2. The Renewed Moravian Brethken, so called because they form the resuscitated Church of the An- cient Moravian Brethren (see No. 1, above). They are commonly known as " The Moravians," and " The JMo- ravian Church," inasmuch as they originally came from Moravia. Their official title is " The United Breth- ren," or Unitas Fratrum.
I. History. — At the close of the Bohemian anti-Ref- ormation (1627), a remnant of the Brethren remained concealed in Bohemia and Moravia, and for many years kept up religious services in secret according to the faith and usages of the fathers. This " hidden seed," as it is generally called, was revealed in 1722, when two families, named Neisser, escaped from Moravia under the guidance of Christian David, " the servant of the Lord," and settled on the domain of Berthelsdorf, in Saxony, by the invitation of its young o^^•ner, count Nicholas Lewis de Zinzendorf (q. v.). In the course of the next seven years (1722-29), about three hundred other Breth- ren from Moravia and Bohemia emigrated in little com- panies to the same place, leaving their houses and lands to be confiscated by the Austrian government, and braving the punishments which were inflicted on those refugees who fell into its hands. They built a town
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called Herrnhut, or " The Watch of the Lord/' to which godly men from various parts of Germany were soon attracted, so that its population rapidly increased. In the midst of this colony the Church of the Brethren was renewed, tlirou^h the introduction of the ancient discipline, ])reserved in the Ratii> iJUcipUno' of Amos Co- menius, and tlirouf;li the transfer of the venerable epis- copate, which had been kept u]) with such care, in spent contra spem, even after the ancient Church, as a visible organization, had ceased to exist. This transfer was made at Berlin, March 13, 1735, on which day David Nitschmann was consecrated as tlie first bishop of the Renewed Church, by Daniel Ernst Jablonslii and Chris- tian Sitkovius, the two surviving bishops of the ancient line.
In considering this renewal, two points are important. First, it was not a scheme of man, but altogether a work of God. Hence it bears a reality, and assumes its place in history with an authority, for both of which we would look in vain had a mere human plan been car- ried out. AVhen Zinzendorf offered his estate as a ref- uge for the Brethren, he had not the remotest idea of renewing their Church, of which he knew little or noth- ing. Long before they came to his domain his aims in the interests of the Gospel had received an entirely different direction through tl>e pietism of Spencr. Nor did the Moravians themselves, when they began to em- igrate, agree to reorganize in some other land. 1\\cy left the issue of their flight in the hands of God. It was only by degrees that both parties were led to un- derstand the divine will. The failure of his own plans, and other circumstances beyond his control, at last in- duced Zinzendorf to identify himself with the Brethren, and to labor for the resuscitation of their Church ; while the gradual increase of their number at Herrnhut, and the opportunity which they there had to consult and to tell each other of the pious hopes of their fathers, gave them courage to maintain their independence, and to look for a new Unitas Fratrum. Secondly, this re- newal involved a union of the German clement of piet- ism with the Slavonic clement of the ancient Breth- ren's Church. Thus arose some principles which were not found in the latter, and a polity of exclusivism that gave a peculiar tendency for more than a century to the Jloravians of the modern period. Zinzendorf was a Lutheran by birth, education, and conviction. He was devoted to the system of Spener, who had been one of his sponsors at his baptism, and especially to the pro- ject of establishing "little churches in the Church" (ecclesiolcB in ecclesiii), in other words, unions or associa- tions of converted persons within a regular jiarish, for the purpose of personal edification. Hence the great aim which shaped his course was not to interfere with the State Church, but to develop Spener's idea in such a way that tlie Brethren would constitute, on the one hand, an indei)endent Church, and yet, on the other, be a union of believers within the ecclesiastical establish- ments of the various countries in which they might settle. Accordingly, wherever they spread, exclusive towns were founded, in which religion controlled not only spiritual, but also social and industrial interests; from which the vices and follies of the world were ban- ished, and where none but Brethren were allowed to hold real estate. That tiie Church could not, with such a system, enlarge its borders to any great extent in its home-field is evident. That its avowed purpose was to remain small is equally clear. Tlie Moravian ele- ment, indeed, which drew its life from the old Unitas Fratrum. struggled for a time to gain free scope and ex- pand. But Zinzondorf's views prevailed in the end. and were consistently carried out. Here and there Jlora- vian villages were jilanted, as a leaven in Christendom. Such villages were to know nothing of a mere nominal Church-membership. All their iidiai>itants were to be true followers of Clirist; and widiin their secure re- treat.s they were to cultivate simplicity and lowly-mind- edness, to foster holiness and love, to show I'orlli a guile-