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Bible Encyclopedias
The Ancient Moravian Brethren
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature
or or, more properly, "THE BOHEMIAN BRETHREN," an evangelical Church which flourished before the Reformation of the 16th century, and which was overthrown in the beginning of the Thirty-Years' War of Germany.
I. History.-John Huss (q.v.) was the precursor of the Brethren. They originated in that national Church of Bohemia into which the two factions of his followers, the Calixtines and the Taborites, were formed at the close of the Hussite War, and which was based upon the Compactata of Basle. These compactata were certain concessions, particularly the use of the cup in the Lord's Supper and of the vernacular in public worship, granted (1433) to the Bohemians by the council which met in that city. In 1456, some members of the Theyn parish at Prague, who recognised the corruptness of the national Church, and wished to further their own personal salvation, withdrew to a devastated and sparsely inhabited estate, called Lititz, on the eastern frontier, by permission of George Podiebrad, the regent of Bohemia, and through the intervention of John Rokyzan, their priest. He had eloquently inveighed against the degeneracy of the age, but lacked courage to inaugurate reforms such as these parishioners longed for, although they entreated him to do so, and promised their support even to death.
Their object in retiring to Lititz was not to found a new sect. but to carry out, on the basis of the Articles of Prague, and of the Compactata of Basle, the reformation begun by Huss, confining their work, however, to their own circle, and forming a society within the national Church, pledged to accept the Bible as the only rule of faith and practice, and to maintain a scriptural discipline. Accordingly, in 1457, they adopted a formal declaration of principles, which was committed to the keeping and administration of twenty-eight elders. The association took the name of the "Brethren and Sisters of the Law of Christ." But as this title induced the belief that they were a new monastic order, it was changed into that of "The Brethren." At a later time the expressive name of "Unity of the Brethren" came into vogue, and was used indiscriminately both in its Bohemian and Latin forms, namely, Jednotat Bratrska, and Unitas Fratrum. The latter has remained the official denomination of the Moravians to the present day. At the head of the Brethren stood Gregory the Patriarch (q.v.); while Michael Bradacius (q.v.), and some other priests of the national Church, ministered to them in holy things. The association at Lititz soon began to exercise a great influence throughout Bohemia and Moravia. Its elders disseminated its principles, and received hundreds of awakened souls into its fellowship.
The first persecution, which broke out in 1461, did not stop its growth; and in 1464, at a synod held in the open air, among the mountains of the domain of Reichenau, three of the twenty- eight elders were chosen to assume a more special management of its affairs. In the discharge of this duty they were guided by a document drawn up at that synod, and containing the doctrinal basis of the society, as well as rules for a holy life. This document, which is the oldest record of the Brethren extant, opens as follows: "We are, above all, agreed to continue, through grace, sound in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ; to be established in the righteousness which is of God, to maintain the bond of love among each other, and to have our hope in the living God. We will show this both in word and deed, assist each other in the spirit of love, live honestly, study to be humble, quiet, meek, sober, and patient, and thus to testify to others that we have in truth a sound faith, genuine love, and a sure and certain hope." This extract sets forth the tendency of the Brethren, to which they remained true throughout their history. The great object which they had in view was Christian life. They strove to be a body of believers who showed their faith by their works. They tenaciously upheld a scriptural discipline as an essential feature of a true Church. Although, in the course of time, they defined their doctrines in regular Confessions of Faith, they always made practical Christianity prominent, and required personal piety, and not merely an adhesion to a creed, as a condition of Church-membership. The Synod of Reichenau not only gave expression to this tendency, but also decided a grave question. The Brethren felt the necessity of separating entirely from the national Church, and of establishing a ministry of their own. Yet they were so anxious to avoid a schism, and to do nothing contrary to the will of God, that they spent several years in debating this step, and, in view of it, frequently appointed special days of fasting and prayer. The result to which they were led was to leave the decision to the Lord, by the use of the lot. This directed the Brethren to organize a Church of their own. Three years more were passed in praying to God for his Holy Spirit; and then in 1467, at a synod held in the village of Lhota, on the domain of Reichenau, three men, Matthias of Kunwalde, Thomas of Prelouc, and Elias of Chrenovic, were appointed to the ministry, again by the lot. For the particulars, (See MATTHIAS OF KUNWALDE).
Thereupon the subject of their ordination was discussed. The synod believed that presbyterial ordination had been practiced in the times of the apostles, but recognised the episcopacy as a very ancient institution. It was deemed important, moreover, to secure a ministry whose validity both the Roman' Catholics and the national Church would have to acknowledge. On the other hand, a primitive usage must not thereby be condemned. It was therefore determined to remain true both to the practice of the apostolical Church and to that of the Church immediately following the days of the apostles. Hence the nominees were ordained, on the spot, by the priests present at the synod; and then three of the latter, Michael Bradacius and two others, were sent to a colony of Waldenses, who were living on the confines of Austria, and who had secured the episcopal succession. For a history of this succession, (See MICHAEL BIADACIUS).
The Waldensian bishops consecrated the three delegates to the episcopacy, who "returned to their own with joy," as the old record says. Another synod was called, at which they, first of all, reordained Matthias, Thomas, and Elias to the priesthood, and then consecrated Matthias a bishop. A well-matured ecclesiastical government was instituted, and the Church soon spread into every part of Bohemia and Moravia. But it had to contend with two evils. The one threatened it from within. This was an extravagant tendency to press the discipline to anti-scriptural extremes. It occasioned disputes which continued for fourteen years, from 1480 to 1494, and which were finally settled in the interests of the liberal party. For an account of these disputes, as well as of the exploratory journeys of the Brethren, (See GREGORY, LUKE OF PRAGUE), and (See MATTHIAS OF KTUNWALDE).
The other evil approached from without. Two terrible persecutions occurred (1468 and 1508). The Roman Catholics and the national Church united in a bloody determination to root out the Brethren from the land. Imprisonment, confiscation, tortures, and death were the means employed. Many of the Brethren suffered martyrdom. But their blood was the seed of the Church. In both instances the persecution gradually came to an end; and the Unitas Fratrum renewed its strength and increased its numbers. A full history of these and subsequent persecutions is found in the Historia Persecutionum Ecclesice Bohemicce, published anonymously in 1648. This work was written by Amos Comenius (q.v.) and other exiled ministers of the Brethren, and has been translated into many languages. The English version is very rare. It came out in London in 1650, and was entitled "The History of the Bohemian Persecution." The latest German version is by Czerwenka, with notes: Das Persekutionsbichlein. (Giitersloh, 1869).
When Martin Luther began his Reformation, in 1517, the Church of the Brethren was prospering greatly. It counted 400 parishes; had at least 200,000 members, among whom were some of the noblest and most influential families of the realm; used a hymn-book and catechism of its own; had a Confession of Faith; and employed two printing-presses, in order to scatter Bohemian Bibles and evangelical books throughout the land. Hence the Brethren deservedly bear the name of the "Reformers before the Reformation." This position, however, did not prevent them from cordially fraternizing with the movement which Luther inaugurated. They corresponded with him, and sent several deputations to Wittenberg. It is true a personal estrangement between him and bishop Luke of Prague (q.v.) put an end for a time to this friendly intercourse; but it was soon resumed, and extended to the Swiss Reformers. Such fellowship was mutually beneficial. It purified the doctrinal system of the Brethren, who dropped some dogmas that still savored of scholasticism, and defined others more clearly. It gave the Reformers new ideas with regard to a scriptural discipline, and taught them the importance of union among themselves.
These were the two points which the Brethren steadfastly urged in all their negotiations with other Protestants. Touching the first, they entreated Luther to apply himself to a reform of Christian life, and not merely of doctrine; and they gave to Calvin some important principles, which he subsequently introduced in his disciplinary system at Geneva. On the occasion of the last deputation to Luther, bishop Augusta warned him, almost like a prophet, of the evil which would result in the Protestant Church if the discipline were neglected this prediction was fulfilled by the dead orthodoxy into Which the Church was subsequently petrified in Germany, and by the Sociniasism which ate out the vitals of that in Poland. Touching the second point, the Brethren were a standing protest against the controversies which rent Protestantism; they strove to promote peace, and succeeded in bringing about an alliance among the Polish Protestants at Sandomir, where in 1570 the Unitas Fratrum, the Lutherans, and the Reformed conjointly issued the celebrated Consensus Sadomiriensis. The Brethren had established themselves in Poland in 1549, in consequence of the fourth great persecution which broke upon them in the reign of Ferdinand I, who falsely ascribed the Bohemian League, which had been formed against him during the Smalcald War, to their influence. In the course of this persecution a large number of them were banished from Bohemia and emigrated to East Prussia.
Thence came George Israel to preach the Gospel in Poland, and met with such success that at the General Synod of Slecza, held in 1557, the Polish churches were admitted as an integral part of the Unitas Fratrum. During the reign of Maximilian II (1564-1576) the Brethren enjoyed peace, and united with the Lutherans and Reformed in the presentation of the Confessio Bohensica to this monarch (1575). His successor, Rudolph II, was constrained by his barons to grant a charter which established religious liberty in Bohemia and Moravia (1609). An Evangelical Consistory was formed at Prague, in which body the Brethren were represented by one of their bishops. They were now a legally acknowledged Church. But the Bohemian revolution in 1619, caused by the accession of Ferdinand II, a bigoted Romanist, to the throne, brought about a change in the religious affairs of the kingdom. The Protestants and their rival king, Frederick of the Palatinate, were totally defeated at the battle of the White Mountain, near Prague, in 1620; the Bohemian revolution developed into a European war of thirty terrible years; and Bohemia and Moravia fell wholly into the power of the Roman Catholic Church. In 1621, Ferdinand II began the so-called "anti- Reformation" in those countries, after having executed a number of the leading Protestant nobles. Commissioners, accompanied by Jesuits and soldiers, were sent from place to place to force the inhabitants to embrace Romanism. Many were put to death; more than 30,000 families emigrated; the rest were driven into an outward subjection to the Catholic faith.
The Unitas Fratrum, as well as the Lutheran and Reformed churches, were swept from the kingdom (1627). But the Brethren reappeared as a Church in exile. The contingent which they furnished to the emigration was, in proportion to the whole number of members in each body, three or four times larger than that either of the Lutherans or of the Reformed. About one hundred new parishes were organized, chiefly in Prussia, Hungary, and Poland; and the executive council which governed the Church was set up at Lissa, in the country last named. The hope of returning to Bohemia and Moravia at the close of the Thirty-Years' War was generally entertained by the Brethren; but the Peace of Westphalia (1648) painfully undeceived them. Their native land was excluded from the benefits of religious liberty. Eight years later, the colony which had been gathered at Lissa was broken up (1656) in the war between Poland and Sweden. The members of the council scattered; the Polish parishes united with the Reformed Church; while some sort of a superintendence over the rest was kept up by bishop Amos Comenius (q.v.), who had found an asylum at Amsterdam. This eminent divine hoped and prayed for the resuscitation of the Unitas Fratrum. To this end he published its history and a new catechism, republished the Ratio Discipline which had been adopted in 1616, and which was an official account of its constitution and discipline, and cared for the perpetuation of the episcopacy. After his death in 1670, the scattered parishes of the Brethren were gradually absorbed by other Protestant churches. But the episcopal succession was maintained in the midst of that union between the Reformed and the Brethren which had been brought about in Poland; while in Bohemia and Moravia a remnant secretly worshipped God according to the custom of their fathers, and never relinquished the hope of a renewal of their Church. This state of affairs continued for half a century; and then their expectations were fulfilled. (See MORAVIAN BRETHREN, THE RENEWED) (No. 2 below).
II. Ministry, Constitution, Worship, Ritual, and Discipline. — The ministry of the Brethren consisted of three orders: bishops, priests, and deacons. In the course of time assistant bishops were associated with the bishops. These latter were often called Seniors, also Antistites; and the assistants Conseniors. Acolytes were young men preparing for the ministry, who performed certain inferior functions in connection with public worship, but were not ordained. The deacons instructed the young, occasionally preached, baptized, when directed to do so by a priest, and assisted at but never administered the Lord's Supper. A priest stood at the head of each parish, and exercised all the duties usually connected with the priesthood. In the bishops was vested the power to ordain, to appoint pastors to the various parishes, to hold visitations, to superintend the printing offices, and in general to oversee the Church. Each bishop had a diocese of his own, but all of them together — their number varying from four to six — were associated with from six to eight assistant bishops as a council. Of this council the primate among the bishops was president. He enjoyed certain prerogatives, but could undertake nothing of importance without consulting his colleagues. Another of the bishops was secretary of the council. It was his duty to care for the records of the Church, and to examine and answer, if necessary, the publications which appeared against it. Bishops and assistant bishops were elected by the ministers, and the council was responsible to the General Synod, which met every three or four years. In this synod all the bishops, assistant bishops, and priests of the Bohemian, Moravian, and Polish provinces, into which the Unitas Fratrum was gradually divided, had seats. The deacons and acolytes, as also lay patrons of the churches, likewise attended, but without a vote. The bishops and their assistants constituted the upper house, and the priests the lower. Each house met by itself. Diocesan synods were held in order to legislate for a particular diocese, but their acts were reported to the council, and by it to the General Synod. Owing to the frequent persecutions that occurred, and to the idea that the cares of a family would interfere with the usefulness of the ministers, they were, for the most part, unmarried. There was no law enjoining celibacy; it was a usage, which gradually fell into desuetude. Towards the end of the 16th century an unmarried priest or bishop was the exception.
The membership of a parish was divided into beginners, that is, children and new converts from Romanism; proficients, or full members; and perfect, or such as were "so established in faith, love, and hope as to be able to enlighten others." From this last class were elected the civil elders, who constituted the advisers of the priest in spiritual things; the cediles, who managed the external affairs of a parish; and the almoners, who administered the poor fund. Turning to worship and ritual, we find that four regular services were held every Sunday; the second one in the morning being "the great service," when a sermon on the Gospels was delivered. In the early service the prophets, and in the afternoon service the apostolic writings, were explained; while the evening was devoted to the reading of the Bible in order, with instructive remarks. Throughout the summer, the young were taught the Catechism at noon. The Holy Communion was celebrated four times a year, but could be held more frequently. Confirmation took place generally at the time of the bishop's annual visitation. The principal festivals of the ecclesiastical year were observed, and special days for fasting and prayer appointed. There were three degrees of discipline. Private admonition and reproof constituted the first, public reproof and suspension from the Lord's Supper the second, and total exclusion from the Church the third. The official account of the constitution and discipline of the Brethren opens with the following general principles: "There are in Christianity some things essential (essentialia), some things auxiliary (ministerialia), and some things accidental (accidentalia). Essentials are those in which the salvation of man is immediately placed," i.e., cardinal doctrines; "auxiliaries are means of grace, the Word, the keys, and the sacraments; accidentals are the ceremonies and external rites of religion." For a more thorough study of this subject, consult Lasitii Historice de Origine et Rebus Gestis Fratrusn Bohemicorum, Liber Veterus, edited by Comenius in 1649, and containing a full description of the constitution and discipline — a very rare work; J.A. Comenii Ecclesiae Fratrum Bohenorum Episcopi, Historia Fratrum Bohemorum, eorum Ordo et Disciplina Ecclesiastica (republished at Halle in 1702, by Buddaeus); Koppen, Kirchenordnung u. Disciplin der Hussit. B. Kirche in B.u.M. (Leipsic, 1845); Seifferth, Church Constitution of the Boh. and Morav. Brethren, the original Latin, with a Translation and Notes (Lond 1866).
III. Schools and Literary Activity. — The Brethren devoted themselves to education. Their earliest schools were found in the parsonages of the priests. Many of these, instead of families, had classes of young acolytes living with them, whom they trained for the ministry. Next were instituted parochial schools, in which a thorough elementary education was given, including Latin, and which were frequented by large numbers of pupils not connected with the Church. In 1574 a classical school or college, with professor Esrom Riidinger, from Wittenberg, as its rector, was founded at Eibenschttz, in Moravia; soon after another at Meseritsch, in the same country; and in 1585 a third at Lissa, in Poland. Of this last Amos Comenius subsequently became the rector. These colleges were attended by many young nobles, not excepting such as were of the Catholic faith. In 1585 three theological seminaries were opened at Jungbunzlau, in Bohemia, and at Prerau and Eibenschtitz, in Moravia. The training of acolytes in the parsonages was, however, not given up.
By the side of such efforts to promote education may well be put the literary activity of the Brethren. This was extraordinary, far surpassing that of the national and Roman Catholic churches, and competing even with that of the Reformers. The Unitas Fratrum had four publication offices: three in Bohemia, the first established in 1500, and one in Poland. From these offices, and from several public presses, which were often used, came forth a multitude of publications in Bohemian, Polish, German, and Latin, comprising the Holy Scriptures, hymn-books and catechisms, confessions of faith, exegetical and doctrinal works, books and tracts of a devotional character, polemical writings, and in the time of Comenius schoolbooks, didactic works, and philosophical treatises. In addition to this prolific author, whose works numbered over ninety, the principal writers were Luke of Prague (eighty works), Augusta, Blahoslav (twenty-two works, among them a Bohemian Grammar, still in use), Lorenz, AEneas, Turnovius, Ephraim, Aristo, Rybinski, etc. Their Latin diction was often rough, but their Bohemian style pure, elegant, and forcible. In this respect they reached a standard which has never been surpassed. Excepting the writings of Comenius, the literature of the Brethren was mostly lost in the anti-Reformation, when evangelical books of every kind were committed to the flames.
The most important of those works which have been preserved are the Kraliz Bible (q.v.), the catechisms, the confessions of faith, and the hymnbooks. The first Catechism in Bohemian appeared in 1505; the second, in Bohemian and German, in 1522 republished by Zezschwitz in 1863, translated into English by Schweinitz in 1869; the third, in German, by J. Gyrck, in 1554 and 1555; the fourth, the "Greater Catechism," in Latin, in 1616; the fifth, the "Shorter Catechism," in German and Polish; and the sixth, the Catechism of Comenius, in German, in 1611. Several others are mentioned, of which, however, little is known, except that one of them was a tetraglot — in Greek, Latin, Bohemian, and German — published in 1615. There were twelve different confessions of faith, in Bohemian, German, Latin, and Polish. Gindely counts up thirty- four, but of these the majority were merely new editions of the same Confession. The most important are, the Confession of 1533, printed in German at Wittenberg, preface by Luther, presented to the margrave of Brandenburg-very rare, a copy in the Bohemian Museum at Prague; the Confession of 1535, in Latin, with a historical introduction, presented by a deputation of bishops and nobles to Ferdinand II at Vienna, found in Niemeyer's Collectio, pages 771-818, published in a revised form at Wittenberg in 1538, together with a Latin version of the Confession of 1533, both in one volume, under the supervision of Luther, who supplied the work with a preface, found in Lydii Waldensia, 2:344, etc.; and the Confession of 1573, in Latin and German, based upon all the previous confessions, giving the matured doctrines of the Church, embracing a historical procemium by Riidinger, and printed at Wittenberg, under the direction of the theological faculty of the university, the Latin Confession found in Lydii Waldensia, 3:95-256, and the German in Kocher, pages 161-256. The hymnology of the Brethren was one of the chief means which they used for spreading the Gospel and promoting spirituality. They gave to the national fondness for song a sacred direction. Their hymns were doctrinal; the German versification was hard, the Bohemian soft and smooth; the tunes, which were printed out in the hymn-books, were in part the old Gregorian, in part borrowed from the German, and in part popular melodies adapted. In spite of their roughness, the German hymns, whose simplicity and devotion, fervor and loving spirit, Herder highly commends, found favor in the churches of the Reformation, while the Bohemian expressed, says Chlumecky, "the deep religious feelings of the people, and were a blossom of the national life, showing forth the Slavonic ideal of a sanctified mind." The first Bohemian Hymn-book appeared in 1504; the second, which was the masterpiece of the Brethren's hymnology, containing 743 hymns, in 1661. This latter passed through a number of editions. The first German Hymn-book was published in 1531; the second in 1543; the third and best in 1566. This was dedicated to Maximilian II. contained 411 hymns, and was frequently republished. Polish hymn-books came out in 1554 and 1569.
IV. Doctrines. — For an exposition of the cardinal views of the Christian faith, as taught by the Brethren, the reader is referred to the works cited below. These doctrines agreed, in the nain, with those of the Reformers. Gindely (R.C.), Zezschwitz (Luth.), and some other writers, try to show that the Unitas Fratrum did not hold to justification by faith. Gindely asserts that its stand-point in this respect was altogether Romish; but this is disproved by the standards, although some of the private and polemical writings of Luke of Prague produce such an impression. In order to promote holy living, the Brethren strongly insisted on good works; but they taught that men are saved by faith, which they never understood in the Romish sense, and they utterly rejected an opus operatum. In their earlier confessions and catechisms, following Huss, they distinguished between credere de Deo, credere Deo, and credere in Deum.
The first is faith in God's existence; the second faith in his revelation through his Word; the third that faith by which a man appropriates to himself God's grace in Christ, and consecrates himself to Christ's service. Prior to the Reformation, the Brethren accepted the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church; after that, about 1530, they repudiated all but baptism and the Lord's Supper. Up to that time, moreover, their views of baptism were peculiar. They rebaptized converts from the Roman Catholic and national churches, because they deemed both to be idolatrous; and they extended this practice to the young, because they considered personal faith an essential condition of the baptismal covenant. But they did not on this account reject infant baptism. Children were baptized soon after their birth, and thus dedicated to God; then they were rebaptized, after a thorough course of instruction in the Catechism, when old enough to exercise personal faith, and thus brought into full communion with the Church.
This practice, however, was relinquished by a formal act of the General Synod of 1534, and confirmation substituted in the place of rebaptism. Touching the Lord's Supper, the Brethren taught that it is to be received in faith, to be defined in the language of Scripture, and every human explanation of that language to be avoided, except in so far that the spiritual, and not the real, presence is to be held. To this view they remained faithful, and were consequently often misunderstood both by the Catholics and the Utraquists on the one part, and by the Lutherans and the Reformed on the other. The great aim of the Brethren was to discountenance speculations and controversies with regard to this point. Finally, from the earliest times, they rejected purgatory, the adoration of the saints, and the worship of the Virgin Mary. For a further investigation of their doctrinal system, the following works are specially important: Balthasar Lydii Waldensia (tom. 1, Rotterdam, 1616; tom. 2, Dordrecht, 1617), containing a number of their confessions; Kocher, Glaubensbekenntnisse der Bohmn. Briider (Frankfort and Leipsic, 1741); Ehwalt Alte u. neue Lehre der Bohn. Briider (Dantzic, 1756); Kocher, Katechetische Geschichte (Jena, 1768); Niemeyer, Collectio Confessionumn in ecclesiis reformatis publicatarum (Leipsic, 1840); Gindely, Ueber die dogmat. Ansichten d. Bohsma. Briider, in the 13th vol. of the Transactions of the Akademie der Wissenschaften (Vienna, 1854, from the Roman Catholic stand-point); Zezschwitz, Katechismen d. Waldenser u. Bohm. Briider (Erlangen, 1863, from the ultra-Lutheran stand-point); The Catechism of the Boh. Brethren, translated from the old German by E. de Schweinitz (Bethlehem, 1869); Die Lehrweise d. Bohm. Briider, by Dr. Plitt, in the Theol. Stud. u. Krit. of 1868.
V. Literature. — Until comparatively recent times the only sources of the history of the Bohemian Brethren were the following: A History in Latin, in Eight Books, by J. Lasitius, a Pole, written in 1560-70, but never published — two MSS. extant. at Herrnhut and Gottingen; Historica Narratio de Fratrum Orthodoxorum ecclesiis in Bohemia, Moravia, et Polonia, written between 1570 and 1574, by Joachim Camerarius, published, after his death, at Heidelberg, 1605; Regenvolscii (Adrian Wengersky) Systema historico-chronologicum ecclesiarum Slavonicarum (Utrecht, 1652; Amsterd. 1679,); J.A. Comenii Ratio Disciplince, etc. (Lissa, 1632; Amsterdam, 1660; Halle, 1702). On these sources were based, Cranz, Ancient Hist. of the Brethren (Lond. 1780); Gedenktage d. alten Briiderkirche (Gnadau, 1821); Holmes, Hist. of the Prot. Church of the U.B. (London, 1825, 2 volumes); Rieger, Die alten u. neuen Bohm. Brider (St. Ziillich, 1734); Lochner, Entstehung, etc., d. Briidergenzeine in Bohmen2 u. Mdhren (Nirnb. 1832); Carpzov, Religions-Untersuchung d. Bohnm. Brider (Leipsic, 1742; a bitter enemy of the Brethren); Bost, Hist. of the Boh. and A Morav. Brethren (Lond. 1848). In 1842 a Moravian clergyman discovered, in one of the churches at Lissa, thirteen folio volumes of MSS., which proved to be the long-lost archives of the Bohemian Brethren, and which were purchased by the Moravian Church, and removed to Herrnhut.
They are known and cited as the Lissa Folios. The 14th volume was subsequently discovered at Prague. About the same time other original records were found: Jaffet's Hist. MSS. in the library at Herrnhut, Blahoslaw's MSS. at Prague, etc. These various documents have thrown an entirely new light upon the history of the Bohemian Brethren, and have been used particularly by Professor A. Gindely, a Roman Catholic, who has produced: Geschichte der Bodhmischen Bruder (Prague, 1857, 2 volumes); Quellen zur Geschichte d. B.B. (Vienna, 1859; very important, containing many of the documents of the Lissa Folios); Dekreten d. Bruder Uniatt (Prague, 1865, being the enactments of the General Synod, in the original Bohemian); Rudolph II u. seine Zeit (Prague, 1868, 2 volumes); Gesch. d. 30 jahrigen Krieges (Prague, 1869, 2 volumes); Ueber des J.A. Conenius Leben (Vienna, 1855, in the 15th vol. of the Transactions of the Akademie). Other works based upon the new sources are: Palacky, Geschichte v. Bhomen (Prague, 1844-67,10 vols.); J. Fiedler, Todtenbuch der Geistlichkeit der Bohm. Bruder (Vienna, 1863, being the official necrology of the ministers of the U.F., in Bohemian; transl. into German in 1872); H. L. Reichel, Geschichte d. alten Briiderkirche (Rothenb. 1850); Croger, Geschichte d. alten Briiderkirche (Gnadau, 1865, 2 volumes; reviewed in The Moravian February 14, 1867); Benham, Origin and Episcopate of the Bohemian Brethren (Lond. 1867); Schweinitz, Moravian Episcopate (Bethlehem, 1865); Schweinitz, Moravian Manual (ibid. 1869); Benham, Life of Comenius (Lond. 1858); Czerwenka, Geschichte d. Evang. Kirche in Bohmen (Bielefeld and Leipsic, 1869 and 1870, 2 volumes, containing the best history of the Brethren that has yet been written); Pescheck, Ref. and Anti-Reformation in Bohemia (Lond. 1845, 2 volumes, from the German). Consult the following periodicals: Lond. Qu. Rev. April 1857, art. 10; Amer. Presb. Qu. July 1858; July 1864, art. 2; Ch. Rev. July 1865; April, 1866; Meth. Qu. Rev. July 1863, page 516; April 1870, page 265; Princeton Rev. 7:77; Christian Exnaminer, 66:1 sq. Compare also the works cited in the body of this article. Sources for the history of the Brethren in Poland are: Jablonski, Hist. Consensus Sandomiriensis (Berlin, 1731); Krasinski, Reformation in Poland (Lond. 1840, 2 volumes); Fischer, Geschichte der Ref. in Polen (Gratz, 1856, 2 volumes). The article in Herzog's Encyklopadie, by Dieckhoff, entitled "Bohmische Bruider," was written without any knowledge of the new sources. It was consequently supplemented by Zezschwitz, in the article "Lukas v. Prag," volume 20, conceived from an ultra-Lutheran point of view. (E. de S.).
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McClintock, John. Strong, James. Entry for 'The Ancient Moravian Brethren'. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/tce/t/the-ancient-moravian-brethren.html. Harper & Brothers. New York. 1870.
