Moravians

“ Ever since I became more intimately acquainted with the Moravians, my inclination to this Society, which had united under the victorious banners of Christ, had constantly increased. It is exactly in the moment of its earliest formation that a positive religion possesses its greatest attraction. On that account it is delightful to go back to the time of the Apostles, where all stands forth as fresh and immediately spiritual. And thus it was that the Moravian doctrine acquired something of a magical charm by appearing to continue or rather to perpetuate the condition of those first times. ”

“ By their position, their industry, the simplicity of their religious notions, and their knowledge of the country, the Moravians are most favourably circumstanced for effecting the civilisation and social improvement of the Kalmucks; and there are some men among them who really understand their task. ”

“ In Germany Church extension is almost unknown; in England it is still in its infancy; in America it is practically an annual event; and thus there are now more Moravians in America than in England and Germany combined. In Germany the number of Moravians is about 8,000; in Great Britain about 6,000; in North America about 20,000.
From this fact a curious conclusion has been drawn. As the American Moravians have spread so rapidly, the suspicion has arisen in certain quarters that they are not so loyal as the Germans and British to the best ideals of the Moravian Church ”

“ As was remarked on a previous page, the Moravians — taking up their residences with Indian communities, and devoting themselves in schools, workshops, and fields to the joint objects of civilizing and Christianizing the natives — found in their early zeal and efforts more rewarding results than have been attained by any other Protestant fellowship. ”

“ The name of Czech, however, is usually reserved for the Bohemians, while the Slavs of Moravia and West Hungary are called Moravians and Slovaks. The Czechs have lost sight of their ancient tribal names, but the Moravians are still divided into numerous secondary groups (Hovaks, Hanaks, &c.) , differing slightly in costume and dialect. The peasants usually wear a national costume. In the south of Moravia are a few thousand Croats, still reserving their manners and language after three centuries separation from their kinsmen in Croatia; and in the north-east are numerous Poles. ”

“ Bohemians and Moravians are alike Czech, and use that Slavonic tongue. The House of Hapsburg finds it convenient to govern Bohemia and Moravia as separate provinces, and decrees that the Reformed Church in each province shall meet in a separate Synod, but in no true sense do these Synods represent separate Churches. [1] Indeed we found that most of the pastors in Moravia were born Bohemians, while some of those in Bohemia were born Moravians. ”

“ Thus, step by step, the American Moravians prepared the way for great changes. If these changes are to be regarded as reforms, the American Moravians must have the chief praise and glory. They were the pioneers in the Home Mission movement; they were the staunchest advocates of democratic government; they had long been the stoutest opponents of the Lot; and now they led the way in the movement which ended in the separation of the Provinces. In England their demand for Home Rule awakened a partial response; in Germany it excited anger and alarm ”

“ In Germany the settlement system still flourishes. Of the twenty-six Moravian congregations on the Continent, no fewer than twelve are settlements. In most cases these settlements are quiet little Moravian towns, inhabited almost exclusively by Moravians; the Brethren's Houses and Sisters' Houses are still in full working order; the very hotel is under direct church control; and the settlements, therefore, are models of order, sobriety, industry and piety. There the visitor will still find neither poverty nor wealth; there, far from the madding crowd, the angel of peace reigns supreme. ”

“ About a stone’s throw from “Old Road,” on the top of the hill, stands a Moravian settlement, with its neat white house and chapel; there is always an air of comfort around these settlements, which speaks to an English heart; and the Moravians themselves are a quiet, well-meaning people, diligent in the discharge of their ministerial duties, and earnestly desiring their people’s welfare. May they meet their reward!
After passing the fort of “Old Road,” the next place which attracted our notice was the salt ponds, with their fringe of mangrove trees and little islands. ”

“ Impressed, therefore, with this opinion, I wrote to the Moravians to say that I thought their system of missions would be well suited to this people, inviting them to send out a missionary, conceiving that if small bodies of stockmen (men of depraved habits) could venture to reside amongst them, a small community of virtuous people, such as the Moravians, would not only be secure, but likely to effect much good. ”

“ There was a time when Bohemians in Moravia were taught by Austrian officials to believe that they were Moravians, not Bohemians. The difference between Bohemian and Moravian is as great as the difference between Bronx English and Brooklyn English, yet this fact did not discourage the grammarians in Vienna from setting up boundaries where none existed. Croatia, as pointed out elsewhere, is peopled by a nation calling itself alternately Croatians and Serbs. ”

“ They did not in the least antagonize the Lutheran churches, yet had an organization of their own. Some of them settled in America. The Moravians never became a very numerous body; but their influence in promoting spiritual religion and education, and in carrying Christianity to the heathen, has been more potent than that of many larger bodies of Christians. It was specially wholesome in Germany, at a time when, under the auspices of Frederick the Great, the French type of unbelief prevailed in the higher classes of society. ”

“ The Bohemians are accounted one of the most civilized of all the Slavonian races in the Austrian empire. The Moravians also are distinguished for their mild and gentle manners and their extraordinary industry. ”

“ In England a similar spirit of liberty prevails. For some years the British Moravians have had their own Theological College; it is situated at Fairfield, near Manchester; and although the students attend lectures delivered by a Moravian teacher, they receive the greater part of their education, first at Manchester University, and then either at the Manchester University Divinity School, or at the Free Church College in Glasgow or Edinburgh, or at any other suitable home of learning. Thus do the Moravians of the twentieth century tread in the footsteps of the later Bohemian Brethren ”

“ On the following day two more Indians visited the Moravians. Their faces were adorned with streaks of red paint, and they seemed very friendly, rejoiced over the gift of two pewter mugs, and on leaving made signs that some one should go with them, an invitation that could not then be accepted.
The 10th of April, the first Sunday in America, Spangenberg attended service in the English Church, and heard a sermon on the text, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good,” well fitted to be the watchword of the Moravian settlers in the trials that were before them. ”

“ The Moravians were especially faithful in didactic, moral teachings, in purity, sincerity, and integrity, — making changed habits and manners essential. The Moravians also insisted, as much as did the Friends, on peace principles. Their converts were to be non-combatants. To this we are to ascribe in large part the trials and sufferings and removals to which they were subjected. The heathen Indians despised them as cowards, lacking in patriotism, and the whites believed they were secretly treacherous. ”

“ As the Moravians are still among the least of the tribes of Israel, it is natural to ask why, despite their smallness, they maintain their separate existence, what part they are playing in the world, what share they are taking in the fight against the Canaanite, for what principles they stand, what methods they employ, what attitude they adopt towards other Churches, and what solution they offer of the social and religious problems that confront us at the opening of the twentieth century. ”

“ Moors. From the Latin mauri, and Spanish moros, “black.” Elsewhere denominated “Saracens,” these Arab conquerors of the peninsula were called by the Spaniards “Moriscoes.”
Mop Fair. The name given to a fair held a few days after the periodical Statute Fair for the hiring of farm servants. The dregs of the Statute Fair are then mopped or swept up.
Moravia. From the Morava, which name expresses a marsh or boundary river.
Moravians. The followers of John Huss, driven out of Bohemia and Moravia by religious persecutions early in the eighteenth century. ”

“ It is true that they evangelized all over Germany; but this part of their work was known as the Diaspora (1 Pet. i. 1) ; and the idea underlying this word is that the Brethren minister to the “scattered” in other Churches without drawing them into the Moravian Church. In Germany, therefore, the importance of the Moravians must be measured, not by their numbers, but by their influence upon other Christian bodies. It was from the Moravians that Schleiermacher learnt his religion, and they even made a passing impression on Goethe ”

“ Moravians, a sect of Protestant Christians who, followers of John Huss, formed themselves into a separate community in Bohemia in 1467 on the model of the primitive Church, in which the members regarded each other as brethren, and were hence called the United Brethren; like other heretics they suffered much persecution at the hands of the orthodox Church ”

“ MORAVIANS. The Moravians study to render their conduct strictly conformable to the principles of the Christian religion; but very different notions, notwithstanding, are, and, no doubt, will be entertained respecting some of their tenets. Every unprejudiced person, however, that has visited their settlements must acknowledge, that their moral conduct is truly excellent, and is such as would, if generally adopted, make men happy in the extreme. They live together like members of one large family ”

“ In turn their good will took the form of a gift of grouse or dried venison, which the Moravians gratefully received.
The English were very anxious to keep the friendship of these Indians, on whom much of their safety depended, and when one of the nations came five or six hundred miles to renew a treaty with them, they planned a spectacle which would at once please and impress them. All the settlers were put under arms, and led out to meet them, saluting them with a volley of musketry. ”

“ MORAVIAN HYMNS.
(Vol. iv., p. 502.)
John Wesley was at one time of his life a pupil of the Moravians, and Southey's Life of that remarkable man, like most of his works, pregnant with interest and erudition, affords a satisfactory answer to your correspondent's Query. I quote from the 3rd edition of the Life, 2 vols., 1846. Of the Moravians he says:—
"Madness never gave birth to combinations of more monstrous and blasphemous obscenity than they did in their fantastic allegories and spiritualizations. ”

“ Dress in the last case plays an important part. [154]
The northeastern section of Moravia is known as the Lassko country and is peopled by Lassi Moravians. This group occupies districts mainly around the towns of Moravska-Ostrava and Frydland. South of them a number of Slovak villages are found within the Moravian border. Their inhabitants, sometimes known as Moravian Slovaks, are emigrants from the Hungarian mountains [150] who reached the western Carpathians in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Although they speak Bohemian, their customs differ considerably from Bohemian usages. ”

“ Hearing that they had reached a place of safety, other Moravians took their lives in their hands and followed, risking the imprisonment and torture which were sure to follow an unsuccessful attempt to leave a province, the Government of which would neither allow them to be happy at home nor to sacrifice everything and go away. ”

“ The foundation of the Church of the Bohemian Brethren, or Moravians, which had already been alluded to, is an exception. This sect, which came into existence about this time, gradually increased in importance, and at a later period—the end of the sixteenth and the beginning of the seventeenth century—played a not inconsiderable part in Bohemian history. ”

“ Those living with Tomochichi were not included in this number. “As the Moravian Church is believed to be orthodox and apostolic” no one should interfere with their preaching the Gospel, or prevent the Indians from attending their services in Savannah, or elsewhere. The title to their five hundred acre tract was secured to the Moravians, even in case the Count’s male line should become extinct. ”

“ All the conditions in Georgia were so different from what they were accustomed to in Germany that it took them some time to adapt themselves, and longer to become really acclimated, and they noticed that the same was true of all new-comers. All of the Moravians were sick in turn, many suffering from frosted feet, probably injured on the voyage over, but Spangenberg, Toeltschig, Haberecht and Demuth were dangerously ill. ”

“ Unwelcome as Christianity had seemed to the Moravians, when presented to them as a demand of Frankish invaders, and taught in an unknown tongue, its lessons came with a very different force when urged by pious and peaceable monks, recommended by friendly kinsmen, and expounded in a language intelligible to the converts. Rostislav no doubt quickly perceived that the new teaching might form a valuable link in the alliance of the Slavs against their enemies. He appealed to the Emperor of the East to send Cyril and Methodius to Moravia ”