RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
' Zechariah Zeisberger
pelled to journey to Babylon, where he seems to have conciliated Nebuchadrezzar. When Hophra came to the throne in Egypt, a false patriotism in Judah brought about revolt in Judah from Babylon in 588, and in 587 Nebuchadrezzar began the siege of Jerusalem. Relief seemed about to come from Hophra, and the siege was raised for a brief time, only to be renewed; the wall was breached, and Zedekiah tried to escape, getting as far as Jericho, when he was captured and taken before Nebuchadrezzar at Riblah; his sons were slain before his eyes, he was then blinded and carried in chains to Babylon, where he died in prison. (R. Krrrst.)
Brsiiocrapuy: The literature on the period as given under
Anas; and Israg., History oF; and the articles in the
Bible dictionaries.
ZEISBERGER, DAVID: Moravian missionary to the American Indians; b. at Zauchenthal (a hamlet in Moravia) Apr. 11, 1721; d. at Goshen, O., Nov. 17, 1808. When he was five years old, his parents fled with him to Herrnhut, and in this Moravian center he received his first training. He was then sent, after his father and mother had already emigrated to Georgia, to the Moravian settlement of Herrendyk, Holland, but the discipline was so stern that he ran away to England, where Oglethorpe assisted him to rejoin his parents in Georgia. With his brother Moravians he left Georgia in 1740 and was one of those who built the Pennsylvania towns of Nazareth and Bethlehem. In 1748 he was designated a member of the escort to accompany Count Zinzendorf on his return to Europe, nor was it until just before the ship sailed that his unwillingness to leave America became manifest, and he was permitted to remain. Soon afterward he resolved to devote his life to the evangelization of the American Indians, and from 1745 until 1807 he labored unceasingly in this cause. Studying first Delaware and Onondaga, he later acquired Mohican, Monsey, and Chippewa. His initial work was at Shamokin, Pa., and Onondaga, N. Y. (1745-50), and after a visit to Europe in behalf of his mission, he returned to Onondaga in 1751, but was forced by the outbreak of the French and Indian War to return to Bethlehem, though he was a sachem and keeper of records to the Six Nations and an adopted member of the Monsey tribe. In 1755-62 he was largely employed in work among the Connecticut Indians, and during the war with Pontiac he was in charge of the Moravian Indians, whom he accompanied to Wyalusing, Pa., on the close of hostilities. He established a Monsey mission on the Alleghany River in 1767, and in 1770 commenced the building of the town of Friedenstadt on the Beaver. In 1772 he organized a mission on the Muskingum, in Ohio, and during the American Revolution it was mainly his influence that kept the Delawares from joining the British side. The Wyandottes, in revenge, broke up Zeisberger’s mission in 1781, and he and his fellow missionaries were tried at Detroit as American spies, but were acquitted. In the year following nearly a hundred Christian Indians were massacred by settlers at Gnadenhitten, one of the many missions that Zeisberger founded, and he then led the remnant to the Clinton River, Mich., and thence to New Salem,
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O. (1787), and to his new settlement of Fairfield, Ont. (1791). In 1789 he was at last able to bring back a part of his Indians to the Tuscarawas Valley, O., where Congress granted them a large tract of land, and there he founded his last settlement, Goshen, where he passed the remainder of his life.
Among all the non-Roman Catholic missionaries to the American Indians Zeisberger deserves a foremost place. Though almost none of the settlements founded by him survived him, and although the immediate results of his work were small, yet his devotion to his cause was unsurpassed and his influence on his wards by no means ended with his death. His works thus far published are Delaware Indian and English Spelling-Book (Philadelphia, 1776); Collection of Hymns for the Christian Indians (in Delaware; 1803); Sermons to Children (in Delaware; 1803); History of our Lord . . . Jesus Christ (Delaware harmony of the four Gospels, translated from S. Lieberkiithn’s harmony; 1821); Diary, 1781- 1798 (transl. E. F. Bliss, 2 vols., Cincinnati, 1885); Indian Dictionary, English, German, Iroquois [Onondaga] and Algonquin [Delaware] (ed. E. N. Horsford, Cambridge, 1887); Essay of an Onondaga Grammar (Philadelphia, 1888); and History of North American Indians (ed. A. B. Hulbert and W. N. Schwarze, Columbus, O., 1910). Some of his most important works still remain unedited, e.g., his “German and Onondaga Lexicon ”’ (in 7 vols.) and his “‘ Delaware Grammar,” the manuscripts being preserved partly in the library of the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia and partly in the library of Harvard University.
Brstiocrapuy: C. G. Blumhardt, Vie de David Zeisberger, Neuchftel, 1844; J. J. Heim, David Zeisberger, Bielefeld, 1849; E. De Schweinitz, Life and Times of David Zeisberger, Philadelphia, 1838, reissue, 1870; H. Rémer, Die Indianer und thr Freund David Zeisberger, Giitersloh, 1890; J. Grunewald, David Zeisberger, 2d ed., Niesky, 1895; P. Steiner, David Zeisberger, Basel, 1905.
ZELL, tsel, MATTHAEUS and KATHARINA: German Reformer and first Evangelical preacher at Strasburg, and his wife. Matthaus was born at Kaisersberg (98 m. s.w. of Stuttgart) Sept. 21, 1477; d. at Strasburg Jan. 9, 1548. He studied at Mainz, Erfurt, and Freiburg (M.A., 1505; Th.B., 1509), and in 1511 began to lecture at Freiburg, where he became rector in 1517. In 1518 he was called as minister to the cathedral at Strasburg. In 1521 he embraced the principles of the Reformation and began to preach in an Evangelical spirit. Against the attacks of priests and monks people and magistracy protected him, while to the bishop’s written attacks he replied in Christlichen Verantwortung (1523)—the first historical work dealing with the Reformation in Alsace. In Strasburg the Reformation went forward, priests married, and Zell himself took a wife in that year. When afew months later the bishop banned married priests, Zell answered in his Appellatio sacerdotum maritorum (1524). He was disinclined to theological dialectic and dogmatic formulation, was not in the strict sense a scholar nor was he a politician, and severe discipline did not accord with his ideas. Through this he was enabled to avoid the strifes into which many of the Reformers fell. His plan of life and his Christianity were simple, he was a friend of and beloved by the
people, dealing kindly even with the Anabaptists. His interests covered more than his own city, and his judgments were always in the interests of peace. He was especially interested in Christian education, and issued various writings in dialogue form, collected in Frag und Antwort (1536).
His wife, Katharina, outlived him, and was known as the benefactress of the poor, especially of those who were fugitives for the sake of their religion. Indeed, the pastor’s house became in miniature what Strasburg was in a larger sense, the refuge of the persecuted. Katharina’s activity was not, however, confined to deeds of charity; she had ability both in discourse and with her pen. She was well read in theology. In the early years of her married life (1524) she wrote a reply to the bishop in defense of her husband, and the same year wrote a consolatory tract to the Evangelical women of Kenzingen. In 1534 she issued with a preface an extract from the hymn-book of the Bohemian Brethren, and had this published in parts so that it might be within reach of the very poor. She also issued an explanation of two psalms and of the Lord’s Prayer. She carried on a versatile correspondence with such Reformers as Blaurer, Fagius, Butzer, Pellican, and even with Luther. Her charitable labors she continued till her death in 1562.
(JOHANNES FICKER.) BrBiioGRAPHY: There are biographies by: M. Adam, Vite
Germanorum theologorum, pp. 189-192, Heidelberg, 1620;
F. Unselt, Strasburg, 1854; E. and E. Haag, La France
protestante, ix. 555-558, Paris, 1859; E. Lehr, Paris, 1861;
I. Walther, Strasburg, 1864; A. Erichson, Strasburg,
1878; and in ADB, xlv. 17-18. Consult further, besides
works on the Reformation: A. Jung, Beitrage zu der Ge-
schichte der Reformation, ii. 28 sqq., 159 sqq., 174 sqaq.,
Strasburg, 1830; T. W. Rodhrich, Geschichte der Reforma-
tion im Elsass, Strasburg, 1830-32; idem, Mittheilungen
aus der Geschichte der evangelischen Kirche des Elsasses, iii.
84-154, ib. 1855; J. W. Baum, Capito und Butzer, pp. 195
sqq., Elberfeld, 1860; A. Ernst and J. Adam, Katecheti-
sche Geschichte des Elsasses bis zur Revolution, pp. 72-96,
Strasburg, 1897.
ZELLER, tsel’er, CHRISTIAN HEINRICH: German educator; b. at the village of Entringen (18 m. s.w. of Stuttgart) Mar. 29, 1779; d. at Beuggen (12 m. e. of Basel) May 18, 1860. He received his early education in the institutions of Ludwigsburg, and when eighteen entered the University of Tiibingen, his father’s desire being that he should study law, though his own heart was already turned to the teaching profession; in 1801 he began to teach privately at Augsburg, showing signs of genius in this direction. He was besought to found a private school at St. Gall in 1803, where he stayed till 1809; he had charge of schools in the district about Zofingen, 1809-20; and in 1820 he was called to the charge of the institution at Beuggen devoted to the care of neglected children, where he spent the rest of his life. Under his care that institution became the model for its class, a pattern exhibition of Christian philanthropic work. In this work he was ably assisted by his wife and later by his sons. In connection with it he developed a literary activity which has had permanent effects. He edited the periodical Monatsblittern aus Beuggen; and published Lehren der Erfahrung fur christliche Landund Armenschullehrer (Basel, 1827), containing a system of pedagogy which gathered up all that was
best in the methods then available; Géttliche Antworten auf menschliche Fragen (Basel, 1840); Ueber Kleinkinderpflege (1840); Kurze Seelenlehre, gegriindet auf Schrift und Erfahrung (Calw, 1846). All of these passed through numerous editions. Zeller was also a contributor of worthy hymns to the hymnals, some of them among the best loved of the Church; worthy of mention are: “ Gott bei mir an jedem Orte,’’ Eng. transl. by Mrs. Findlater, “ My God with me in every place’; and “ Treuer Heiland, wir sind hier,’’ Eng. transl., ‘‘ Savior, here to Thee we come.’’ Among the praises which his personality merited was that given to his simplicity, it being said of him that he “ always remained a little one,” with the humility of a child. (C. von PALMER.T)
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Lives are by H. Thiersch, 2 vols., Basel,
1876; EH. Zeller, Basel, 1899, and Berlin, 1900; and T.
Schélly, Basel, 1901. Consult also Julian, Hymnology,
p. 1300.
ZEND-AVESTA. See Zoroaster, ZOROASTRIAN-