HISTORY OF BROOKLYN. 145

his wants. His application for redress was discussed at considerable length by the Council, who finally decided that any money paid to the Dominie on account of the 600 gl. allowed to him in the Fatherland, should be paid in beavers, at a rate not higher than 6 gl., and any commodities in seawant in proportion. The 600 gl. promised him here in New Netherland, was to be paid with beavers, in cash, at the value of 8 gl. per beaver, agreeably to the contract of August 30th, 1660.1

This year, also, the church of Breuckelen was called upon to part with its beloved pastor, Selyns. His time having expired, he yielded to the urgent solicitations of his aged father in Holland; and having duly obtained permission from the Lords Directors of the West India Company,2 was most tenderly and respectfully dismissed from his church on the 17th of July, 1664, and sailed for home on the 23d, in the ship Beaver, the same vessel which had conveyed him to America.

After his departure, Charles Debevoise, the schoolmaster of the town and church sexton, was authorized to read prayers and a sermon from some approved author, each Sabbath, in the church, for the improvement of the congregation, until another minister could befound.

Selyn’s pastoral duties at Breuckelen were always discharged with zeal and fidelity. The records of the church at Breuckelen for this period, are still preserved in his own handwriting, and bear ample evidence of his devotion to his calling—chronicling, with rare simplicity, the occurrences in the government of the church and the occasions of discipline of his flock. Once we find him in collision with the magistrates of the town, in regard to an attempted jurisdiction on their part over an act of ecclesiastical censure exercised by him towards one of the church-members. In a respectful letter, he refused to appear before them or acknowledge their right to take cognizance of the sentence pronounced by him and his consistory. He maintained that the civil courts could not try offences arising purely out of the ecclesiastical relation; and that the complainant

1 N. Y. Col. MSS., x. 33, 35, 100,131.

2 The petition of Dominie Selyns for permission to return home may be found (dated July 17,1664) in N.Y. Col. MSS., x. 270.