THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
The school is affiliated with the Unitarian denomination, and was originally designed for the training of Unitarian ministers on the Pacific coast; but it receives students of both sexes from all sources without distinction, and it stands for free and progressive scholarship of high order, with an especial view to the practical requirements of the modern ministry. It offers a three-year degree course for college graduates, and a four-year certificate course for others, and furnishes excellent opportunities for post-graduate study. The school is governed by a board of fifteen trustees, whose appointment must be approved by the directors of the American Unitarian Association. It had in 1911 three professors and two instructors, and six regular and eleven special students. Its library contains about 7,500 volumes and about 3,000 pamphlets, and is especially rich in the history and literature of the Unitarian movement. It owns property valued at $50,000, but until its endowment of $300,000 becomes available, its support is derived chiefly from annuities. Earl Morse Wilbur.
XIX. Unity of the Brethren. — 1. Bethlehem: This institution is situated in Bethlehem, Northampton Co., Pa. The founding of a school for training teachers and ministers to serve in the schools and congregations of the Moravian Church in America engaged the attention of a conference held in 1802, composed mainly of ministers representing the work of the Moravian Church in five states of the Union. Such a project had previously been urged by leaders of the church, particularly by Rev. Jacob Van Vleck, principal of Nazareth Hall, an academy for boys at Nazareth, Pa., and Rev. Christian Lewis Benzien, stationed at Salem, N. O, but the plan was not actually realized until Oct. 2, 1807, when the institution was formally opened for the reception of students. The origin of the institution is attributable to the devotion of Moravians to their church, and to their conviction that the Moravian Church, whose activity in America had begun in 1738, had function and opportunity in the United States. The first professors were Ernst Lewis Hazelius, later prominent in Lutheran theological seminaries, and John Christian Bechler, later % bishop of the church. Originally connected with Nazareth Hall academy, the institution bore the character of a normal school as well as that of a theological seminary; but in 1838 the connection with Nazareth Hall was severed, and thenceforward the institution has enjoyed independent existence. Gradual development of the two departments made reorganization possible in 1858, under the name of Moravian College and Theological Seminary, the college offering complete classical and, since 1896, Latin-scientific courses, and the theological seminary affording a curriculum of studies that does not materially differ from that of other theological schools. The institution was chartered by the legislature of Pennsylvania in 1863, and, after having led a somewhat migratory existence for half a century, was finally located in Bethlehem, Pa., in 1858. The relation between the institution and the Moravian Church in America has always been vital as regards aggressive, educational, home-missionary, and foreign-missionary activity. The scheme of the seminary is thoroughly
Biblical, and the Bible is the chief class-book in all departments, while the principle of the fathers of the Unitas Fratrum, or the Moravian Church, " In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity," has ruled from the beginning. Every professor is pledged to faithfulness to the doctrinal and disciplinary standards of the church. Since 1858, the official title of the head of the institution has been " president," and Rev. L. F. Kampmann, Rev. Lewis R. Huebener, Rev. Edmund de Schweinitz (q.v.), and Rev. Augustus Schultze (q.v.) have, in the order named, worn this dignity.
The number of students connected with this institution during the first century of its existence (1807-1907) was 500, a large proportion of whom have been ministers and teachers of the church and professors in this and other institutions of learning, while an uncommonly large percentage have been missionaries to the heathen. In 1910 the number of students was fifty-six, five of whom came from northwestern Canada, five from southern states, and the remainder equally from the eastern and western states in which the Moravian Church is represented. With few exceptions the students were members of the Moravian Church, and about sixty per cent were candidates for the ministry. Five professors devote their entire time to teaching, each in both the college and seminary department of the institution. The faculty is organized, and, together with the board of trustees, composed of sixteen members representing the northern province of the Moravian Church in America and five advisory members representing the Southern Province of the Church, controls the institution. Both bodies are responsible to the Synod of the Northern Province of the Moravian Church in America and to the governing board which that synod elects. The endowment fund of the institution amounts to $125,207, and the special endowments, including real estate and buildings, total $106,794. The library numbers 10,000 volumes and many hundreds of unbound pamphlets. W. N. Schwarze.
Bibliography : W. N. Schwarze, History of the Moravian
College and Theological Seminary, Bethlehem, Pa., 1910.
XX. Universalist. — 1. Canton: This institution forms the theological school of St. Lawrence University, which is located at Canton, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y. It was founded in 1856 by an organization called " The Educational Society," appointed by the New York Universalist State Convention, which still elects its trustees. The first president was Rev. Ebenezer Fisher, and among its earliest instructors were Rev. Massena Goodrich, Rev. J. S. Lee, and Rev. Orello Cone (q.v.). The students of the seminary have numbered about 360, this figure being due to the establishment of other theological schools in the denomination. Its work has gone on steadily without marked crises. Founded for the purpose of supplying Universalism with an educated ministry, it has from the first devoted special attention to fitting men for intelligent pulpit work and practical pastoral administration. Its professorships have been filled by men representative of progressive tendencies, and it has exerted a distinctly liberalizing effect upon the opinions of its denomination.