general, so education may be called the vocation of the Moravians. To the
support of the parochial school at Bethlehem I heard that about nine
thousand dollars are annually appropriated from the income of the church
property there. This enables those who have charge to put the terms of
instruction very low. These are four dollars, or four to six, annually,
for Moravian children.
The daughters of Moravian preachers are entitled to four years’ tuition
in one of the young ladies’ schools, either at the celebrated one at
Bethlehem, that at Litiz, Pennsylvania, at Salem, North Carolina, or at
Hope, Indiana.[114] Besides these institutions, there is a flourishing
boys’ school at Nazareth, and a college and divinity school at Bethlehem.
* * * * *
Very few of the Moravians here are engaged in agriculture. They have
remained in towns, as it seems, and rarely or never become large and
wealthy farmers; a circumstance that I do not comprehend. That religious
scruples against the acquisition of wealth, or of individual property,
have influenced their actions, I have not been able to discover.
* * * * *
I have not in my reports of aged citizens repeated some of the “orthodox”
expressions which they used.
“The distinguishing feature of Moravian theology,” says Appleton’s
Cyclopædia, “is the prominence given to the person and atonement of
Christ.”
I noticed at Bethlehem a sweet simplicity in speaking to or of the
preachers.
A young man told me that Brother W. had sent him, and one of the sisters
unaffectedly addressed a venerable bishop as Brother S. One of these
gentlemen said to a person, not a member of his church, “Call me brother.”
* * * * *
I have never heard Moravians call themselves Herrnhutters. The favorite
name of their churchmen for their organization is Unitas Fratrum, or
Unity of Brethren. A venerable preacher tells me that they have been
called the _Johannische Gemein_, or community like St. John; or their
view the _Johannische Auffassung_, or John-like expression, of the spirit
of the gospel, especially as we read in the seventeenth chapter of John
the prayer of Christ, “That they, Father, may be one, as we are one.”[115]
* * * * *
I conclude this sketch with an abridged passage from the Mission Report
of 1872, an extract which may be interesting to thoughtful minds:
“The celebration of the centenary of the Labrador mission took place
at all the six stations on the 5th and 6th of January, 1871. Some of
the people assisted in decorating the chapels by fetching fir-tree
branches and making festoons. A number of welcome jubilee presents from
the Ladies’ Association in London, and other sisters, were distributed,
and the services closed with the celebration of the Lord’s Supper; a
love-feast, at which printed odes were used; and a thanksgiving service.
The brethren of Okak remark, ‘Stillness, not unusually a feature of
festive seasons in Labrador, prevailed in a striking degree, and was to
our minds more valuable as a proof of spiritual blessings enjoyed than
the finest words could have been, especially as the Esquimaux have great
readiness in using religious phrases.’”
NOTE.—Christianity was introduced into Bohemia and Moravia
in the ninth century. It is claimed that the people of these
countries, for several centuries, manifested in matters of
faith the spirit of what was afterwards Protestantism. The most
celebrated of their reformers was John Huss, who was burned,
by order of the Council of Constance, in 1415. The Hussites
separated into two parties, of whom the Taborites were defeated
by the Calixtines in 1434, and the latter became the national
church of Bohemia. A party among the remnant of the Taborites,
dissatisfied with what they thought corrupt practices in this
church, removed more and more from the Calixtine communion, and
at length were permitted to settle on the barony of Lititz. It
is claimed that some, if not all, of these were men of God, who
had not taken up arms during the war. They afterwards adopted
the name _Unitas Fratrum_, or _Unity of the Brethren_. Their
pastors were Calixtine priests who had joined the society.
Such was the beginning of the Moravian Church. They obtained
the episcopal succession from a colony of Waldenses, on the
confines of Bohemia and Austria. Toward the year 1500 they had
more than two hundred churches in Moravia and Bohemia, and had
published a Bohemian Bible and several confessions of faith.
Their numbers and influence increased very much, and gradually
the _Unitas Fratrum_ was composed of three provinces, the
Bohemian, Moravian, and Polish. But, in 1621, Ferdinand
II. began a series of persecutions of all the Protestant
denominations in Bohemia and Moravia, known as the
anti-reformation. Protestantism was totally overthrown here,
more than fifty thousand of the inhabitants having emigrated.
In Poland, the Brethren’s Church became united with the
Reformed, and the _Unitas Fratrum_ disappeared from the eyes
of men, and remained as a “hidden seed” for ninety-four years.
In Moravia many families remained, who secretly entertained
the views of their fathers, and among these an awakening took
place in the early part of the eighteenth century, through the
instrumentality of a Moravian exile named Christian David. The
desire to live in a Protestant country was felt more and more,
and two families escaped in the night, and after eleven days
safely reached Berthelsdorf, an estate in Saxony belonging to
Count Zinzendorf, a pious young nobleman, who had offered them
a refuge. Other Moravians joined them, and in a few years a
colony of three hundred persons lived on Count Zinzendorf’s
estate. He himself soon relinquished all worldly honors, became
a bishop of the brethren, and devoted himself entirely to their
service.
* * * * *
Nicolaus Ludwig, Count of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf, descended
from a noble Austrian family, was born in Dresden in 1700. His
father dying soon after his birth, his education was confided
to his grandmother, the Baroness de Gersdorf, who had adopted
the idea of Spener, the founder of the Pietists, of _little
churches within the church_, having for their aim the promotion
of piety and the purifying and sanctifying of the whole church.
The mind of Zinzendorf, when he was a mere child, took an
enthusiastic direction, and he used to write letters to the
Saviour and throw them out of the window, hoping that the
Saviour might find them. At the university of Wittenberg, he
applied himself, without direction or aid, to the study of
theology, fully resolved to become a minister of the gospel.
In 1722 he married, and about the same time gave some emigrant
Moravian brethren permission to settle upon his estate of
Berthelsdorf. In connection with some others, he labored to
instruct them and their children. But it would seem, from
subsequent circumstances, that he himself became, in some
degree, their pupil.
They were not all agreed in religious opinions, and, with a
view to unity, he formed statutes for their government. He was
also appointed a warden of the congregation. In 1734 he went,
under an assumed name, to Stralsund, and passed an examination
as a theological candidate. The same year he received holy
orders at Tübingen. On returning from Switzerland, in
1736, he met an edict forbidding his return to his native
country, and repaired to Berlin, where, under sanction of the
King of Prussia, he was consecrated bishop of the Moravian
congregation, and from that time was always called the Ordinary
of the Brethren. The order of banishment was repealed after
eleven years.
Within this period he visited the islands of St. Thomas and St.
Croix, where the Brethren had already established missions. He
also came to Pennsylvania in 1741. He remained in this country
two years, during which he was very diligently and successfully
occupied. He also made several visits to Holland and England.
He spent his latter years at Herrnhut, where he died. His
remains were borne to the grave by thirty-two preachers and
missionaries whom he had reared, from Holland, England,
Ireland, and North America, including Greenland. He wrote more
than one hundred books. His son, who was an elder of the single
brethren, died before his father. His son-in-law, the Baron de
Watteville, was a bishop of the Moravian Church.
On the continent of Europe the Moravian system of the time of
Zinzendorf is kept up in every respect. The governing board
for the whole “Unity,” or whole Moravian Church, meets at
Berthelsdorf, in Saxony, in the castle once inhabited by Count
Zinzendorf, who devoted his entire property to the good of the
church.
A community of goods never existed at any time in a Moravian
institution. The _Economie_, or _Economische Haushaltung_
(Economical Household, or Common Housekeeping), seems to have
existed for about twenty years, during the Indian wars, when
the settlements of the Brethren at Bethlehem, etc., were feeble
and exposed to attack.
The numerical force of the Moravians is not great. The number
of communicants—home-communicants, if I may call them so—is
12,947 (estimate of 1859?), and over 53,000 mission converts,
including baptized children. There are also, as I understand,
80,000 “Diaspora members” on the continent of Europe; for which
remarkable movement see the article _Moravians_, in Appleton’s
Cyclopædia. See, also, the _Moravian Manual_. This historical
sketch is drawn principally from these sources, and from
the articles _Zinzendorf_ and _German Theology_ of the same
Cyclopædia.
SCHWENKFELDERS.
I had before seen the Schwenkfelders mentioned as a people who, like
the Mennonites, Quakers, etc., are opposed to war, but I never became
personally acquainted with them until the spring of 1873. At that time,
a gentleman of West Chester advised me to inform myself concerning them,
speaking of them as a delightful people. On arriving at Norristown, I
therefore made inquiry about them from citizens of that borough, and was
kindly furnished with several letters of introduction to members of the
Schwenkfelder community living about seven miles north of the town.[116]
It was about noon when the stage left me at the house of one who had
formerly been a preacher in the society. Here I dined, conversed with
my host about his people, and looked at various large old volumes which
he showed to me. Then, having been supplied with an escort, I went to a
house in the same neighborhood, the dwelling of an elderly brother, who
had learned my errand, and had expressed a wish to meet me.
Under his hospitable care, I remained until Sunday evening; he taking
me to the meeting-house and other places. Through him I also received a
present of several books, giving the history and doctrines of the society.
On Sunday evening he took me to the house of another member, whose kindly
care did not cease until he had conveyed me—on Monday morning—again to
the borough of Norristown.
MEETING-HOUSE AND GRAVEYARD.
The church which I visited is in Towamensing Township, Montgomery
County, and is one of six in Eastern Pennsylvania which hold all the
Schwenkfelders now living. I was surprised to find the church in neat
order and in good preservation, thus indicating no lack of vitality in
this small religious body, which, like a transplanted tree, has thrown
out so few roots into adjoining soil. The plain meeting-house stood upon
the edge of a wood; the graveyard was neat, and was enlivened by the
blossoms of the mountain pink,[117] and the bright sunshine and tender
green of May animated the scene.
Among the monumental stones was a rough one bearing this inscription
only: “A. R. W. 1745.” And this was, I believe, the oldest here. Of nine
years’ later date was a gravestone, still unhewn and irregular in shape,
but with a longer inscription: “Psal. 90 v. 7. Baltzer Anders, Gestorben
1754, 56.” The passage cited from the Psalms is the text of the funeral
sermon. The rest we may translate: “Balthazar Anders. Died 1754, at the
age of 56.”
At the date 1762 we find a carved marble head-stone, but no showy
monuments have been erected here. One of the more modern stones says,
“Rosina Kribelin, geb. Hübnerin, alt 27 Yahr 5 monat,”—or “Rosina Kribel,
born Hübner, aged twenty-seven years and five months;” the feminine
termination in being added to both the names.[118]
Inscriptions older than these may be found at the meeting-house in Lower
Salford Township, and one of them goes to a somewhat greater length in
honor of him for whom it was erected. Translated it reads thus: “In
memory of George Weiss, was born in Silesia, and first teacher of the
Schwenkfelder community in Pennsylvania; died the 11th of March 1740, 53
years old.”
(The word teacher means preacher.)
* * * * *
Within the meeting-house there were enclosed benches or open pews; the
pulpit and the ends of these benches upon the aisle being painted white.
The men sat upon one side of the house, the women upon the other; the
women removing their bonnets and wearing caps. These caps were not
severely plain, like those of the Mennonites, etc., but were trimmed with
white satin ribbon.[119]
The Schwenkfelder women bent the knee at the name of Jesus, but this
observance has fallen into disuse among the men.
Before the morning service there is school, in which the children are
taught from the Catechism and Testament; the Catechism containing the
Apostles’ Creed. On Sunday afternoon, a school is held in which the
children are taught to read the German language, in which tongue the
church exercises are conducted.[120] The Schwenkfelders claim to have
been among the earliest to establish Sabbath-schools, but their school is
of later date than that of Ludwig Hoecker.[121]
During service, the pulpit or desk was occupied by three preachers. The
oldest had a fine countenance, forehead, and coronal region of the head.
The youngest, a very solid-looking, fair-haired man, read a portion of
Scripture, and _read_ a prayer.[122] Singing accompanied these exercises,
and then a few extemporaneous remarks were made by the youngest preacher;
the open Bible lying before him, upon which his eyes were cast. The
oldest preacher spoke at length, and was followed by the third, who wore
a heavy black beard.
The ministers of the Schwenkfelders, like those of our similar sects, are
unsalaried and without special theological training.
BOOKS.
I have mentioned that he whom I first visited brought out a number of
large books for me to examine. They were all in the German language.
The first bore title, “The first part of the Christian, orthodox book, of
the man noble, dear, and highly favored by God, Caspar Schwenckfeldt.”
The volume was a folio; the place of printing not given; the date 1564.
It is embellished by a large plate, which apparently represents Christ
with Death and Satan under his feet. Below, upon the left, is a man in a
furred robe kneeling, with the motto, “Caspar Schwenckfeldt von Ossing.
Nil Christo triste recepto” (or, “If I have Christ, nothing makes me
sad”). On the right is a troop of similar appearance, with the motto,
“And the fellow-believers of the glories and truth of Jesus Christ.”[123]
Another ancient folio, bound in parchment, with brazen clasps, tips, and
bosses, was said to be a volume of Schwenkfeld’s letters. There is no
place of printing; the date is 1570. The same plate as the preceding.
These epistles, says my host, are upon the popish doctrine and faith.
The third folio was of the same date, 1570, and was in a splendid state
of preservation. This contains letters upon the Lutheran doctrine, with
which Schwenkfeld did not agree.
Two of the folios brought out by my host were manuscripts, bound in
leather, with brazen clasps. One of them had the great number of
thirteen hundred and three pages, very neatly written in the German hand.
It contained the sermons, “_Postilla_,” of Michael Hiller, preacher
at Zobten, in Silesia, who “disappeared in God” in 1554; written and
collected by Nicholas Detschke, 1564, and now written anew, 1747. I did
not find the name of the copyist.
Although my host told me he that he had never been in Quaker meeting in
his life, yet I found among his books a history of the rise, etc., of the
Christian people called Quakers, originally written in Dutch by William
Sewel, and by himself translated into English, from English translated
into German (_Hochdeutsch_), 1742. This is Sewel’s History, one of the
most celebrated of the Quaker books.
At the second house which I visited there lay in the window-seat several
books in German. One was a large copy of the Scriptures, a clasped
volume, with many plates. Lying loose in it were two plates of Caspar
Schwenkfeld, in his furred robe, with beard descending upon his breast,
and his motto (already given) in German: “_Wenn ich Christum habe, so
bin ich nicht traurig_”; or, “If I have Christ, I am not sorrowful.” In
selecting this motto, he may have had reference to his exiled condition.
(There seems to be among the Schwenkfelders much more regard than among
most of our plain Pennsylvania Germans for the pictures, the “counterfeit
presentments,” of men.[124])
The volumes given to myself, while among these people, are:
1. Schwenkfeld’s _Erläuterung_, or Explanation, concerning many points
in history and theology. Not written by their leader himself, but
composed by several of the “godly exiles from Silesia to Pennsylvania.”
An appendix contains, among other matter, a sketch of the life of
Schwenkfeld, and an account of the journey of the Silesian emigrants from
Altenau to this State. Of this volume I have made much use.[125]
2. Questions on the Christian Doctrine of Faith, for Instructing Youth in
the First Principles of Religion. By the Rev. Christopher Schultz, Sen.
My copy is a translation.
3. Constitution of the Schwenkfelder Society, subscribed in 1782, etc.
HISTORY.
In the year 1490, seven years after the birth of Luther, two years before
the discovery of America by Columbus, and one hundred and thirty-four
before the birth of George Fox, was born in Silesia,[126] in the German
or Austrian empire, Caspar Schwenkfeld von Ossing, of a very old and
noble extraction. His brother-in-law is mentioned as Conrad Thumb von
Neuburg, hereditary marshal of the principality of Würtemberg. Caspar
Schwenkfeld was a person of very handsome mien, dignified behavior,
remarkable modesty, courtesy, and gentleness, accompanied by godliness,
and fervency in prayer, and was of a Christian, pure, and temperate life.
It is added that thus much even his bitter enemies must acknowledge, “as
the clergy know.”[127] In his youth he studied two years at Cologne, and
lived several years at other universities. He at length became well read
in the writings of the Greek and Latin fathers. He was also many years in
the confidential service of his liege lord, the Prince of Liegnitz (the
Duke of Liegnitz?). Afterwards “God touched his heart,” and he turned
away from his life at court, and became a teacher at St. John’s Church,
in Liegnitz. He diligently read the writings of Luther and of others who
were leaving the papacy, and he afterwards remarked that he had been as
good a Lutheran as any. With the fiery reformer he, however, differed
greatly afterwards; the first cause of difference being, as it appears,
Luther’s views upon the Supper. Schwenkfeld says that the Lord Jesus had
shown to him that he was not a bodily bread, but a spiritual and heavenly
one.
Schwenkfeld also wrote a little work upon the misuse of the sacraments,
which, without his knowledge, was printed in Switzerland. Hereupon Dr.
Faber, bishop at Vienna, represented to the emperor, Ferdinand, that
Schwenkfeld held false doctrines concerning the sacrament of the Supper,
etc.; and Ferdinand was himself angry because his enemies had published
the book. The emperor (or, as he is called, the king) wrote to the duke
at Liegnitz to punish Schwenkfeld, but as his innocence was known to the
duke, this prince thought it well that Schwenkfeld should ride away for a
while.[128]
He did ride away in 1529, but, although he lived for thirty-three years
after, he never rode back again.
He travelled to many places in Germany, and was prized and heard at many
noble courts. Many times he stopped in cities of the empire, and suffered
much opposition from the preachers.
A letter of pardon was sent to him by the emperor, Ferdinand, saying that
if he would recall his opinion, and act differently, he should receive
his knightly possessions; but, as already stated, he never returned to
Silesia.
During his life he published ninety-two treatises, and after his death
many of his books were published by his fellow-believers. All his
writings were forbidden to be printed by the Papists and Lutherans, and
in different places his writings were burnt, “nevertheless God has given
means for several of these books to be published four or five times.”[129]
Many years after the publication of his little work, before spoken of,
upon the misuse of the sacraments, Schwenkfeld sent to Luther a number
of his own works, and called Luther’s attention to one of his favorite
doctrines, “the glory of the manhood of Jesus Christ.” To the noble
messenger who bore the letter, etc., Luther returned an answer, speaking
in severe and ignominious terms of the author, reproaching him with
having kindled a fire in Silesia against the holy sacrament, and with his
Eutychianism, as Luther calls Schwenkfeld’s doctrine that the manhood of
Jesus Christ is no creature.[130]
It was not the desire of Schwenkfeld to build up a sect of his own, nor
did he judge any congregation already collected, but he exhorted all to
pray in spirit and in truth in all places. He is said to have directed
men only to Christ and his power, and to have filled, until his death,
the office of a true evangelical preacher.
Before he departed, we read that he heard a voice, “Up, up into heaven!”
which voice he had heard also before he rode out of his fatherland,
saying, “Up, up out of the fire!” (His hearing had failed nearly forty
years before his death.)
Not long before dying he said, “Now home; home into the true fatherland.”
“He died in God, and went home to his rest,” in the city of Ulm, in
1562.[131]
He was buried in a cellar. (It may be remembered that Menno was buried in
a garden.)
Nearly three hundred years after the birth of Caspar Schwenkfeld von
Ossing, the first Schwenkfeld congregation was organized; he was born in
1490, it was formed in 1782. It was upon the new continent discovered by
Columbus, in the English colony of Pennsylvania, that a little band of
exiled Schwenkfelders formed this society after they had sojourned here
nearly fifty years. How were they able to continue Schwenkfelders, during
the period of more than two hundred years between the death of their
founder and their organization here?[132]
In Silesia the ruling church was Roman Catholic, but the Lutherans were
generally tolerated. The Lutheran preachers, coming into contact with the
Schwenkfelders, were often hostile and unfriendly to them; but the final
self-banishment of the Pennsylvania colony was owing to the rigorous
measures taken by the Jesuits for their conversion.[133]
In one of the persecutions of earlier times, we read of a certain Anthony
Oelssner, who was called to strengthen the scattered faithful, about
the year 1580; in which call he showed great diligence in prayer and
preaching, until he was seized and lay imprisoned a while at Liegnitz.
Afterward he was imprisoned at Löwenberg, in the tower, where he suffered
almost the same strong temptations of Satan as we read in the lives of
the fathers that old Anthony did, from which he was happily set free, as
he writes in a long letter. One of his letters is from the lowest dungeon
at Vienna, where he lay among thieves and malefactors.
He was also dragged about in the trenches and galleys,[134] all which
he bore without a murmur, and met his persecutors with cheerfulness,
encouraging the faithful by letters when he did not lie in dungeons too
dark, or when ink, paper, etc., were not denied him. Of these writings a
great part is still extant.