A remarkable story ! M . C . Vos ( 1759 – 1825 ) in the light of his times

How to cite this article: Zuiddam, B.A., 2012, ‘A remarkable story! M.C. Vos (1759–1825) in the light of his times’, In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi 46(2), Art. #56, 12 pages. http://dx.doi.org/ 10.4102/ids.v46i2.56 This article established the role of the Rev. M.C. Vos (1759–1825) as an internationally oriented Pietistic minister who encouraged mission work amongst the slaves and non-Europeans in the Cape Colony. It clears up several misunderstandings about Vos’s genealogy and argues that there is no genealogical warrant to treat Vos as something else than a White, European minister and writer. His cultural setting and ancestry was that of a colonial Dutchman, although it may have been Euro-Asian to some small extent. If so, this could have predisposed him naturally to look kindly on the lot of Bengal and Malayan slaves. The real motivating factor for Vos’s missionary endeavours was not racial, but spiritual. The promotion of the Gospel and knowledge of the Scriptures was foremost in the mind of this Dutch Reformed minister. This article argues that the Bible and divine guidance had a remarkable influence on the life and actions of M.C. Vos, to the extent that even his autobiography is marked by Biblical language. Vos is placed within the historical perspective of his times, which assists a balanced interpretation of this remarkable person and his convictions.


Introduction Problem statement
In historical research there is always the temptation to make the object of one's research as relevant to one's own time as possible. This has happened to the subject of this article, the Rev. Michiel Christiaan Vos. He is known as South Africa's first mission-man, but is this in fact the case? Is it possible that a convincing case for earlier candidates can be put forward? We live in postapartheid days that invite possibility thinking. Looking at his genealogy, was Vos perhaps a Black person of mixed race himself? Did he therefore feel a natural desire to minister to his own people who were less fortunate? This article will explore this issue. What was the real motivation in the life of Vos if one takes the primary source of our information, his autobiography, into account? This article is built around the central theory that, in his missionary endeavours, Vos was driven by his understanding of the Bible and a spiritual calling he felt in this regard. Although Vos's convictions and activities are not surprising in the light of the times and his family history, his life story remains remarkable for its commitment, achievements and actual events. If not anything else, it is riveting as a travelling account of a man on a mission under divine guidance.

Biographical overview
Even for those familiar with Vos's autobiography, Merkwaardig Verhaal, it is helpful to have a general overview of the facts of his life: 1759 -Born in family characterised by Pietism (Nadere Reformatie' [Second Reformation]). 1765 -Father dies. 1776 -Receives spiritual illumination after conversion-process that took several years. Desires to become a minister and to evangelise the slaves and Hottentots. 1 1779 -Marries Elizabeth Jacobs to become legally of age so as to gain access to inheritance from his father to study theology in the Netherlands. Arrangement with in-laws that wife will remain in the Cape Colony. 1780 -Leaves for Holland, whilst frivolous French troops are stationed at the Cape. 1781 -After preliminary classical studies, he enters theological academy in Utrecht and moves in conservative reformed, Voetian, circles. 1784 -Graduates and serves as curate in Amsterdam. 1785 -Becomes minister in Woudenberg, as he was passed by for appointment at the Cape for political reasons. 1789 -Becomes minister in Pijnacker. 1790 -Becomes minister in Woerden. 1793 -Appointment in Roodezand (since its separation from Stellenbosch in 1804 known as Tulbagh), Cape Colony. 1794 -Induction in the parish of Roodezand. 1797 -First travels to the Eastern border; writes to Holland about the pressing need for missionaries. This request

Mission work before the 19th century societies
A common misconception is that Dutch Christianity in South Africa never considered the spiritual needs of non-Europeans until Vos and others arrived on the scene. Huigen (1997:205) is Consequently, one could state that there has always been an interest in mission work during the days of the VOC, but that this was attempted through established relationships. Mission work was not a special enterprise, but was part of the spread of Dutch culture at the Cape. As the Dutch entered into relationships, their contacts were also instructed in the true Christian reformed religion. It came with a cultural package, but then, all mission work does and this, at least, was an integrated package. The work of the Societies in the 19th century often aligned with the cause of the British Empire and several other political causes advanced by the English Liberal Party at the time. This was, for instance, reflected in attitudes to slavery and polygamy, whilest British commerce and empire-building were promoted hand-in-hand with many evangelical missions. This was most prominently embodied in David Livingstone. Thirdly, the major problem has an even more significant genealogical nature. It is doubtful whether Anna of Bengal ever was Vos's great-grandmother in the first place. She probably never was part of his family line at all. There is every reason to believe that Vos's maternal grandmother was not Anna of Bengal, but a Dutch lady called Elisabeth van der Poel, whose parents were both born in Holland. Anna could not have been Vos's grandmother, as she was married to his great-grandfather, not his grandfather. This makes the alleged Asian element in the bloodline on the mother's side almost negligible. Although it was true that Christiaan Bok was Vos's great-grandfather, his marriage with Anna was a second marriage. Vos's grandmother was born from an earlier wife who passed away and whose particulars have been lost in the mists of time. Traces of Vos's German ancestry may be found in his autobiography as well. As a youngster he used to sing at home from the Dutch Psaltery, but also the German Hymnary (Vos 1824:6 Vos refers to his first wife in a similar geographical way as his African wife. From his autobiography there is every indication that his first wife was chronically depressed for most of their married life. She was sickly and grumpy as a result (Vos 1824:135) and only reluctantly moved to the Netherlands when Vos initially did not receive an opportunity at the Cape. This was all very understandable in the light of the personal sacrifices that she had made to support her husband's ministry. She was married to an absent husband for four years during the prime of her life to facilitate his studies. Her patient expectation of his return was rewarded by being taken away from her family to the other side of the world. When she and her husband finally returned to the southern tip of Africa after 14 years overseas she was an emotional wreck and wanted to return to Holland. Their marriage remained childless and rumours about an adulterous relationship with their maid in Roodezand would have put added pressure on their union. There must have been a certain degree of material hardship as well. For example, when they made it to England they lost most of their worldly possessions to the London customs. This was the remnant of their money after a forced expensive stay on St Helena. Vos's wife was ill-suited to non-European servants (Vos 1824:127) and must have had her misgivings when the London Missionary Society pressured her enthusiastic husband to go to Ceylon and leave his wife behind in Europe, albeit in the care of the London Missionary Society (LMS) (Vos 1824:144). The fact that despite his initial firm objections he was prepared to go to Ceylon once he knew his wife would be taken care of is probably indicative of the nature of their relationship and her vulnerable mental state. In the end Vos's wife recovered sufficiently to go with him to Ceylon, but died along the way. Vos ( In contrast, his second and much younger wife must have been a breath of fresh air. Not surprisingly, Oupa Michiel Vos referred to her in terms of endearment. The manner in which these two met was also special. The night before Vos set foot ashore, and before they had ever met, she had a dream about someone dressed in black who would take her ring from her finger. She shared the dream only a few weeks after their marriage:

Genealogy of the Vos family
Zij droomde juist in dien nacht, toen ik den volgenden morgen eerst aldaar aan wal en in den stad kwam, en zij volstrekt niets van mij wist: dat er iemand in het zwart gekleed tot haar kwam, en haren ring van haren vinger nam. In the light of the German elements in Vos's ancestry, it is interesting that as a Dutch Reformed minister he had natural sympathy for the Moravian Brethren and German missionaries in general. Some of his children and grandchildren intermarried with missionary families such as the Alheits and the Gerdeners. One of his daughters (M.J.S. Vos 1817-1906 married the Rhenish missionary C.W. Alheit. One of her daughters married the Rhenish missionary, Johann Gerdener. Their son Gustav would become an influential professor at the Stellenbosch seminary, through whom the family continued to contribute extensively to the cause of missions in South Africa (cf. Gerdener 1951a).

Religion in the age of reason
Theology in Holland, the motherland, felt the pressures of humanism, rationalism and deism. Even the sermons of the Puritans and reformed scholasticism suffered from a theoretical approach that resulted in endless divisions and subdivisions. Emphasis on the right theory rather than on revealed theology and experience called for the countermovements of Methodism, Pietism and also the Second Reformation, which as a particularly Dutch manifestation of Pietism stressed a reformation of life, but gradually suffered from overtones of predestination. In the United Kingdom this trend was found particularly in the movement of the Wesley brothers and Whitefield. Whilst in Holland, theology could be argued to contain a mixture of Reformed Pietism and the Second Reformation, the latter being rooted in the former movement (see W. van 't Spijker in Brienen 1986:5-12). All three movements emphasised the necessity of a personal relationship with God as an integrated part of life and encouraged a greater place for emotions in church life. To a lesser or greater degree they all suffered from a scholastic need to discern theoretically between different spiritual stages and to actively organise these emotions and stages through prescribed ways of preaching and the proper spiritual activities to counteract the flesh. Although in a completely different and thoroughly Protestant setting, some of it was not unlike Ignatius of Loyala's system of organised personal religion.
Although in spiritual opposition to the times, Pietism operated in the Age of Man leading up to the French and American Revolutions. In its own way Pietism was mancentred. It called man's personal spiritual state before God to the forefront, stressing outward or inward spiritual milestones, scholastically and philosophically discerning many steps on the road to the assurance of faith. Although this was a far cry from the autonomy of man in liberalism, it was perhaps not unlike the times. However, arguably, anything was better than empty rationalism with its Deistic and impersonal God as an absent architect of the universe.

Spiritual concerns about the Cape
The second half of the 18th century at the Cape of Good Hope saw a society that was marked by Christian charity. The diaconate took care of orphans and widows. Even those who had no money received an education and were instructed in the doctrines of the Christian faith in catechism class. The charity of the mother church in Cape Town, where Michiel Vos grew up, reached far beyond the borders of the Colony. The Church sent help to German congregations in Gulick and Wetzler and assisted travellers who passed through the Cape of Good Hope on their way to India or the mother country. The Church had become an established part of a society that was marked by a Christian culture. Although the government played an important if not central role even in the affairs of the Church, discouraging any regional form of church self-government, this also implied an official support for Christianity and its religious and moral values.  Van Lier, and subsequently Vos, encouraged an evangelical exposition of Scripture with applications to personal circumstances and needs (Gerdener 1943:153-154). The formal approach to religion in the Cape Colony was challenged by Vos's puritan revivalist preaching and also by the way he encouraged religion in the home as well as evangelism amongst the non-Christian population of South Africa. This was particularly applied to the slaves and Malayan population of the Cape, but should not be restricted to these. Vos wrote a catechism 'ten behoeve van

Prejudice explained in historic context
The names of three English contemporaries who exemplify what Vos stood for come to mind: George Whitefield (the necessity of personal faith, experience and conversion), William Carey (a zeal for mission work), and William Wilberforce (an eye for the improvement of the position of slaves). For Vos, however, meeting spiritual needs was his overriding goal. He wasn't a political activist. Vos even supported a law that allowed Christian slaves to be traded. This meant that slaver owners would be prepared to allow Christian teaching and baptism to their slaves considering that they would no longer suffer economic loss as a result of slaves converting. Vos's interest in slaves was always foremost in his mind. This was also because he knew that many White Christians back in Holland and England were far worse off than slaves at the Cape (cf. Vos 1824:14).
Against this historical background, (i.e. the antagonism of the local authorities against both Pietism, his mission work amongst non-Europeans and his support for the slaves) it becomes understandable that the authorities at the Cape were prejudiced against Michiel Vos. To exacerbate matters, when the Dutch government joined forces with the French Revolution one of the men responsible for Vos's appointment happened to take a dislike to the rightwing Prof. Bonnet, who was Vos's friend and teacher in Utrecht. In the light of this powerful opposition it was a small miracle that Vos was ever appointed to a congregation at the Colony in 1793.
Providentially, the British, who were more supportive of Vos's religious and political causes, took over the government in the Cape Colony two years later in order that the French revolutionaries could not take possession of the Cape with its important strategic location. However, with the Peace of Amiens in 1803 the colony came back to the Batavian Republic. The governor, Jacob de Mist, did not support the mission causes of Pietism at all. He was only interested in law, order and obedient natives. As far as the Hernhutters (Moravian Brethren) encouraged this, it was fine, but De Mist ruled that any teaching of slaves and natives should take place not closer than a three-day journey from established parishes. To De Mist's credit this served to protect the local church as a regional entity against interference. However it was not a realistic nor practical ruling, as some parish boundaries were so far outstretched that some members travelled ten days to church (cf. Despite this, it is worthwhile to explore Liechtenstein's accusation or hearsay about humility as a performance that reformed Pietistic ministers were supposed to sustain. Some expressions in Vos's autobiography seem to encourage judgement of his character. For example, we read that he speaks of 'my humble labours', but discover in the same sentence that these 'are blessed' and 'clearly blessed' in the next sentence (Vos 1824:51). But if one takes the context into account, Vos expresses himself very naturally without any self-glorification. Infact, the contrary is the case. It was a difficult time and he was glad that some good could arise from it, despite the church politics that he was subjected to and the pain arising from this. The same is true when he refers to himself as 'God's unworthy servant' (Vos 1824:115). This is in the context of God blessing his little catechism book for the instruction of slaves by their masters despite fierce opposition. This attitude is also evident when he reflects on the entire history of his life (Vos 1824:212-213). Generally, his autobiography gives a genuine and balanced impression.
In hindsight one could say that what may have been genuine spiritual expressions within the subculture of Reformed Pietism were not always experienced that way by outsiders. Especially when considering that the still prevailing tendency in those circles was to change one's tone of voice if spiritual matters were discussed, sinking to an almost wailing lament when it came to man's natural ability to do something useful (cf. Klei 1992:74-79). Whether this should reflect on Vos's character, either as a flaw or a genuine appreciation of the grace of God, is very hard to say in the light of the available information two centuries later.

Vos's mission endeavours in context The first African mission society
Together with the person of William Carey (who published his An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the Heathens in 1792 (cf. Beusekom 1935:35-36), Vos was part of an age that had awakened to the importance of missions. Already as a young convert, Vos felt a need for missions and had a heart to spread the Gospel amongst the slaves and Hottentots. It was this unpopular venture, together with Vos's alliance with Reformed Pietism, that caused the authorities not to encourage him on the path of the ministry. They firstly prevented him from going to seminary and when he had overcome this obstacle, they obstructed his return to the Cape for another ten years after his studies. Missionaries were often unpopular with settlers. During this pioneering age, missionaries sometimes proved insensitive to economic necessities, such as the survival of farmers and small businesses. It was relatively easy for them to cultivate ideas that local settlers had to pay for or to ignore cultural differences and overlook misbehaviour as part of their crusade.
According to Du Plessis (1911a:79), 'Vos was one of the first and one of the best missionaries South Africa has ever had'. For Vos charity began at home. He did not neglect the spiritual condition of his own slaves, two of whom were converted (cf. Du Plessis 1911a:422). In Vos the causes of Pietism and mission work were combined, much in the way it had been with Van Lier, who had been sympathetic to the Moravians as well (Hanekom 1959:321;cf. Crafford 1982:23;Du Plessis 1911b:239-240;Van Heerden 1951:42-43 The societal approach to missions brought tension within the established church. The new missionaries were not ordained by the local Church, or any church for that matter, but on the authority of a European mission society far away. How could an organisation that was not a church decide to ordain and send out ministers? Why should a society that was distant, not only in kilometres but also in culture and with a bias for English empire building, rule it over the local affairs of an established colony of the Dutch Republic? It was a pragmatic solution that Pietism should embrace the Mission societies. The official church was no longer run by people that were likeminded in their zeal for the Gospel, as it had been in the days of Voetius, Brakel (1893) and Van Riebeeck. In the Scriptures, which were so highly regarded by the reformed Pietists, mission was a responsibility and activity of the ordained ministry of the Church of Christ (cf. Mt 28), as was the command to baptise new believers. If this was something the Church was not prepared to do, the prevailing thought amongst Vos and his contemporaries was that some kind of action needed to take place although he felt much more restraint with regard to this than the others (Vos 1824:121).

Racial struggles and Christian unity
In the Cape Colony, the sale of baptised Christians into slavery or into other hands was forbidden by law. As slavery was a form of social security for the disadvantaged, on setting a slave free the owner had to donate a substantial sum of money to the church, in case the slave would come to rely on support from the deacons. Rather than encouraging Christians to make economic sacrifice or to seek creative and alternative strategies, Vos opted to disapprove of the law. He gave this law as his reason for not baptising slaves who converted to Christianity: This old Dutch law, however, which was later repelled by the English, at least treated any Christian equally with no regard to colour or race. It allowed no second-rate Christianity, that is, one for White people, a separate one for people of mixed race and one for the slave population. By supporting the inferior strategy of compromising with economic values, obeying powerful merchants rather than God's command to baptise believers, when the law was repelled and baptism took place only on secular terms, Vos and the Mission Society encouraged the development of apartheid in the State and Church denying Christianity its former role as the unifying factor for all races.
The primacy of Christianity as a consideration for one's civil status was at least as old as the Middle Ages and was recognised in the early days of Van Riebeeck and the French Huguenots. The Hottentot girl, Eva, received a Dutch education in the Van Riebeeck household and became a Christian (Boëseken 1966:27, 45). Because she was baptised by the Rev. Petrus Sibilius in 1662, she was even buried in church. Although some Vrijburgers [free settlers] disapproved of the mixed marriage, her colour did not make any difference to unified Christian culture at the Cape, nor did her moral waywardness after her Danish husband's death, which may have been caused by her lack of opportunity to remarry suitably. Whilst she neglected her children, the Deacons took care of them, despite their colour and completely non-Dutch background on both the father's and the mother's side. Long lists of converted slaves and Hottentots would follow in the colonial registers. Although there is no evidence of any wider mission enterprise amongst the natives, this demonstrates that Christianity was a unifying factor for which people were prepared to make allowance and even sacrifice for beyond the borders of colour and race.
How different the situation would be only a century later, when the world would become touched by the civil ideals of the French Revolution. As God and Kings disappeared, nationhood and bloodlines became political tools to serve the economic goals of empire building. Although the commercial interests of the VOC sometimes challenged this, under the old system, Church and State were subdepartments of the same kingdom, each with their own sphere of responsibilities. The State was supposed to support and protect the Church, even to fight false religion, according to Article 36 of the Belgic Confession. During the 18th and 19th centuries, with the advancement of secular rationalism and the ideals of the French Revolution, Christianity was replaced by Humanism as a unifying factor for State life. The Age of Race and Nationhood was about to begin. Vos operated in the early stages of this development. Michiel Vos had to overcome many a trial and tribulation. For one thing, there probably wasn't a day in his life that he was completely healthy. For example, he nearly died whilest ministering in his first congregation in Holland, just before the arrival of his first wife (Vos 1824:60). He suffered from a common skin disease (Vos 1824:1-2), which was probably 'dauwworm' (lit. 'dew-worm', a serious form of eczema, affecting infants). It can take the form of a circular wet infection of the skin, which is not contagious, but predisposes the sufferer to bronchitis, asthma and hay fever. This was consistent with the chest complaints and spasms in the lungs that Vos experienced in adulthood (Vos 1824:59-60). When he was only five years old his father passed away, but Vos recalled and recounted his tender care many years later (Vos 1824:2). His mother subsequently remarried, but continued to pay every attention to Michiel's health and survival. Her treatments proved successful and he was able to take on an apprenticeship as a silver and goldsmith with his brother when he was about 14 years old. At night after work, he learned to draw and to play the piano, as he loved music (Vos 1824:5-6).

Central idea: The man and his mission
As a young man he felt the heavy burden of the Lord and perceived His calling to proclaim the Gospel amongst slaves and pagans. He had to overcome continued opposition by the Head of the Orphanage Chamber to have his inheritance released so that he would be able to prepare himself for the ministry at one of the academies in Holland, as the Cape did not have a seminary at the time. Through the support of his in-laws, he left his widowed mother and his new wife behind as part of an arrangement to overcome the opposition of the authorities. And he finally succeeded, only to receive a solemn warning from his doctor that he was certain to die during the passage if he travelled to Holland for his theological studies (Vos 1824:26-27 God cares and guides. In this Vos tried to serve God's purpose in his generation. He saw himself as a tool in the hand of God and tried to be sensitive to divine guidance rather than his own plans. M.C. Vos's missionary endeavours should be understood in this light. The love of Christ led to a love of souls and at the Cape situation he saw that it was the souls of slaves that were much neglected. This filled him with compassion. His life was changed by the Word of God and Bible verses interacted with his life (Vos 1824:13-14). From this perspective, he was amazed that none of the preachers or even any of the Christians he admired, apparently noticed this particular need to proclaim the Gospel amongst the slaves. To Vos, this was a biblical issue, not a racial or even a slavery issue. He showed himself a careful exegete, who carefully counteracted quotations from Scripture that Europeans used at the time to justify their spiritual neglect of slaves and natives. Vos's compassion for slaves and natives was not a political issue, but a spiritual one. Unlike others, he wasn't willing to work with cheap accusations and caricatures of the opposition. On the contrary: … niet zozeer over hunne slavernij, (want velen hunner hebben het, naar den lichame, inderdaad veel beter dan duizenden vrije Christenen in Europa; worden niet mishandeld, hebben het onbezorgde voedsel en deksel, worden in ziekte van alles kosteloos voorzien, en behoeven, indien zij gehuwd zijn, voor niets, noch voor zich, noch voor hun kroost te zorgen) maar mijn hartzeer was over de verwaarloozing hunner onsterfelijke zielen.
[… not about their slavery, because many of them are, as far as the body is concerned, really much better off than thousands of free After a life as a soldier and serial adulterer, he became an evangelical Christian and married a 13 year old girl, 40 years his junior, whose father was a Muslim. Unlike Vos's Reformed Pietism, Van der Kemp's philosophy was rooted in Spinoza and Descartes. He did not think much of European settlers and attacked them publicly on many occasions, but many of his accusations turned out to be ill-founded rumours (Elbourne 2002:94-110). After his death, even his relatives and friends criticised him 'for allowing his religious enthusiasm to undermine common sense and propriety and lead him to identify too closely with the Khoi-Khoi or, more generically, with the natives' (Cox 2008:108).
Vos had a more balanced approached. Although the opposition remained opposition, he had no need to demonise it with political strategies of his own. On the contrary, he loathed those who misrepresented the colonial farmers in their travelling journals. Vos (1824)  M.C. Vos was not a political activist who only saw one aspect of the situation. He was a pastor.

Conclusion
The real motivating factor for Vos's missionary endeavours was not racial, but spiritual. The promotion of the Gospel and knowledge of the Scriptures was foremost in the mind of this Dutch Reformed minister. The Bible and divine guidance had a remarkable influence on the life and actions of M.C. Vos, and enabled him to overcome significant opposition and challenging situations. His mission was a spiritual one. His main concern was the souls of men, Black people and White people alike, as he ministered amongst all races at the Cape of Good Hope and far beyond. Vos also marks the beginning of international and supradenominational co-operation in missions through his involvement in the London Missionary Society and contacts with the Moravian Brethren. Future research should bring to light which influences in Church and State contributed to this and to what extent the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa followed in Vos's footsteps.
Vos's clinging to Divine revelation for guidance and motivation for his life, is what makes his autobiography a truly remarkable story, inspired by the Holy Scriptures and a genuine tribute to the providence of God.