Scottish Church of Rotterdam
The exile of Livingstone and his likes was to rid the Establishment of a thorn in its side. This would be the price of their non-conformity, but the resultant deportation would be a freedom to espouse their religious views without fear of contradiction.
The knowledge that they were to be denied the opportunity of influencing events at home, as well as leaving many dear relatives and friends behind, had to be endured.
In Livingstone`s case, he had the opportunity of pronouncing his stoutly held beliefs, and being prepared for the worse, the banishment would allow him to pursue his writings and studies. His wife, Janet and their two youngest children, Robert and Elizabeth would join him in exile within a few months. But what awaited him there?
Early in the 17th Century many Scots traders and merchants settled in Rotterdam and conducted their businesses from there. As well as their business expertise, they brought with them their deep rooted attachment to religious ordinances that manifested itself into a desire for some form of public worship.
Until 1640 this demand was frequently met with the services of chaplains in the army or ministers from other towns. Those that had a command of the Dutch language often attached themselves to the Dutch Reformed Communion while others joined the congregation of the Independents of which the Presbyterian Church of England was a part.
The magistrates of the city were in sympathy with the Scots` desire to pursue their own brand of Presbyterianism and lent their support to procure a pastor whose salary would be met by the state.
The state government was sympathetic to this desire, and on 19th July, 1642 agreed to appoint a minister with an annual salary of 550 guilders. The city officials agreed to furnish a place of worship, and in a show of magnanimity, granted a further annual stipend of 1,200 guilders.
Letters were soon on their way to the Presbytery of Edinburgh seeking assistance in procuring a likely nominee for the post of minister to the new church.
The presbytery`s choice was Mr Alexander Petrie from Rhynd in Perthshire. The General Assembly were in total agreement with the Presbytery and assented willingness to his translation to Rotterdam.
Mr Petrie accepted the appointment and on 2nd August, 1643, he preached his first sermon in a house on Wine Street, Rotterdam which had been fitted up for that purpose by the magistrates.
On the 30th day of the same month, he was formally installed by the Reverend William Spang of Campvere. The latter gentleman had been a teacher at the High School, Edinburgh before moving to Holland in 1630,
Formation of Kirk
Within a short time, Mr Petrie had formed the nucleus of a kirk session with some of Scot`s birth moving from the Dutch Church with its blessing. Mr Rein Berkel, a senior minister, on behalf of the town, State, the Classis (presbytery) and Synod solemnly and publicly declared, "...that now this Scottish kirk is established, and these elders and deacons being received, this is a free congregation in itself as any other, and the consistorie thereof is absolute as the consistorie of the Dutch kirke is."
The services continued to be held in the Wine Street house until May 1658 when with the French Walloons, they were allowed to share the St Sebastian chapel in Lombard Street which had been originally built for the French. Both parties continued to share the premises until the French Protestants moved into a new church built for them in 1662. The Scots congregation was then given exclusive use of St Sebastian.
Mr Petrie died in September of the same year and he was succeeded by Mr John Hogg, late of Linton, Canongate, and South Leith parishes. Under Mr Hogg, the church petitioned for larger premises on account of an ever increasing congregation. The chapel of St Sebastian was found not only too small, but rather remote from the area of the city where the Scots mostly resided.
Partly to offset the problem, the magistrates had built a gallery which in itself was unheard of in Dutch churches. This had to suffice for the next twenty years and only after this time was a more commodious place of worship erected.
Livingstone`s Arrival
The church became soon established and by the time of Livingstone`s arrival had a thriving population of ministers and lay people alike.
He found among others who had gone before him, Robert Traill, Robert McWard and James Simpson. This gave him great comfort. McWard tried unsuccessfully to have him accepted as the new minister of the church in Rotterdam, writing to the congregation describing Livingstone as follows. "Oh, when I remember that burning and shining light worthy and warme Mr Livingstone, who used to preach, as within sight of Christ, and the glory to be revealed..." Such was the reverence in which he was held.
Twelve years earlier, he and Traill alongwith Patrick Gillespie, three of the Protesters, had been requested to meet with Robert Blair over the repurcussions brought about by Charles ll`s crowning at Scone. Traill`s convictions had never wavered, hence his force deportment from the country.
On the other hand, Gillespie had been deposed in 1651 and with the support of Cromwell`s government, took up the post of Principal of Glasgow University in 1653. He secured favourable terms from the Protector in raising the University`s status as well as a greatly enhanced salary for himself.
Affairs of State took up a great deal of his time with resultant prolonged periods of absenteeism from his main task. While the University was endowed with new buildings, its main function as a place of learning went into a state of decline.
Gillespie was relieved of his authority and imprisoned on the restoration of Charles ll in 1660.
With the presence of so many likeminded ministers of religion about him, Livingstone was not short of intellectual and spiritual stimulation. The arrival of his wife and two children in December 1663 made his banishment tolerable. Their five surviving children remained behind in Scotland. These, among others, would often visit him in Holland, and they would fetch and carry his correspondence back and forth.
Added to this the freedom to preach in the Scot`s congregation without fear of outside interference, he would later comment, "Hitherto I can say, dureing my abode at Rotterdan, I have been in my body as free of pains and sickness, and in my mind as free of anxiety, as ever I have been all my life dureing so long a time, and makes accompt that my lot is a great deal easier than of many of those that are at home."
His understanding of Hebrew allowed him to pursue an ambition which he had always cherished, which was to set out a Bible with the original text in one column and a translation in the other in the appropriate language. This he felt, would give the ministers and professors a more complete knowledge of God.
His enforced exile provided him with the leisure time needed for the mammoth task. He was to complete a version with the Hebrew and Latin but it failed to be published.
In contrast, he was once asked by the General Assembly before his banishment, to write a history of the Church of Scotland since the late reformation, 1638, but this failed to achieve, " ...beside my inability for such ane undertaking, my lazie disposition, I could no means procure the materialls fit for such ane work."
He kept in constant touch with his former parishioners in Ancrum by letter. In fact his letters were his sermons to them `in abstentia`.
