tions occurred (1408 and 1508). The Koman Catholics and the national Church united in a bloody determina- tion to root out the Brethren from the land. Imprison- ment, confiscation, tortures, and death were the means employed. IMany of the Brethren suffered martyrdom. But their blood was the seed of the Church. In both instances the persecution gradually came to an end; and the Unitas Fratrum renewed its strength and in- creased its numbers. A full history- of these and subse- quent persecutions is found in the Ilislorki Persecutio- num Kcckske i?o/ie;HtVrt', published anonymously in 1648. This work was written by Amos Comenius (q. v.) and other exiled ministers of the Brethren, and has been translated into many languages. The English version
This extract sets forth the tendency of the Brethren, to : is very rare. It came out in London in 1050, and was
' entitled "The Ilistor,- of the Bohemian Persecution." The latest tierman version is by Czerwenka, with notes: Das Pvrsikuiionshikhhin. (Giitersloh, 1869).
When JIartin Luther began his Reformation, in 1517
which they remained true throughout their history The great object which they had in view was Christian life. They strove to be a body of believers who showed their faith by their works. They tenaciouslj' upheld a scriptural discipline as an essential feature of a true Church. Although, in the course of time, they de- fined their doctrines in regular Confessions of Faith, they always made practical Christianity prominent, and re- quired personal piety, and not merely an adhesion to a creed, as a condition of Church-membershi]). The Syn- od of Keichenau not only gave expression to this ten- dency, but also decided a grave question. The Breth- ren felt the necessity of separating entirely from the national Church, and of establishing a ministry of their own. Yet they were so anxious to avoid a schism, and to do nothing contrary' to the will of God, that they spent several years in debating this step, and, in view of it, frequently appointed special days of fasting and prayer. The result to which they were led was to leave the decision to the Lord, by the use of the lot. This directed the Brethren to organize a Church of their own. Three years more were passed in praying to (iod for his Holy Spirit; and then in 1407, at a synod held in the village of Lhota, on the domain of Beichenau, three men, Matthias of Kunwalde, Thomas of Prelouc, and Elias of Chrenovic, were appointed to the ministry, again by the lot. For the jiarticulars, see >L\ttiiias of Kunwalde. Thereupon the subject of their ordination was discussed. The synod believed that presbyterial
the Church of the Brethren was prospering greatly. It counted 400 parishes; had at least 200,000 members, among whom were some of the noblest and most influ- ential families of the realm; used a hymn-book and cat- echism of its own ; had a Confession of Faith : and em- ployed two printing-presses, in order to scatter Bohemi- an Bibles and evangelical books throughout the land. Hence the Brethren deservedly bear the name of the " Reformers before the Reformation." This position, however, did not prevent them from cordially fraterniz- ing with the movement which Luther inaugurated. They corresponded with him. and sent several deputa- tions to Wittenberg. It is true a personal estrange- ment between him and bishop Luke of Prague (q. v.) put an end for a time to this friendly intercourse; but it was soon resumed, and extended to the Swiss Reform- ers. Such fellowship was mutually beneficial. It pu- rified the doctrinal system of the Brethren, who dropped some dogmas that still savored of scholasticism, and de- fined others more clearly. It gave the Reformers new ideas with regard to a scriptural discipline, and taught them the importance of union among themst'lves. These were the two jioints which the Bretliren steadfastly urged in all their negotiations with other Protestants. Touching the first, tiiey entreated Luther to apjily him-
MORAVIAN BRETHREN
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MORAVIAN BRETHREN
self to a reform of Christian life, and not merely of doc- trine ; and they gave to Calvin some important princi- ples, which he subsequently introduced in his disciplina- rv system at Geneva. On the occasion of the last dep- iitation to Luther, bishop Augusta warned him, almost like a prophet, of the evil which would result in the Protestant Church if the discipline were neglected. This prediction was fulfilled by the dead orthodoxy into which the Church was subsequently petrified in Ger- many, and by the Socinianism which ate out the vitals of tiiat in Poland. Touching the second point, the Brethren \vere a standing protest against the contro- versies which rent Protestantism ; they strove to pro- mote peace, and succeeded in bringing about an alliance among the Polish Protestants at Sandomir, where in 1570 the Unitas Fratrum, the Lutherans, and the Re- formed conjointly issued the celebrated Consensus San- domiriensis. The Brethren had established themselves in Poland in 1549, in consequence of the fourth great persecution which broke upon them in the reign of Fer- dinand I, who falsely ascribed the Bohemian League, which had been formed against him during the Smal- cald War, to their influence. In the course of this per- secution a large number of them were banished from Bohemia and emigrated to East Prussia. - Thence came George Israel to preach the Gospel in Poland, and met with such success that at the General Synod of Slecza, held in 1557, the Polish churches were admitted as an integral part of the Unitas Fratrum. During the reign of Maximilian II (1561-1570) the Brethren enjoyed peace, and united with the Lutherans and Reformed in the presentation of the Confessio Bohemica to this mon- arch (1575). His successor, Rudolph II, was constrained by his barons to grant a charter which established re- ligious liberty in Bohemia and Moravia (1609). An Evangelical Consistory was formed at Prague, in which body the Brethren were represented by one of their bish- ops. They were now a legally acknowledged Church. But the Bohemian revolution in 1619, caused by the accession of Ferdinand II, a bigoted Romanist, to the throne, brought about a change in the religious affairs of the kingdom. The Protestants and their rival king, Frederick of the Palatinate, were totally defeated at the battle of the Wliite Mountain, near Prague, in 1620; the Bohemian revolution developed into a European war of thirty terrible years ; and Bohemia and Moravia fell wholly into the power of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1621, Ferdinand II began the so-called "anti-Refor- mation" in those countries, after having executed a num- ber of the leading Protestant nobles. Commissioners, accompanied by Jesuits and soldiers, were sent from place to place to force the inhabitants to embrace Ro- manism. Many were put to death ; more than 30,000 families emigrated; the rest were driven into an out- ward subjection to the Catholic faith. The Unitas Fra- trum, as well as the Lutheran and Reformed churches, were swept from the kingdom (1627). But the Breth- ren reappeared as a Church in exQe. The contingent which they furnished to the emigration was, in propor- tion to the whole number of members in each bod\^, three or four times larger than that either of the Lu- therans or of the Reformed. About one hundred new parishes were organized, chiefly in Prussia, Hungarj', and Poland ; and the executive council which governed the Church was set up at Lissa, in the country last named. The hope of returning to Bohemia and Mora- via at the close of the Thirty- Years' War was generally entertained by the Brethren ; but the Peace of West- phalia (1618) painfully undeceived them. Their native land was excluded from the benefits of religious liberty. Eight years later, the colony which had been gathered at Lissa was broken up (1656) in the war between Po- land and Sweden. The members of the council scat- tered; the Polish parishes united with the Reformed Church ; while some sort of a superintendence over the rest was kept up by bishop Amos Comenius (q.v.), who bad found an asylum at Amsterdam. This eminent