History
In 1829, Hendrik de Cock became minister of the Dutch Reformed Church in the town of Ulrum, near the city of Groningen. He was not evangelical but his congregation was. One of the members gave him the Canons of Dordt to read. This, plus his own discovery of John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion, led to a great change in his preaching.
This change in his preaching attracted many people from other congregations to his worship services. Later these same people requested Hendrik de Cock to baptize their new babies. They could not, in good conscience have their babies baptized in their own churches, partly because the old Baptism Form had been replaced with, in their view, other heretical practices and liturgy, and partly because if the old Form was still used they could not answer "Yes" to the question whether they "believed the doctrine taught in their church was the truth of God's Word".
After careful consideration, consultation with his consistory and others, and through anxious prayer, de Cock did baptize these children. This infuriated the clergy from the other congregations, who in turn notified the authorities. It was, in fact, this issue that de Cock's colleagues brought in protest against him at Classis. In his defense he wrote a pamphlet defending what he and his consistory believed to be the truth. This sparked off much debate and as a result the Dutch Reformed Church suspended him as a minister on 13 December 1833.
in order to maintain law and order in the Reformed Church, to protect the name and honour of the ministers of the Gospel, and to prevent more disorders, divisions, and revolutions in several congregations in our Fatherland; . . . if preachers as DeCock were not halted in their reckless enterprise, this Board fears the worst.
Hendrik de Cock submitted to his suspension and stayed off his pulpit, but tensions continued to rise. They reached a kind of climax when Rev. Heinrich Scholte (later to settle and establish a colony in Pella, Iowa), who was known to be friendly to him, was forbidden to preach in Hendrik de Cock's church. In this way, a modernist could occupy the pulpit instead. The congregation did not take kindly to this and the police were called in to prevent what was a near riot.
Hendrik de Cock refused to recant, and finally, with his congregation, officially parted (seceded) on 13 October 1834 from the Dutch Reformed Church. The next day they signed the Act of Secession or Return (1834).
Other churches also left the Dutch Reformed Church to join Hendrik de Cock in forming the Christian Reformed Churches in the Netherlands (CGKN). These churches and their members would be called the "Secessionists" or "Seceders".
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