovemor Interested himself In the affairs of his religion, and
sought to Increase the number of Its worshippers In the colony. Through
him a few Catholic settlors arrived, and petitions were made to the Jesuit
missionaries on the Chesapeake to extend tbeir mission to New York, which
they did for a time. With the advent of Qovernor Dongan. a Catholic, In
l€83, rellgiona toleration was still further eirtended, and a Catholic mis¬
sion waa organised, consisting of Father Henry Harrison and Father Charles
Oage, with two lay brothers. They were to minister to tbe Catholics In tho
province and to replace tho French missionaries among the Indians,   For

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