IV. Doctrines. — For an exposition of the cardinal views of the Christian faith, as taught by the Brethren, the reader is referred to the works cited below. These doctrines agreed, in the main, with those of the Re- formers, (iindely (R. C). Zezschwitz (Luth.), and some other writers, try to show that the Unitas Fra- trum did not hold to justification by faith, tiindely asserts that its stand-point in this respect was altogether Romish; but this is disproved by the standards, al- though some of the private and jioleniical writings of Luke of Prague produce such an impression. In order to promote lioly living, the Brethren strongly insisted on good works; but they taught that men are saved by faith, which they never understood in the l.'omish sense, and they utterly rejected an opus ojicralum. In their
MORAVIAN^ BRETHREN"
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MORAVIAN BRETHREN
earlier confessions and catechisms, following Huss, they distinguished between credere de Deo, credere Deo, and credere hi Deiun. The first is faith in God's existence ; the second faith in his revelation through his Word; the third that faith by which a man appropriates to himself God's grace in Christ, and consecrates himself to Christ's service. Prior to the Reformation, the Breth- ren accepted the seven sacraments of the Roman Cath- olic Church ; after that, about 1530, they repudiated all but baptism and the Lord's Supper. Up to that time, moreover, their views of baptism were peculiar. They rebaptized converts from the Roman Catholic and na- tional churches, because they deemed both to be idola- trous; and they extended this practice to the young, because they considered personal faith an essential con- dition of the baptismal covenant. But they did not on this account reject infant baptism. Children were bap- tized soon after their birth, and thus dedicated to God; then they were rebaptized, after a thorough course of in- struction in the Catechism, when old enough to exercise personal faith, and thus brought into full communion with the Church. This practice, however, was relin- quished by a formal act of the General Synod of 1534, and confirmation substituted in the place of rebaptism. Touching the Lord's Supper, the Brethren taught that it is to be received in faith, to be defined in the lan- guage of Scripture, and every human explanation of that language to be avoided, except in so far that the spiritual, and not the real, presence is to be held. To this view they remained faithful, and were consequent- ly often misunderstood both by the Catholics and the TJtraquists on the one part, and by the Lutherans and the Reformed on the other. The great aim of the Brethren was to discountenance speculations and con- troversies with regard to this point. Finally, from the earliest times, they rejected purgatory, the adoration of the saints, and the worship of the Virgin Mary. For a further investi^tion of their doctrinal system, the fol- lowing works are specially important : Balthasar Lydii Wallensla (torn, i, Rotterdam, ItJIG; tom. ii, Dordrecht, 1617), containing a number of their confessions; Ko- chcr, Glauheiisbekenntnisse der Bijhm. Briider (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1741); Ehwalt, Alte u. neue Lehre der Bohm. Briider (Dantzic, 1756); Kocher, Katechetische Geschichte (Jena, 176S); Niemeyer, CoUectio Confessio- niim in ecclesiis reformatis publicafai'um (Leipsic, 1840); Gindely, Ueber die doginat. Ansichten d. BOhm. Briider j in the 13th vol. of the Transactions of the Akademie der Wissenschuften (Vienna, 1854, from the Roman Catholic stand-point) ; Zezschwitz, Kntechismen d. Wuldenser ti. Bohm. Briider (Erlangen, 1863, from the ultra-Lutheran stand-point) ; The Catechism of the Boh. Brethren, trans- lated from the old German by E. de Schweinitz (Beth- lehem, 1869) ; Die Lehrweise d. Bohm. Briider, by Dr. Plitt, in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. of 1868.
V. Literature Until comparatively recent times the
only sources of the history of the Bohemian Brethren were the following : A History in Latin, in Eight Books, by J. Lasitius, a Pole, written in 1560-70, but never pub- lished— two MSS. extant, at Herrnhut and Gottingen ; Ilistorica Narratio de Fratrnni Orthodoxorum ecclesiis in Bohemia, Moravia, et Polonia, written between 1570 and 1574, by Joachim Camerarius, published, after his death, at Heidelberg, 1605 ; Regenvolscii (Adrian Wen- gersky) Systema historico - chronologicnm ecclesiarnm Slavonicarum (Utrecht, 1652; Amsterd. 1679); J. A. Co- menii Ratio Disciplime, etc. (Lissa, 1632 ; Amsterdam, 1660 ; Halle, 1702). On these sources were based, Cranz, Ancient Hist, of the Brethren (Lond. 1780); Gedenktage d. alten Briiderkirche (Gnadau, 1821) ; Holmes, Hist, of the Prot. Church of the U. B. (London, 1825, 2 vols.) ; Eieger, Die alten n. neuen BOhm. Briider (St. ZUllich, 1734) ; Lochner, Entstehung, etc., d. Briidergemeine in Boh- men u. Mdhren (Niirnb. 1832) ; Carpzov, Religions-Unter- suchiing d. Bohm. Briider (Leipsic, 1742 ; a bitter enemy of the Brethren) ; Bost, Hkt. of the Boh. and Morav. Brethren (Lond. 1848). In 1842 a Moravian clergyman
discovered, in one of the churches at Lissa, thirteen folio volumes of INISS., which proved to be the long-lost ar- chives of the Bohemian Brethren, and which were pur- chased by the Moravian Church, and removed to Herrn- hut. They are known and cited as the Lissa Folios. The 14th volume was subsequently discovered at Prague. About the same time other original records were found: Jaifet's Hist. MSS. in the library at Herrnhut, Blahos- law's MSS. at Prague, etc. These various documents have thrown an entirely new light upon the history of the Bohemian Brethren, and have been used particularly by Professor A. Gindely, a Roman Catholic, who has pro- duced: Geschichte der Bokmischen Bi-iider (Prague, 1857, 2 vols.) ; Quellen zur Geschichte d. B. B. (Vienna, 1859 ; very important, containing many of the documents of the Lissa Folios) ; Dekreten d. Briider Unitdt (Prague, 1865, being the enactments of the General Sj-nod, in the original Bohemian) ; Rudolph II u. seine Zeit (Prague, 1868, 2 vols.) ; Gesch. d. SOjdhrigen Krieges (Prague, 1869, 2 vols.) ; Ueber des J. A . Comenius Leben (Vienna, 1855, in the 15th vol. of the Transactions of the Akademie). Other works based upon the new sources are : Palacky, Geschichte v. Bohmeti (Prague, 1844-67, 10 vols.) ; J.Fied- ler, Todtevbuch der Geistlichkeit der Bohm. Briider (Vi- enna, 1863, being the otficial necrology of the ministers of the U. F., in Bohemian ; transl. into German in 1872) ; H. L. Reichel, Geschichte d. alien Briiderkirche (Rothenb. 1850) ; Croger, Geschichte d. alten Briiderkirche (Gnadau, 1865, 2 vols. ; reviewed in The Moravian Feb. 14, 1867) ; Benhara, Origin and Episcopate of the Bohemian Breth- ren (Lond. 1867) ; Schweinitz, Moravian Episcopate (Bethlehem, 1865) ; Schweinitz, Moravian Manual {ih'ul. 1869); Benham, Life of Comenius (Lond. 1858); Czer- wenka, Geschichte d. Evang. Kirche in Bbhmen (Biele- feld and Leipsic, 1869 and 1870, 2 vols., containing the best history of the Brethren that has yet been written) ; Pescheck, Ref. and A nti-R< format ion in Bohemia (Lond. 1845, 2 vols., from the German). Consult the following periodicals : Lond. Qu. Rev. April, 1857, art. x ; A mer. Presb. Qu. July, 1858 ; July, 1864, art. ii ; Ch. Rev. July, 1865; April, 1866; Meth.' Qu. Rev. July, 1863, p. 516; April, 1870, p. 265; Princeton Rev. vii, 77; Christian Examiner, Ixvi, 1 sq. Compare also the works cited in the body of this article. Sources for the history of the Brethren in Poland are: i ablonski, Hist. Consensus San^ domiriensis (Berlin, 1731) ; Krasinski, Reformation in Poland (Lond. 1840, 2 vols.) ; Fischer, Geschichte der Ref. in Polen (Grlitz, 1856, 2 vols.). The article in Her- zo'g's Encyklopddie, by Dieckhoff, entitled " Bohmische Briider," was written without any knowledge of the new sources. It was consequentl}' supplemented bj' Zezsch- witz, in the article " Lukas v. Prag," vol. xx, conceived from an ultra-Lutheran point of view. (E. de S.).