Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/842

812 organization enabled the society to grow rapidly. In the earlier years of the 16 centrury the Unitas included nearly 400 congregations in Bohemia and Moravia with 150,000 members, and, including Poland, embraced three provinces—Bohemia, Moravia, Poland. Each province had its own bishops and synods, but all were united in one church and governed by the general synod.

The Lutheran movement in Germany awakened lively interest among the Brethren, and some unsuccessful attempts were made under the leadership of Augusta to unite with the Lutheran Church (1528-1546); but when the Calvinist reformation reached Bohemia the Brethren found themselves more in sympathy with it than with the Lutheran. The Jesuit anti-Reformation, instigated by Rudolf and his brothers Matthias and Ferdinand, found the Brethren a prosperous church, but the pitiless persecution which followed the unsuccessful attempt at revolution crushed the whole Protestantism of Bohemia, and in 1627 the Evangelical churches there had ceased to exist. About the same time the Polish branch of the Unity, in which many refugees from Bohemia and Moravia had found a home, was absorbed in the Reformed Church of Poland. A few families, however, especially in Moravia, held religious services in secret, preserved the traditions of their fathers, and, in spite of the vigilance of their enemies, maintained some correspondence with each other. In 1722 some of these left home and property to seek a place where they could worship in freedom. The first company, led by Christian David, a mechanic, settled by invitation from Count Zinzendorf on his estate at Berthelsdorf near Zittau, in Saxony. They were soon joined by others (about 300 coming within seven years), and built a town which they called Herrnhut. The small community at first adopted the constitution and teaching of the old Unitas. The episcopate had been continued, and in 1735 David Nitschmann was consecrated first bishop of the Renewed Moravian Church. The new settlement was not, however, destined to be simply a revival of the organization of the Bohemian Brethren. Zinzendorf, who had given them an asylum, came with his wife, family, and chaplain to live among the refugees. He was a Lutheran who had accepted Spener's pietism, and he wished to form a society distinct from national churches and devoted to good works. After long negotiation a union was effected between the Lutheran element and the adherents of the ancient Unitas Fratrum. The emigrants at Herrnhut attended the parish church at Berthelsdorf, and were simply a Christian society within the Lutheran Church (ecclesiola in ecclesia). This peculiarity is still to some extent preserved in the German branch of the church, and the Moravian Brethren regard themselves as a church within the church, or the Brethren's Congregation within the Evangelical Protestant churches, which enables them to do evangelistic work without proselytizing. The society adopted a code of rules in 1727, and ordained twelve elders to carry on pastoral work. This was the revival of the Unitas Fratrum as a church.

 MORAYSHIRE.See, vol. viii. p. 129.  MORBIHAN, a department of western France, formed of part of Lower Brittany, lies on the Atlantic seaboard between 2° 2′ and 3° 45′ W. long., and between 47° 26′ and 48° 12′ N. lat., being bounded S.E. by the department of Loire-Inféricure, E. by that of Ille-et-Vilaine, N. by Côtes