Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 2.djvu/688

 BOHEMIAN

618

BOHEMIAN

and Comenius returned to Germany in 1642. His influence in England allowed him to set on foot sev- eral collections for liis severely persecuted church in Poland: the first three were failures, but the fourth, authorized by Cromwell, produced £5,900, of which Bum Cambridge University contributed £56. This was in 1658-59. Intercourse with the Anglican Church was kept up uninterruptedly until the rem- nants of the ancient Brotherhood had dwindled away and been swallowed up by other Evangelical con- fessions. When the renewed Brotherhood was es- tablished in England it benefited by the memory of former friendly relations.

History of the Renew-ed Brotherhood. — Per- secution from without and dissension within well- nigh brought about the total extinction of the Bo- hemian Brethren. The small but faithful remnant was, however, destined to blossom into a new and ^^gorous religious body under the name of Moravian Brethren. The founder and moulder of this second Unitas Fratrum was the pious and practical Count Zinzendorf (b. 1700, d. 1760). In 1722 the Lutheran Pastor Rothe, of Berthelsdorf in Upper Lusatia, in- troduced to the Count, from whom he held his living, a Mora\-ian carpenter named Christian David. This man had been deputed by his co-religionists to look out for a concession of land where they could freely practise their religion. Zinzendorf was so far un- acquainted with the history and the tenets of the Boliemian Brethren, but in his charity, he granted them the desired land, on the slopes of the Hutberg In the parish of Berthelsdorf. In a short time emi- grants from Moravia fovmded there a colony, called Herrnhut. The colonists worshipped at the Lutheran parish church. Two years later, there arrived from Zauchenthal in Moravia five young men fully con- scious of being true members of the old " Bohemian Brotherhood". At once religious quarrels arose, to the annoyance of Count Zinzendorf and his friends. The count was not slow in perceiving that the colonists, all simple labourers and craftsmen, were more concerned with church discipline and Christian rules of life than with dogma. Accordingly he set about elaborating a constitution for a community of which religion should be the chief concern and bond of union. He left Dresden and, with the pastor's leave, began to work as a lay catechist among the Brethren at Herrnhut. The community met for their religious services in their own hall where one of the Brethren, either chosen by lot or elected by the assembly, acted as minister. In 1731 they seceded from the parish church and added to their usual ser- vices the celebration of the Lord's Supper. They were divided in "choirs" according to age, sex, and calling; each choir was ruled by elders (male and female), pastors, and administrators chosen among its members. The female choirs were distinguished by their dresses. Widows, unmarried young men, and young women formed separate choirs under the supervision of elders. Everything at Herrnhut was controlled by the College of Elders, even matrimony, subject to the sanction of the lot. Provision was made for the poor and the sick, for prayer meet- ings and so forth. Deacons, acting for the Elders, administered the property accruing to the community from donations. Great care w-as given to the educa- tion of the young, Zinzendorf being anxious to raise a generation that would perpetuate his work. The or- ganization of the renewed Brotherhood was complete in 1731. It bore the stamp of the personality of its founder, a man deeply religious, nurtured in Spener's Pietism by the two noble ladies who brought him up, and well acquainted with Catholic life from his so- journ in Paris. As soon as the foundations were solidly laid at Herrnhut Zinzendorf began to think of missionary work. His personal connexion with the Danish Court led him to choose the Danish

possessions in the West Indies and in Greenland for the field of his labours. His first missionaries were sent out in 1732 and 1733. Feeling, however that as a simple layman he could not well confer missionary powers, he took orders at Tubingen in 1734 and, moreover, received episcopal consecra- tion from the Reformed court-preacher Jablonsky of Berlin, in whose family the Moravian episcopacy, originated in 1467 by a validly ordained Waldensian bishop, had been — or was said to have been — pre- served. Persecution was not long in coming. The orthodox Lutherans became the Brethren's bit- terest enemies. The Imperial Government in Vienna strongly objected to their propaganda in Bohemia, which caused Austrian subjects to emigrate and sowed discontent in the country. L'nder imperial pressure the King of Saxony banished Zinzendorf "for ever". The zealous count put his exile to good use. During the ten years (1737-47) of his absence from Saxony he founded congregations in Holland, England, Ireland, America; new ones also arose in Germany at Herrenhag, Neuwied, Gnadenfrei, Gnad- enberg, and Neusatz. Zinzendorf showed a special predilection for the London establishment. In 1750 he fixed his residence in the English capital and from there ruled the whole "L'nity of Brethren". But in 1755 he returned to Herrnhut, which now became and remained the centre of the whole adminis- tration. To the present day the "Provincial Board of Elders for Germany" occupies Zinzendorf's own house at Berthelsdorf. The finishing touch of the new church system is the liberty enjoyed by those who join it to retain the Lutheran, the Reformed, or the Moravian Confession to which they belonged, and to be placed under the rule of Elders of the same belief. This peculiar feature shows the founder's disregard for dogma and the great value he attached to Christian practice and ecclesiastical discipline. He held that faith and justification could only be found by individuals who were, or became, members of a religious community. However much, in this and in other points, he copied the Catholic Church, yet he was to the end a faithful adherent of the Augsburg Confession and obtained from the Consis- tory in iSresden an official acknowledgment that the Moravian Brethren were followers of the same faith. He also succeeded after a long struggle in securing for the Brotlierhood recognition by the Saxon gov- ernment. When, regretted by all, he died in 1760, his work and his spirit lived on in the strongly organized body of the "Unity of Brethren". No material changes have taken place since. In 1775 the Brethren, assembled in a synod at Barby, adopted the following statement of principles: —

"The chief doctrine to which the Church of the Brethren adheres, and which we must preserve as an invaluable treasure committed unto us, is this: That by the sacrifice for sin made by Jesus Christ, and by that alone, grace and deliverance from sin are to be obtained for all mankind. We will, therefore, with- out lessening the importance of any other article of the Cliristian faith, steadfastly maintain the fol- lowing five points: (1) The doctrine of the universal depravity of man: that there is no health in man, and that, since the Fall he has no power whatever left to help himself. (2) The doctrine of the Divinity of Christ: that God, the Creator of all things, was mani- fest in the flesh, and reconciled us to Himself; that He is before all things and that in Him aU things exist. (3) The doctrine of the atonement and satis- faction made tor us by Jesus Christ: that He was delivered for our off'ences and raised again for our justification and that by His merits alone we receive freely the forgiveness of sin, faith in Jesus and sanctification in soul and body. (4) The doc- trine of the Holy Spirit and the operation of His grace: that it is He who worketh in us conviction of