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This article covers the period from the origin of the Moravian Church, as well as the related Hussite Church and Unity of the Brethren, in the early fourteenth century to the beginning of mission work in 1732. Further expanding the article, attention will also be paid to the early Moravian settlement at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, following their first arrival in Nazareth, Pennsylvania in 1740.
The movement that would develop into the Moravian Church was started by a Catholic priest named Jan Hus (in English John Hus) in the early 15th century. The Church was established as a reaction to practices of the Roman Catholic Church. Hus wanted to return the Church in Bohemia and Moravia to the practices of early Christianity: performing the liturgy in the language of the people, allowing lay people to receive both the bread and the cup during communion, and eliminating Papal indulgences and the idea of purgatory. The movement gained royal support and a certain independence for a while, even spreading across the border into Poland, but was eventually forced to be subject to the governance of Rome. A contingency of Hus's followers struck a deal with Rome that allowed them to realise most of their doctrinal goals, while recognising the authority of the Roman Catholic Church; these were called the Utraquists . The remaining Hussites continued to operate outside Roman Catholicism and, within fifty years of Hus's death, had become independently organized as the 'Bohemian Brethren' or Unity of the Brethren. This group maintained Hussite theology (which would later lean towards Lutheran teachings), while maintaining the historic episcopate, even during their persecution. The Bohemian Brethren's Church was founded in Kunvald, Bohemia, in 1457.
The Moravians were the earliest Protestant Church, rebelling against the authority of Rome some fifty years before Martin Luther. One unusual and (for its time) shocking belief was the group's eventual focus on universal education. By the middle of 16th century as many as 90% of the inhabitants of the Czech lands were Protestant. [1] The majority of nobility was Protestant, the schools and printing-shops established by the Moravian Church were flourishing. Very often the Brethren were protected by local nobles who joined their ranks to assert their independence from Habsburg Vienna. By the middle of the 16th century there was not a single town without a Protestant school in the Czech lands, and many had more than one, mostly with two to six teachers each. In Jihlava, a principal Protestant center in Moravia, there were six schools: two Czech, two German, one for girls and one teaching in Latin, which was at the level of a high / grammar school, lecturing on Latin, Greek and Hebrew, Rhetorics, Dialectics, fundamentals of Philosophy and fine arts, as well as religion according to the Lutheran Augustana. [2] With the University of Prague also firmly in hands of Protestants, the local Catholic church was unable to compete in the field of education. Therefore, the Jesuits were invited, with the backing of the Catholic Habsburg rulers, to come to the Czech lands and establish a number of Catholic educational institutions, foremost the Academy in Prague and the Academy in Olomouc, Moravian capital.
The nobility was able to force the emperor Rudolf II to issue Letter of Majesty in 1609, safeguarding the religious freedom in the Kingdom of Bohemia. Rudolf II was succeeded in 1612 by his brother, the Emperor Matthias who sought to install the fiercely Catholic Ferdinand of Styria on the Bohemian throne (which was conjoined with that of the March of Moravia), but in 1618 the Protestant Bohemian, Moravian, and Austrian noblemen, who feared losing religious freedom (two of the Protestant churches being already forcibly closed [3] ), started the Bohemian Revolt. The Revolt was defeated in 1620 in the Battle of White Mountain. As consequence the people who were involved in the revolt were either executed or expelled from the country.
By 1629, Protestants were offered an ultimatum. They were forced to choose to either leave the many and varied southeastern principalities of what was the Holy Roman Empire (mainly Austria, Bohemia, Moravia, some principalities within Silesia and parts of Germany and its many states), or to convert to Catholicism and to practice their beliefs illegally and secretly. The Brethren were forced to operate underground and eventually dispersed across Northern Europe as far as the Low Countries, where Bishop John Amos Comenius attempted to direct a resurgence. The largest remaining communities of the Brethren were located in Lissa in Poland, which had historically strong ties with the Czechs, and in small, isolated groups in Bohemia and Moravia.
Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf was a nobleman born in 1700 in Dresden, Saxony, in present-day eastern Germany, where he was brought up in the traditions of Pietism. Zinzendorf studied law at university in accordance with the wishes of his family, but his main interests were in the pursuit of his religious ideas. In 1722 he left the court in Dresden to spend more time on his estates at Berthelsdorf, where he hoped to establish a model Christian community.
Out of a personal commitment to helping the poor and needy, Zinzendorf agreed to a request (from an itinerant carpenter named Christian David) that persecuted Protestants from Moravia should be allowed to settle on his lands. Among those who came were members of the Bohemian Brethren who had been living as an underground remnant in Moravia for nearly 100 years since the days of Comenius.
In 1722, the refugees established a new village called Herrnhut, about 2 miles from Berthelsdorf. The town initially grew steadily, but major religious disagreements emerged and by 1727 the community was divided into warring factions. [4] Zinzendorf used a combination of feudal authority and his charismatic personality to restore a semblance of unity, then on 13 August 1727 the community underwent a dramatic transformation when the inhabitants of Herrnhut "Learned to love one another." following an experience which they attributed to a visitation of the Holy Spirit, similar to that recorded in the Bible on the day of Pentecost. [5] Many issues were settled by this renewal or revival and, while different doctrinal views still occasionally threatened the unity of the community, Count Zinzendorf was able to maintain harmony of spirit from then on, so the revival could continue unhindered.
Herrnhut grew rapidly following this transforming revival and became the centre of a major movement for Christian renewal and mission during the 18th century. Moravian historians identify the main achievements of this period as:
Before finally settling in Pennsylvania, and later founding another settlement in North Carolina, the Moravians initially made an attempt at settlement in Georgia for their mission work. [6] Upon settlement in Georgia, due to various complications including impending war and leadership withdrawal, a select several of the Moravian settlers moved from Georgia to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1740. [7] Missionary settlers in Bethlehem were part of one of the oldest recognized Protestant denominations in the world, the Unitas Fratrum or the Unity of the Brethren which began in 1457 in what is now the Czech Republic.
After years of persecution in their native land, many from the old Unity immigrated to Germany where they began settling on Zinzendorf's estate in 1722. With a renewed spirit of purpose, they began sending out missionaries in 1732 and over the years developed a far-flung mission movement that lives on today in Moravian churches, schools, and communities in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, North America, South America, Nepal, and Africa. [8] While the prime objective of reaching the colonies was to convert the Native population of the Delaware River region, the Moravian method of evangelizing was not always looked upon kindly or welcomed. [9]
The modern Unitas Fratrum or Moravian Church, with about 825,000 members worldwide, continues to draw on traditions established during the 18th century renewal. In many places it observes the convention of the lovefeast, originally started in 1727, and continues to use older and traditional music in worship. In addition, in some older congregations Moravians are buried in a traditional God's Acre, a graveyard organized by gender, age, and marital status rather than family. The Moravians continue their long tradition of missionary work, for example in the West Indies of the Caribbean and Greenland. This is reflected in their broad global distribution. The Moravians in Germany, whose central settlement remains at Herrnhut, are highly active in education and social work. The American Moravian Church sponsors Moravian College and Seminary, recognized as the sixth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. The largest concentration of Moravians today is in Tanzania.
The motto of the Moravian church is:
In the 1800s, Hussite immigrants to the United States organized in Texas, where they established the Unity of the Brethren. [10]
The Brethren who stayed in the Czech lands during Catholic persecution gained again some religious freedom thanks to the Patent of Toleration in 1781. However, the new law did not enable them to revive an independent church to continue the tradition of the Bohemian Reformation. They had to join either the Evangelical Church of the Augsburg Confession or the Evangelical Church of the Helvetic Confession. In 1918, they were united into the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.
In 1920, the Czechoslovak Church was established by Roman Catholic modernist clergy as a national church of newly formed Czechoslovakia. In 1971, the church started to use the name Czechoslovak Hussite Church with the aim to continue the Hussite tradition. [11] [12] The Czechoslovak Hussite Church recognizes seven sacraments: baptism, eucharist, penance, confirmation, holy matrimony, holy orders, and anointing of the sick. [13] By the 1950s, the membership of the Hussite Church numbered over one million. [14] It is headed by a patriarch. [14]
The second largest church is the Czechoslovak Hussite Church, which originated in 1920.
{{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)The Czechoslovak Hussite Church (or Czechoslovak National Church), founded in 1920, continues the Hussite tradition.
The Hussites were a Czech proto-Protestant Christian movement that followed the teachings of reformer Jan Hus, a part of the Bohemian Reformation.
Jan Hus, sometimes anglicized as John Hus or John Huss, and referred to in historical texts as Iohannes Hus or Johannes Huss, was a Czech theologian and philosopher who became a Church reformer and the inspiration of Hussitism, a key predecessor to Protestantism, and a seminal figure in the Bohemian Reformation. Hus is considered to be the first Church reformer, even though some designate the theorist John Wycliffe. His teachings had a strong influence, most immediately in the approval of a reformed Bohemian religious denomination and, over a century later, on Martin Luther.
Nikolaus Ludwig, Reichsgraf von Zinzendorf und Pottendorf was a German religious and social reformer, bishop of the Moravian Church, founder of the Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine, Christian mission pioneer and a major figure of 18th-century Protestantism.
The Hussite Wars, also called the Bohemian Wars or the Hussite Revolution, were a series of civil wars fought between the Hussites and the combined Catholic forces of Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund, the Papacy, and European monarchs loyal to the Catholic Church, as well as various Hussite factions. At a late stage of the conflict, the Utraquists changed sides in 1432 to fight alongside Roman Catholics and opposed the Taborites and other Hussite spin-offs. These wars lasted from 1419 to approximately 1434.
The Unity of the Brethren is a Protestant church formed in the 1800s by Czech immigrants to Texas, where the church is still based, in the tradition of Moravian Church.
Although the Kingdom of Bohemia, both of the Lusatias, the Margraviate of Moravia, and Silesia were all under Habsburg rule, they followed different paths of development. Moravians and Silesians had accepted the hereditary right of the Austrian Habsburgs to rule and thus escaped the intense struggle between native estates and the Habsburg monarchy that was to characterize Bohemian history. In contrast, the Bohemian Kingdom had entrenched estates that were ready to defend what they considered their rights and liberties. The Habsburgs pursued a policy of centralization and conflict arose, which was further complicated by ethnic and religious issues.
Petr Chelčický was a Czech Christian spiritual leader and author in the 15th century Bohemia, now the Czech Republic. He was one of the most influential thinkers of the Bohemian Reformation. Petr Chelčický inspired the Unitas Fratrum, who opposed transubstantiation and monasticism, insisting on pacifism and the primacy of scripture. There are multiple parallels with the teachings of the Anabaptists and Petr Chelčický. Czech Baptists have also expressed continuity with the Bohemian reformation by identifying with Petr Chelčický.
Herrnhut is an Upper Lusatian town in the Görlitz district in Saxony, Germany, known for the community of the Moravian Church established by Nicolas Ludwig, Count von Zinzendorf, in 1722.
Berthelsdorf is a former municipality in the district of Görlitz, in the southeastern part of Saxony, Germany. On 1 January 2013, it was incorporated into the town of Herrnhut.
The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren, formally the Unitas Fratrum, is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the Unity of the Brethren founded in the Kingdom of Bohemia, sixty years before Luther's Reformation.
The Czechoslovak Hussite Church is a Christian church that separated from the Catholic Church after World War I in former Czechoslovakia.
The Catholic Church in the Czech Republic is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, curia in Rome, and the Conference of Czech Bishops.
Czech Americans, known in the 19th and early 20th century as Bohemian Americans, are citizens of the United States whose ancestry is wholly or partly originate from the Czech lands, a term which refers to the majority of the traditional lands of the Bohemian Crown, namely Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia. These lands over time have been governed by a variety of states, including the Kingdom of Bohemia, the Austrian Empire, Czechoslovakia, and the Czech Republic also known by its short-form name, Czechia. Germans from the Czech lands who emigrated to the United States are usually identified as German Americans, or, more specifically, as Americans of German Bohemian descent. According to the 2000 U.S. census, there are 1,262,527 Americans of full or partial Czech descent, in addition to 441,403 persons who list their ancestry as Czechoslovak. Historical information about Czechs in America is available thanks to people such as Mila Rechcigl.
The Moravian Church of the British Province is part of the worldwide Moravian Church Unity. The Moravian Church in Britain has bishops in apostolic succession.
In the Czech Republic, 47.8% of population is irreligious, while 21.3% of the population are believers. The religious identity of the country has changed drastically since the first half of the 20th century, when more than 90% of Czechs were Christians. As of 2021, 11.7% of the population identified with Christianity whilst 10.8% identified with other religious identities or beliefs. According to sociologist Jan Spousta, not all the irreligious people are atheists; indeed, since the late 20th century there has been an increasing distancing from both Christian dogmatism and atheism, and at the same time ideas and non-institutional models similar to those of Eastern religions have become widespread through movements started by various gurus, and hermetic and mystical paths.
Fulneck Moravian Church and its associated settlement were established on the Fulneck estate, Pudsey, in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, in 1744 by Count Nicolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a Moravian Bishop and Lutheran priest, following a donation of land by the evangelical Anglican clergyman, Benjamin Ingham. Fulneck is now part of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire.
The Bohemian Reformation, preceding the Reformation of the 16th century, was a Christian movement in the late medieval and early modern Kingdom and Crown of Bohemia striving for a reform of the Catholic Church. Lasting for more than 200 years, it had a significant impact on the historical development of Central Europe and is considered one of the most important religious, social, intellectual and political movements of the early modern period. The Bohemian Reformation produced the first national church separate from Roman authority in the history of Western Christianity, the first apocalyptic religious movement of the early modern period, and the first pacifist Protestant church.
Benigna Zinzendorf, also known as Henrietta Benigna Justine Zinzendorf von Watteville (1725–1789), was the founder of the first boarding school for girls in the British American colonies, which became Moravian University and Moravian Academy. She was a missionary among Native Americans and assisted her father, Count Nicolaus Zinzendorf, and her husband, Bishop Johannes Langguth, in their religious activities in Europe and America. She enjoyed music and was an Eldress to girls' choirs beginning at the age of 14 and was a leader in an adult choir after she was married.
The Unity of the Brethren is the ecclesiastical province of the Moravian Church in the Czech Republic. Due to a schism in the province in 2000, eight of its original congregations comprise the so-called Herrnhut Seniorate of the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.
Unity of the Brethren may refer to: