937 



ZINZENDORF, COUNT VON. 



ZINZENDORF, COUNT VON. 



033 



devote himself entirely to the church. It is however said that his 

 life there presented a striking contrast with his principles ; he was as 

 often seen in gaming-houses as in conventicles ; he dressed in the 

 most fashionable style, and being possessed of great personal beauty, 

 imagination, and vivacity, he became the favourite of women whose 

 moral character was suspicious. It is said that he endeavoured to 

 reclaim them to better principles, but it is also true that the doctrines 

 which he afterwards preached presented a strange mixture of idealism 

 and sensualism, and exposed him not only to vulgar slander, but to the 

 reproach of a bad life and hypocrisy, with which he was charged by 

 several of the gravest divines of his time. It was only for a short time 

 that Zinzendorf led this equivocal course of life. During his stay at 

 Wittenberg he formed a lasting friendship with Frederick von Watte- 

 ville, a young patrician of Bern, who afterwards became the protector 

 of the Moravians in Switzerland; and as early as 1715 he made the 

 acquaintance of Ziegenbalg, the German missionary, on his return from 

 the coast of Malabar, where he had been sent by the Danish govern- 

 ment. Ziegenbalg was accompanied by a young native of Malabar, 

 whom he had converted to Christianity ; and it is said that tho sight 

 of this proselyte inspired Zinzendorf with the idea of propagating 

 the Christian religion among the heathens, a design which he never 

 lost sij>ht of, ami which he ultimately carried into execution. 



In 1719 Zinzendorf left Wittenberg, and travelled to Holland and 

 France, for the purpose of making the acquaintance of distinguished 

 divines. His religious principles at that time were in accordance with 

 the Confession of Augsburg : he was of course not yet a sectarian, 

 and distinguished himself from his fellow-believers only by his greater 

 zeal and more fervent piety. At Utrecht he was highly distinguished 

 by the jurist Vitriarius and by Basnage, both of whom encouraged him 

 to preach, which he did with the greatest success. From Holland he 

 weut to Paris, accompanied by his friend the count of Reuss-Ebers- 

 dorf. Having been introduced to the nobility and at the court, he 

 availed himself of the opportunity, and endeavoured to convert them 

 to the Lutheran Church. On some his sermons had a good effect, others 

 styled him a Jansenist and Pietist ; but to the majority he was an 

 object of laughter and mockery. None however ventured to ridicule 

 him to his face. Instead of an ordinary preacher of awkward manners 

 and uncouth Teutonic expressions, they saw a nobleman accustomed 

 to frequent the most aristocratic societies, who spoke French elegantly, 

 and who, notwithstanding his youth, showed so much talent, learning, 

 and self-possession, that wherever he appeared he was an object of 

 general attraction. He maintained serious discourses on religion in 

 the midst of the most frivolous society in the world ; he was much 

 noticed by the first men in Paris, and was frequently at the court of 

 the Duke of Orleans, then regent of France. Lord Stair, the English 

 ambassador at Paris, treated him with great respect. Father De la Tour, 

 the general of the order of the Oratory, introduced him to the arch- 

 bishop of Paris : the prelate and the count endeavoured to convert 

 each other, but neither succeeded. From Paris Zinzendorf went to 

 Switzerland, and thence returned to Saxony in 1721. Being now of age 

 he was entrusted with the management of his extensive estates, and 

 the elector of Saxony appointed him a member of his state council. 

 The count however was seldom seen at its meetings, and he resigned 

 his place in 1728. As early as 1722 he married the sister of his friend 

 the count of Reuss-Ebersdorf, and retired with her to his seat of Ber- 

 thelsdorf in Upper Lusatia. One day a man called upon him, named 

 Christian David, a carpenter from Moravia, who had travelled much : 

 he belonged to the obscure sect of the Moravian Brothers, who pro- 

 fessed the doctrines of John HUBS in some remote corners of Moravia. 

 David, who was a pious man, having informed the count of the' oppres- 

 sion under which they lived under the Austrian government, Zinzen- 

 dorf invited him to settle on his estate, and to bring thither such of 

 his friends as would prefer liberty of conscience in a foreign country 

 to religious oppression at home. David accepted the proposal, and 

 returned in the course of the summer of 1722, with three men, two 

 women, and five children, to whom the count gave some land and a 

 wooden house situated at the foot of the Hutberg, or ' pasture-hill.' 

 Such was the beginning of the celebrated colony of Herrnhut ; for 

 this name, which signifies 'the lord's guard,' was given by Zinzendorf 

 to the settlement in allusion to the double meaning of the word ' Hut,' 

 which signifies ' guard,' as well as ' a place were flocks are guarded,' 

 that is, ' a pasture-ground.' The first settlers were so poor, that the 

 countess presented them with some clothes and a milch cow, to 

 prevent the children from starving ; but they were industrious and 

 good people, and soon got into better circumstances. 



It was on this occasion that Ziuzendorf first conceived the idea of 

 forming a sect, and he published the principles of the new creed in 

 several pamphlets, which sometimes contradict one another, but from 

 which we may nevertheless see that he did not intend to separate 

 from the Augsburg Confession. Hernhut was destined to become the 

 centre of that sect, and he invited other Moravian brothers, whose 

 religious principles seemed to him to correspond best with his own, to 

 settle in the new colony, to which he gave his solemn benediction. 

 He supported the settlers with great liberality, and he and his flock 

 soon attracted the attention of Germany and other Protestant countries. 

 The number of his adversaries increased with that of his followers : he 

 was attacked publicly and privately ; but he also received proofs of 

 respect and esteem from the highest quarters : tho emperor Charles VI. 



invited him to his court at Vienna, but Zinzendorf declined this 

 honour as well as many others. Faithful to his plan of converting the 

 heathen, Zinzendorf went to Copenhagen in 1731, for the purpose of 

 inquiring into the state of the Danish missions in Greenland, and the 

 East and West Indies ; and he despatched several of his disciples aa 

 missionaries to those countries. This is the origin of the system of the 

 Moravian missions which are now scattered over the world. The king 

 of Denmark, Christian VI., rewarded his zeal with the Knight Cross of 

 the Order of Dannebrog, which Zinzendorf accepted ; but he sent it 

 back five years afterwards. In 1734 Zinzendorf went to Stralsund for 

 the purpose of being ordained a minister of the Lutheran Church. As 

 his enemies were numerous, he adopted the name of Ludwig von 

 Freideck, and engaged himself as tutor in the house of a merchant 

 named Richter. After having been examined by the members of the 

 consistory at Stralsund, he received ordination and preached in the 

 chief church of that town. It is said that he became a tutor because 

 ho had devoted all his property to the establishment of his colony 

 of Herrnhut, and wanted a livelihood; but this is scarcely credible. 

 If he had lost his property, his devoted adherents would have sup- 

 ported him ; or his brother-in-law, the count of Reuss-Ebersdorf, who 

 was his sincere friend, would have supplied him with the necessary 

 means. Besides, Zinzendorf continued to travel about the world ; and 

 although he was often in temporary want of money, because he spent 

 large sums at once, he was never obliged to give up his plans for want 

 of funds. In 173f> he intended to go to Sweden, but on his arrival at 

 Malmoe, he was ordered to leave the kingdom immediately. Upon 

 this he attacked the king of Sweden, Frederick of Hesse-Cassel, in a 

 pamphlet, of which he sent copies to the principal courts of Europe. 

 This made him new enemies, and in 1736 he was banished from Saxony 

 on the charge of having introduced novelties and preached dangerous 

 principles in meetings of a suspicious character, which tended to 

 weaken the authority of the government and to bring into contempt 

 the services of religion as practised by the Protestant Church. Zin- 

 zendorf took refuge with his brother-in-law, the Count of Reuss-Ebers- 

 dorf, who was a sovereign member of the empire ; and it was only in 

 1747 that he was allowed to return into Saxony. In the same year, 

 1736, he went to Holland, at the request of the princess-dowager of 

 Orange, and founded the colony of s' Heerendyk (the lord's dyke), 

 which was afterwards transferred to Zuyst. Thence he went to Livo- 

 nia and Esthland, caused the Bible to be translated into the Livonian 

 and Esthonian languages, and established several Moravian colonies 

 there. On his return he was invited to Berlin by the king of Prussia, 

 Frederick William I., who had a very unfavourable opinion of Zinzen- 

 dorf, whom he believed to be a vulgar fauatic ; but no sooner was the 

 count introduced to the king, and spoke to him with that gentle and 

 noble persuasion which had always distinguished him, than the king 

 changed his opinion. Their conversation lasted three days, and the 

 king was so pleased with him that he promised to acknowledge him as 

 bishop of the Moravians, if the count would be ordained. Zinzendorf 

 having agreed to the proposal, the Reverend Jablonski, who held the 

 office of the king's first court preacher, ordained him. bishop (May 

 1737). The ordination of a bishop, by one who was not a bishop, was 

 hardly in concordance with the canon law ; but as Luther had ordained 

 a bishop (Amsdorf ), although he himself was no bishop, the practice 

 seemed to be justified ; and the ordination finally contributed to raise 

 Zinzendorf in the opinion of the world, although, strange enough, the 

 king of Prussia would not allow him to preach in public. 



About this time Zinzendorf was informed that he might return to 

 Saxony if he would sign a paper declaring himself guilty of several 

 charges which had been brought against him by slanderers, but he 

 nobly refused to do so, and continued to live in exile. In the same 

 year (1737) he went to London, and held private meetings in his 

 house, which were attended by a great number of both pious and 

 curious persons, and led to the establishment of a Moravian congrega- 

 tion. Wesley received him with great kindness and esteem : and it is 

 said that each of them tried to convert the other, but of course without 

 effect. They were often engaged in discussions on religious subjects, 

 and they argued particularly the question, whether men could attain 

 perfection in this world, which Wesley affirmed, but Zinzendorf 

 denied. 



From London Zinzendorf proceeded to the Danish colony of St. 

 Thomas in the West Indies, and on his arrival there found that the 

 Moravian missionaries who had been sent thither a few years before 

 had been thrown into prison, and their chapels shut up by order of the 

 local government. He succeeded iu obtaining their liberty, and de- 

 fended his and their cause with so much eloquence that the governor 

 promised not to obstruct the religious services of the brotherhood. 

 He now returned to Germany, and made a tour through Switzerland, 

 where Vernet and other French writers and philosophers received him, 

 with a kind of respectful curiosity, but avoided auy intimacy with 

 him ; and in 1742 he set out on his great tour to the British colonies 

 in North America. He was accompanied by his daughter, who was 

 then only sixteen. No sooner had he arrived iu Pennsylvania than he 

 was assailed by accusations of a disgusting and revolting description, 

 which he supported with his usual calmness and forbearance. At Ger- 

 mantown he performed divine service every Sunday, and made himself 

 so popular that the inhabitants, who were mostly Germans, chose him 

 their minister. He accepted the office with visible satisfaction, and 



