Knickerbockers Who Asserted and Insisted [ 129 ] their interests, so in the late 1670s did he seek to avoid future battles with the Dutch Reformed church. In 1679, a congregation on the South (Delaware) River asked the Dutch ministers of New York to ordain their preacher, Peter Tesschenmaker, who already had a bachelor of divinity degree. When the Dutch ministers hesitated (ordination examinations for New York ministers were the responsibility of the classis of Amsterdam), Andros came to the aid of the congregation. He carefully ordered New York's Dutch ministers to ordain Tesschenmaker "if you shall find him fittly qualified!' Though the ministers feared that "it would not be safe to disobey" Andros, no conflict between their fears and their standards of quality surfaced. Tesschenmaker passed his ordination examination with flying colors on October 9. As an anonymous notetaker put it: "he manifested such proficiency in and acquaintance with theology, as to command the approbation of all the members!' The classis of Amsterdam approved the action of New York's temporarily independent classis: "your Reverences have acted legally, wisely and well in that matter!'34 If the Dutch Reformed church was wary of Andros and carefully avoided appeals to civil authorities to resolve its internal disputes, Andros also learned to avoid interference in Dutch church affairs. He left the Dutch Reformed church free to grow and prosper. The Dutch church became a method of preserving ethnic and national identity in heterogeneous areas such as New Castle, in Delaware, and was part of the old way of life in more homogeneous areas such as Albany.35 That men like Cornelis Steenwyck, Stephanus Van Cortlandt, and Nicholas Bayard were important Dutch church officers only served to hasten an accommodation with Andros, with whom these elites developed a good working relationship. After all, wrote the ministers of New York in 1680, the English "agree with us pretty well on the fundamental truths of our religion, but differ much in spirit, form of Church Government, and usages. Our peculiar relations to them may sometimes cause irregularities But such things are of little consequence. As soon as the cause is removed, there is no further confusion!' Church membership was increasing "steadily"; the only deprivation was the 8* Ecc. Rec, 1,724-25.733. 734. 739- 85 Ibid., 718-19; Kilpatrick, Dutch Schools in New Netherland, 170. See Church of New Castle to Classis of Amsterdam, September 25,1682, Ecc. Rec, II, 824.