Moravians (religion)

A Moravian is a Protestant belonging to a religious movement that originated in Moravia, Czech Republic.

Origins and early history: the Czech background

The establishment of the Moravian church as a Christian church occurred as a reaction against certain alleged errors within the Roman Catholic Church. This movement was started by a priest named Jan Hus in the late fourteenth century. Although Bohemia, Poland, and Moravia had been Catholic countries, Jan Hus, sensitive of the church's misconducts, simply wanted to return the church -initially primarily just in Bohemia and Moravia- to the pure practices of early Christianity; using liturgy in the language of the people, lay people receiving communion in both kinds, and the elimination of indulgences and the idea of purgatory should serve this purpose. This movement had royal support and a certain independence for a while, spreading even cross-border into Poland, but was eventually forced to be subject to Rome.

Related Topics:
Christian - Roman Catholic Church - Jan Hus - Bohemia - Poland - Moravia - Catholic - Christianity - Rome

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Some of the Hussites struck a deal with Rome that allowed them most of what they wanted. These were called the Utraquists. The other followers of Hus remained outside Roman Catholicism and within fifty years of Hus's death organized the Bohemian Brethren or Unity of the Brethren.

Related Topics:
Hussites - Hus - Roman Catholicism - Unity of the Brethren

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The Moravians were some of the earliest Protestants, rebelling against the authority of Rome more than a hundred years before Martin Luther. One unique (for it's time) 'shocking' belief was an eventual focus on universal education. This may have lead to the betrayal by many local nobles— what need had a peasant to read?

Related Topics:
Protestant - Rome - Martin Luther

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During the Thirty-Years War 1618—1648 which devastated not just the Holy Roman Empire, but the whole of Eastern Europe, the church was very much on the run as it was targeted by local counter-reformation nobles and persecuted especially severely in it's geographical homeland, and dispersed as a result to other slavic lands, various German states and as far as the Low Countries, where bishop Jan Comenius attempted to direct a resurgence, much as the secret Jews, the Moranos), were forced to operate in Habsburg controled Spain and other Roman Catholic Lands.

Related Topics:
Thirty-Years War - 1618 - 1648 - Low Countries - Jan Comenius - Morano

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After 1620, due to the Counter Reformation by the Catholic Church, abandoned and betrayed by the local nobility which had previously tolerated or supported the church, all Protestants were forced to choose to either leave the many and varied principalities of what was the Holy Roman Empire, mainly from Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and parts of Germany and it's many states, or practice their beliefs secretly. At this time, members were forced underground and dispersed across Northern Europe, resulting in the decentralized church of what became known as the Unity of the Brethren. The brethren lived abroad, mostly in nearby Poland that had historically strong ties with the Czech. Those who left under persecution, regrouped in Germany under the influence of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf and formed the church which is now known as Moravian Church (in Canada and United States except Texas), Jednota Bratrská (in the Czech Republic) and Unity of Brethren (in local languages mostly everywhere else, including Texas).

Related Topics:
1620 - Counter Reformation - Catholic Church - Protestant - Holy Roman Empire - Austria - Hungary - Czechoslovakia - Poland - Germany - Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf - Moravian Church - Canada - United States - Texas - Czech Republic

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In the Netherlands the brethern are known as the Evangelische Broederschap and perhaps more as Herrnhutters from the settlement at Herrnhut in Germany. Zeist is the historical centre for the Dutch brethren.

Related Topics:
Netherlands - Zeist

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