Moravians.
The church of evangelical Christians known as Moravians, or United Brethren, has a most remarkable history.
Its germs appear as early as the ninth century, when Christianity was introduced into
Bohemia and
Moravia; but it does not appear distinct in history until 1457, when a separate church was formed.
The members of that church always manifested the spirit afterwards called Protestantism, and, like the primitive church, held the
Bible to be the only rule of faith and practice.
They have an episcopacy, and the episcopal succession from 1457 to 1874 embraced 174 bishops.
Their episcopate is not diocesan, but their bishops are bishops of the whole
United Brethren.
When, in 1621, Ferdinand II.
of
Austria began the persecution of Protestants, 50,000 of his subjects emigrated to other lands.
The church in
Bohemia and
Moravia was almost extinguished, and its faith—a hidden seed—was preserved by a few families for 100 years, when
[
258]
it was renewed with strength.
In 1722 two Moravian families found a refuge on the estate of
Count Zinzendorf, of
Saxony, then an officer in the Saxon Court, and a lover of pure and simple worship.
In five years 300 Moravians gathered there.
Zinzendorf became a bishop, and afterwards he spent his life and fortune in missionary work.
Churches were established on the Continent, in
Great Britain, and in
North America; and in 1749 the British Parliament passed acts to encourage their settlement in the
English-American colonies.
The trustees of
Georgia granted 500 acres of land to
Count Zinzendorf for the purpose, and also gave
Bishop Spangenberg 150 acres embraced in a part of the site of
Savannah.
A number of Moravians settled in
Georgia in 1735.
Others followed the next year, led by
Bishop David Nitschmann; and on Feb. 28, 1736, the first Moravian church in
America was organized, under the pastorship of
Anthony Seifferth, who was ordained in the presence of
John Wesley.
In
Georgia their labors were mostly among the Indians and negroes.
As they could not conscientiously take up arms to defend
Georgia against the Spaniards at
St. Augustine, they abandoned their settlement and went to
Pennsylvania with
Whitefield.
Bishops Nitschmann and Spangenberg returned to
Europe.
Whitefield had purchased lands at the forks of the
Delaware, and invited the Moravians to settle upon them; but doctrinal differences produced a rupture between them and
Whitefield, and he ordered them to leave his domain forthwith (see
Whitefield, George).
Bishop Nitschmann came back, and founded a settlement on the
Lehigh, the first house being completed in 1741.
When, on Christmas day,
Count Zinzendorf visited the settlement, he called it “
Bethlehem.”
That is the mother-church in
America.
Their labors among the Indians were extended far and wide, and their principal station in the
West was at Gnadenhutten— “tents of grace” —in
Ohio, where many Indian converts were gathered, and where nearly 100 of them were massacred by white people in March, 1782, under the false impression that they were British spies or were concerned in some Indian outrages in
Pennsylvania.
The first Indian congregation gathered by the Moravians was in the town of
Pine Plains, Dutchess co., N. Y., at a place called Shekom-e-ko.
A mission was established there by
Christian Henry Rauch in August, 1740.
The next year a sickly young German from
Bethlehem, named Gottlob Buttner, joined
Rauch in his work.
He preached fervently, and many converts were the fruits of the mission of
Rauch and Buttner.
Count Zinzendorf and his daughter visited the mission in 1742.
Here Buttner died in 1745, and over his grave the Moravians placed a handsome monument in 1859.
In 1745 the mission was broken up.
The Moravian Church is divided into three provinces—namely, Continental, British, and American.
The American province is divided into two districts— Northern and Southern—the respective centres being in
Bethlehem, Northampton co., Pa., and
Salem, Forsyth co., N. C. There were in 1900, in the
American province, 111 churches, 118 ministers, and 14,817 communicants.
There are several church boarding-schools; and, at
Bethlehem, a college and theological seminary.
At first the social and political exclusiveness of the Moravians prevented a rapid increase in their numbers; but latterly there have been great changes in this respect, as well as in the constitution of the church, whose grand centre is at Herrnhutt, in
Saxony, the village built on
Count Zinzendorf's estate.
The
Moravians use a liturgy, and their ritual is similar to that of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
