The Moravians in Georgia | Page 8

the Lutheran Church was begun by Philip Jacob Spener, a minister of that Church, who strongly urged the need for real personal piety on the part of each individual. His ideas were warmly received by some, and disliked by others, who stigmatized Spener and his disciples as "Pietists", but the doctrine spread, and in the course of time the University of Halle became its centre. Among those who were greatly attracted by the movement were Count Zinzendorf's parents and grandparents, and when he was born, May 26th, 1700, Spener was selected as his sponsor.
Being of a warm-hearted, devout nature, young Zinzendorf yielded readily to the influence of his pious grandmother, to whose care he was left after his father's death and his mother's second marriage, and by her wish he entered the Paedagogium at Halle in 1710, remaining there six years. Then his uncle, fearing that he would become a religious enthusiast, sent him to the University of Wittenberg, with strict orders to apply himself to the study of law. Here he learned to recognize the good side of the Wittenberg divines, who were decried by Halle, and tried to bring the two Universities to a better understanding, but without result.
In 1719 he was sent on an extensive foreign tour, according to custom, and in the picture gallery of Duesseldorf saw an Ecce Homo with its inscription "This have I done for thee, what hast thou done for me?" which settled him forever in his determination to devote his whole life to the service of Christ.
Rather against his wishes, Count Zinzendorf then took office under the Saxon Government, but about the same time he bought from his grandmother the estate of Berthelsdorf, desiring to establish a centre of piety, resembling Halle. The coming of the Moravian and other refugees and their settlement at Herrnhut, near Berthelsdorf, was to him at first only an incident; but as their industry and the preaching of Pastor Rothe, whom he had put in charge of the Berthelsdorf Lutheran Church, began to attract attention, he went to Halle, expecting sympathy from his friends there. Instead he met with rebuke and disapproval, the leaders resenting the fact that he had not placed the work directly under their control, and apparently realizing, as he did not, that the movement would probably lead to the establishment of a separate church.
In spite of their disapprobation, the work at Herrnhut prospered, and the more it increased the fiercer their resentment grew. That they, who had gained their name from their advocacy of the need for personal piety, should have been foremost in opposing a man whose piety was his strongest characteristic, and a people who for three hundred years, in prosperity and adversity, in danger, torture and exile, had held "Christ and Him Crucified" as their Confession of Faith, and pure and simple living for His sake as their object in life, is one of the ironies of history.
Nor did the Halle party confine itself to criticism. Some years later Zinzendorf was for a time driven into exile, and narrowly escaped the confiscation of all his property, while its methods of obstructing the missionary and colonizing efforts of the Moravians will appear in the further history of the Georgia colony.

Chapter II.
Negotiations with the Trustees of Georgia.

The Schwenkfelders.
Among those who came to share the hospitalities of Count Zinzendorf during the years immediately preceding the renewal of the Unitas Fratrum, were a company of Schwenkfelders. Their sojourn on his estate was comparatively brief, and their association with the Moravian Church only temporary, but they are of interest because their necessities led directly to the Moravian settlements in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
The Schwenkfelders took their name from Casper Schwenkfeld, a Silesian nobleman contemporary with Luther, who had in the main embraced the Reformer's doctrines, but formed some opinions of his own in regard to the Lord's Supper, and one or two other points. His followers were persecuted in turn by Lutherans and Jesuits, and in 1725 a number of them threw themselves on the mercy of Count Zinzendorf. He permitted them to stay for a while at Herrnhut, where their views served to increase the confusion which prevailed prior to the revival of 1727, about which time he moved them to Ober-Berthelsdorf.
In 1732, Zinzendorf's personal enemies accused him, before the Saxon Court, of being a dangerous man, and the Austrian Government complained that he was enticing its subjects to remove to his estates. The Count asked for a judicial investigation, which was granted, the Prefect of Goerlitz spending three days in a rigid examination of the affairs of Herrnhut. The result was a most favorable report, showing the orthodoxy of the settlers, and that instead of urging emigration from Bohemia and Moravia, Zinzendorf had protested against it, receiving only those who were true exiles