| Citation |
NP.774.014
3-10 Feb 1774:12 (1/19)
ANECDOTE OF A DUTCH BURGO-MASTER. An old burgomaster in the
city of Groeningen, a man of a respectable character, and an
elder of the church, having married a daughter much to his
satisfaction, was prevailed on by the importunity of some
ladies at the wedding feast, to dance a minuet with one of
them. This getting air, three or four ministers of the town,
who had a pique against this old gentleman, and who ( it is
said) were further exasperated at their not being invited to
the wedding, laid their wise heads together to plan out a
scheme of vengeance. With this view they search the
ecclesiastical code of the province, and found an old law of
the year 1580, whereby it was enacted, that in case any
elder of the church should on any occasion whatever, presume
to dance, he shoul'd after full proof of the fact, be
deposed from his office; be excommunicated, and rendered
incapable of every resuming his ecclesiastical function.
Elated with their success in having met with such a
convenient weapon, they were resolved it should not lie
useless. They immediately notified their success and their
intentions to their party. They then convened a consistory,
in which they declaimed with great vehemence, upon the
aggravated sin the burgomaster had committed, the great
dishonour he had done to God and religion, and the great
scandal he had thereby given to the Lord's people. The
fact, being too notorious to be denied, was admitted; the
obsolete law in that case was read and these reverend
guardians of religion insisted upon the sentence being
carried into immediate execution. As they had previously
taken care to secure a majority of votes, their motion was
soon carried. The offending burgomaster was deposed, and a
deputation of the consistory; at the head of which were
these tender conscienced ministers, was ordered to wait upon
him and announced their sentence.
. . . [7 paragraphs]
He then observed to them, that they must certainly have
perused their ecclesiastical code is a very partial and
superficial manner, or else they could never have overlooked
a law in the very same book, "By which (said he) you
reverent gentlemen, and all the rest of your fraternity in
this province, are ipso facto condemned and deposed." Here
they stared yet more than before like people thunderstruck.
. . . [The burgomaster found a law requiring ministers to
shave their heads and war black silk scullcaps or else they
should be excommunicated. The entire story lasts 2 columns]
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