Nicolaus Zinzendorf

The Zinzendorfs belonged to one of the most ancient of noble families in Lower Austria.[1] They were feudal lords over many places in the Wachau area of the Danube Valley. Their seat was in Karlstetten, Lower Austria. Family members occupied many important positions in the imperial household, at the Reformation they became Lutherans. Among the Zinzendorf ancestors was the Emperor Maximillian I. Zinzendorf's great grandfather was made an Imperial count.

His son Erasmus Maximillian von Zinzendorf chose to sell his Austrian possessions and emigrate to Franconia rather than accept forced conversion to Catholicism. His children entered the service of the Electors of Brandenburg and of Saxony, while Zinzendorf's father was in the service of the Saxon Elector at Dresden at the time of his youngest son's birth. He died six weeks later and the child was sent to live with his maternal grandmother and an aunt. His parents were engaged in Pietist circles and had Philipp Jakob Spener appointed as his godfather. His mother married again when he was four years old, and he was educated under the charge of his pietistic Lutheran grandmother, Henriette Catharina von Gersdorff, who did much to shape his character.

At age six, young Nikolaus would often write love letters to Jesus. He would then climb to the castle tower and toss them out the window, where they scattered around the courtyard like innocent prayers. During The Great Northern War, Swedish soldiers overran Saxony in 1706. They entered the room where young Nickolas just happened to be conducting his customary devotions. The soldiers were incredibly moved by the boy's prayer.[2]

His school days were spent at Franke Foundations at Halle where Pietism was strong, and in 1716, he went to the University of Wittenberg, to study law so as to be ready for a diplomatic career. Three years later, he traveled in the Netherlands, in France, and in various parts of Germany, where he made the personal acquaintance of men distinguished for practical goodness and belonging to a variety of churches. During a visit to an art museum, Zinzendorf experienced the Holy Spirit upon viewing Ecce Homo by Domencia Feti. Young Zinzendorf was convicted, noting: "I have loved Him for a long time, but I have never actually done anything for Him. From now on I will do whatever He leads me to do."[2]

At the wedding of Count Henry XXIX Reuss in 1721, Zinzendorf met Erdmuthe Dorothea, his future wife. A year later, they were married. He had previously, in deference to his family who wished him to become a diplomat, rejected the invitation of August Hermann Francke to take Baron von Canstein's place in the Halle Orphanage; and he now resolved to settle down as a landowner, spending his life on behalf of his tenantry. He bought Berthelsdorf from his grandmother, Baroness von Gersdorf in early 1722.

Wanting to demonstrate practical application of Spener's Pietist ideals. he did not intend to found a religious organization distinct from the area's Lutheran Church, but to create a Christian association, the members of which by preaching, by distributing tracts and books and by demonstrating practical benevolence might awaken torpid Lutheranism. The "band of four brothers" — Johann Andreas Rothe (pastor at Berthelsdorf); Melchior Schäffer (pastor at Görlitz); Friedrich von Watteville (a boyhood friend); and Zinzendorf — set to create a revival of religion as well as to preserve the warmth of their own personal trust in Christ. Their printing-house at Ebersdorf (now in Thuringia) printed large quantities of inexpensive Bibles, catechisms, hymnals and religious tracts. A French translation of Johann Arndt's True Christianity was also published.

A dislike of the dry Lutheran orthodoxy of the period gave Zinzendorf some sympathy with that side of the growing rationalism which was attacking dogma, while at the same time he felt its lack of earnestness, and of a true and deep understanding of religion and of Christianity, and endeavoured to counteract these defects by pointing men to the historical Christ, and seeking to recapture practices and spirituality of the apostolic church.

In 1722, Zinzendorf offered asylum to a number of persecuted wanderers from Moravia and Bohemia (parts of Czech Republic today), and permitted them to build the village of Herrnhut on a corner of his estate of Berthelsdorf. Most of the initial refugees who came to this asylum were recruited by Christian David and came from areas where the early Protestant groups such as the Unitas Fratrum had been dominant prior to the Thirty Years' War. As the village grew it became known as a place of religious freedom, and attracted individuals from a variety of persecuted groups, including the Schwenkfelders. The concentration of differing beliefs in the village produced intense conflict. Personal and religious differences between the estate manager Heitz and Johann Andreas Rothe, the Lutheran pastor of Berthelsdorf, were made more tense by the apocalyptic preaching of Johann Sigismund Krüger.[3]

The village fell into disarray and severe conflict. Some, including village founder Christian David, got caught up in apocalyptic fanaticism, referring to Zinzendorf as the Beast of the Apocalypse, and Rothe as the False Prophet. Zinzendorf finally took an indefinite leave from his court commission in Dresden and moved back to his estate to devote himself full-time to reconciliation of the conflict.

He began to visit each home for prayer, and finally called the men of the village together for an intense study of the Scriptures. The question they came to focus on was how the Scriptures described Christian life in community. These studies, combined with intense prayer, convinced many of the community that they were called to live together in love, and that the disunity and conflict they had experienced was contrary to the clear calling of Scripture.[4]

Out of this study and prayer, the community formed a document known as the Brüderlicher Vertrag, the Brotherly Agreement, a voluntary discipline of Christian community. This document, and a set of rules laid down by Zinzendorf known as The Manorial Injunctions, were signed by the members of the community on 12 May 1727. This document, which has been revised over many years, is today known as "The Moravian Covenant for Christian Living." The Moravian Church is one of the few denominations that emphasizes a code of Christian behavior over specific creeds.[1]

Continued study and prayer in small groups known as banden resulted in a sense of reconciliation in the community, leading to a powerful spiritual renewal on 13 August 1727 during a special communion service at the Berthelsdorf Church. This experience, referred to as the "Moravian Pentecost," marked the beginning of a new era of spiritual growth in Herrnhut. It also began a period of radical experimentation with communal Christian living as expressed in Zinzendorf's theology.[5]

As the renewed community of Herrnhut grew, Zinzendorf obtained a copy of Ratio Disciplinae, the church order of the early Bohemian Unity. As he began to study the history of the Bohemians, he was astonished to find powerful similarities between the theology and practice of the early Unitas Fratrum and the newly established order of Herrnhut. Zinzendorf and the Herrnhuters felt a strong identification with the writings of Moravian Bishop John Amos Comenius and incorporated many of the ideas of the early Unity. However, Zinzendorf saw the new group as a spark for renewal of all denominations, not a new and separate denomination. This theological bent was reinforced by the legal structure of the Lutheran State church.[6]

In this renewed community, Zinzendorf was able to organize the people into something like a militia Christi, based not on monastic but on family life. However his ideas of family were centered not on a traditional nuclear family of parents and children. Indeed, he wanted to break traditional family bonds by organizing communal families based on age, marital status and gender. The banden, or small groups, continued but were organized into "choirs" based on age, marital status, and gender. Zinzendorf's theology recognized that at each stage of life, we had different spiritual needs and a different relationship with the Savior.[7]

Moravian communities based on this model, such as Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and Salem, North Carolina, were designed for the sole purpose of serving Christ, who also was considered to be the community leader. In these communities, a radical equality of spiritual life was practiced. In Bethlehem, nobility and converted Native Americans shared common quarters; in Salem, slaves were full members of the Church and could be elected to offices of leadership.

Zinzendorf was consecrated a bishop at Berlin on 20 May 1737 by Bishops David Nitschmann der Bischof and Daniel Ernst Jablonski.

Zinzendorf monument in Herrnhut, Germany

Zinzendorf preaching to people from many nations

Zinzendorf's waistcoat in Lititz Moravian Archive and Museum

Zinzendorf's interest in missionary work was sparked by meeting two Inuit children converted by Hans Egede's mission in Greenland and a freed slave, Anthony Ulrich, who told of terrible oppression among the slaves in the West Indies.

In 1732, the community began sending out missionaries among slaves in the Danish-governed West Indies and the Inuit of Greenland. Zinzendorf's personal and familial relation to the court of Denmark and to King Christian VI facilitated such endeavors. He saw with delight the spread of this Protestant family order in Germany, Denmark, Russia and England.[8]

In 1736, accusations from neighboring nobles and questions of theological inorthodoxy caused Zinzendorf to be exiled from his home in Saxony. He and a number of his followers moved to Marienborn (near Büdingen) and began a period of exile and travel, during which he became known as the "Pilgrim Count."[9]

The missionary work in the West Indies had been hugely controversial in Europe, with many accusing Zinzendorf of simply sending young missionaries off to die. He decided to place himself on the line, and in 1739 left Europe to visit the mission work on St. Thomas. Convinced that he himself might not come back, he preached his "last sermon" and left his will with his wife.[10]

In 1741, Zinzendorf visited Pennsylvania, thus becoming one of the few 18th century European nobles to have actually set foot in the Americas. In addition to visiting leaders in Philadelphia such as Benjamin Franklin, he met with the leaders of the Iroquois and, with the assistance of Conrad Weiser reached agreements for the free movement of Moravian missionaries in the area.[11]

In 1749, Zinzendorf leased Lindsey House, a large manor on Cheyne Walk in Chelsea built on the estate of Sir Thomas More to be a headquarters for work in England. He lived there until 1755.

Missionary colonies had by this time been settled in the West Indies (1732), in Greenland (1733), among the North American Indians (1735); and before Zinzendorf's death the Brethren had sent from Herrnhut missionary colonies to Livonia and the northern shores of the Baltic Sea, to the slaves of South Carolina, to Suriname, to the Negro slaves in several parts of South America, to Tranquebar and the Nicobar Islands in the East Indies, to the Copts in Egypt, to the Inuit of Labrador, and to the west coast of South Africa.

Zinzendorf was an eclectic theologian. He called his group the "Church of God in the Spirit" or the "Congregation of God in the Spirit". Rather than focusing on doctrine or belief, Zinzendorf's theology emphasizes the growth of the spiritual relationship between the believer and the Savior. As reflected in the communities he established, he believed in Christians living lives of love and harmony, and believed that every Christian needed to live in a faith community, or Gemeinde (congregation).

He taught that the Savior had a relationship with each believer, but a different level of relationship with the Gemeinde. Decisions on interpretation of Scripture were to be made communally, not individually. He believed it was the Gemeinde, not the ecclesiastical and political institution, that was truly the Church of Jesus Christ.[12]

Zinzendorf's theology strongly included the emotional life of the believer as well as the intellectual. His thought and practice was radically ecumenical in a world of rigidly defined religious and political boundaries. He believed each denomination had a unique perception of Christ, and a unique gift to offer the world. He met and had profound personal relationships with religious leaders ranging from Cardinal Louis Antoine de Noailles, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris to John Potter, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, both of whom became members of Zinzendorf's Order of the Grain of Mustard Seed, pledging to use their positions of power to serve Christ.

Other members of the Order included Christian VI [not verified], King of Denmark; General James Oglethorpe, Governor of Georgia; Tomochichi, Chief of the Creek nation of Native American Indians; and Erskine, a Scottish member of the British Parliament.

Zinzendorf often worked to have denominations work together and respect one another. In 1742, he advocated respect for the Saturday Sabbath keeping among the German-speaking Christians in Philadelphia, citing the use of that day by the Ephrata Cloister, thus promoting the first practice of the two-day weekend in America. He also used Sunday for preaching the Gospel.

However, a more critical view can be taken of the writings and theology of Z.; that he was inconsistent, confusing, opportunistic and often changed opinions. This seriously came in action in 1736, when he issued a decree from the castle of Ronneburg, disowning his former printings[13] His famous preaching of the redemption through the blood of Christ, followed a change of opinion around 1734/35, the years before it was suspected he had adhered to the opposite doctrines of Johann Conrad Dippel.[14] More scandalously, he had his secret or half-public doctrines, most notably of the "Holy marriage" or "Marriage-Sacrament". In his first big song-book, "Sammlung Geist- und lieblicher Lieder", Herrnhut 1731, in the preface p. 16, he states a holy marriage as a sacrament together with the baptism and Lord's Supper.[15] This means that man and wife who live in such a marriage are sinless. The doctrines of this were especially given out to the married couples of the congregation in the count's speeches, notably in his 1747 edited: "Oeffentliche Gemeinreden", 2. Vols., and in the 1755 at Frankfurt and Leipzig published (by a local Saxon clergyman who had got hold of the manuscript): "Haupt-Schlüssel zum herrnhutischen Ehe-Sacrament".[16] From 1735 on, in public writings, Z. expressly declared himself for the lutheran confession of Augsburg,[17] but in private letters he declared indifference to any confession; that is, the catholic, reformed and lutheran churches as "sects" called, that is an adherence to Jesus Christ without any doctrine, and finally his own church as the center of this, and including threats to those who would oppose him. In a letter to some separatists outside Frankfurt M, of 16. June 1736 he states: "Wir haben Lust, Seelen zu JEsu zu bereden, in allen Secten und Verfassungen. Denn wir machen keine neue, sondern leben in JESU gemein, die allenthalben nur eine ist. Will man uns dieses in Liebe lassen, so so lassen wir wieder stehen, was wir nicht gebauet. Wil man uns aber darinnen stören; so werden wir uns mit dem Schwerdt des Geistes zur Rechten und zur Lincken Platz machen. (We have desire, to prepare souls to Jesus, in all sects and constitutions. Then we make no new ones, but live in the congregation of Jesus, which everywhere only one is. Would one let this in love, so will we leave standing, what we did not build. But if one will disturb this; so will we right and left make place with the sword of spirit.)"[18] Such utterances carried the double appearance of theological toleration and dictatorship. Which Jesus he is referring to, is also unclear, because it is a Jesus without certain content. The theology that emerged from all the controversies, was a ceremonial, liturgical one.[19] An original english account (from Z. visit in North America) of Count Z. opinions can be found in: Gilbert Tennent: "Some account of the Principles of the Moravians", London 1743.[20]

The community in Herrnhut, from which almost all these colonies had been sent out, had no money of its own, and Zinzendorf had almost exclusively furnished its expenses. His frequent journeys from home made it almost impossible for him to look after his private affairs; he was compelled from time to time to raise money by loans, and about 1750 was almost reduced to bankruptcy.

This led to the establishment of a financial board among the Brethren, on a plan furnished by a lawyer, John Frederick Köber, which worked well. His son Christian Renatus, whom Zinzendorf had hoped to make his successor, died in 1752 of tuberculosis[21] and the loss devastated him. Four years later, on 17 June 1756, his wife, Erdmuthe Dorothea, who had been his counselor and confidante in all his work, died.

On 27 June 1757 Zinzendorf married Anna Caritas Nitschmann (24 November 1715 – 21 May 1760), with whom he had been very close for many years. Anna had for years been spiritual leader of the women of the movement. The marriage was not publicized broadly since Anna was a commoner, and would have been extremely controversial. Three years later, overcome with his labours, he fell ill and died (on 9 May 1760), leaving Bishop Johannes von Watteville, who had married his eldest daughter Benigna Zinzendorf, to take his place at the head of the community. Anna Zinzendorf died 12 days after her husband.

He wrote a large number of hymns, of which the best-known are "Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness"[22] and "Jesus, still lead on". A selection of his Sermons was published by Gottfried Clemens in 10 vols., his Diary (1716–1719) by Gerhard Reichel and Josef Theodor Müller (Herrnhut, 1907), and his Hymns, etc., by H. Bauer/G. Burkhardt (Leipzig, 1900).

A four-part documentary series, Count Zinzendorf was produced in 2000 by Comenius Foundation with the assistance of the Christian History Institute.[23]

First Fruits: Zinzendorf and the Moravians follows the story of the first Moravian missionaries.

The Moravian Mission Machine follows the efficiency of the Moravian missionaries on their journey across the world.[24]

• Ronneburg, Hesse

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Zinzendorf, Nicolaus Ludwig". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
• Diarmaid MacCulloch, 2009, A History of Christianity, Penguin 2010, pp. 744–7
• Marsha Keith Schuchard, Why Mrs Blake Cried: William Blake and the Erotic Imagination, 2006 (Pimlico 2007, ISBN 978-1-84595-128-3). Chapters 1–3 in particular are concerned with Zinzendorf.
•  "Zinzendorf, Nicholas Lewis" . Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. 1889.
• Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.) references:
  • H. Romer, Zinzendorf's Leben und Werken (Gnadau, 1900)
  • B. Becker, Zinzendorf im Verhältniss z. Philosophie u. Kirchenthum seiner Zeit (Leipzig, 1886)
  • F. Bovet, Le Comte de Zinzendorf (Paris, 1860; Eng. tr. A Pioneer of Social Christianity, by T.A. Seed, London, 1896)
  • Ludwig von Schrautenbach, Der Graf v. Zinfendorf (Gnadau, 1871; written in 1782, and interesting because it gives Zinzendorf's relations to such Pietist rationalists as J.K. Dippel)
  • A. G. Spangenberg, Leben des Grafen von Zinzendorf (Barby, 1772–1775)
  • "Zinzendorf" by J. Th. Muller in Hauck-Herzog's Realencyk. für prot. Theologie u. Kirche.
  • "Three Witnesses (Hall of Faith)" by Rick Joyner; ISBN 978-1-878327-58-1
• Wesley, John; Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf (graf von.) (1755). Queries humbly proposed to count Zinzendorf [by J. Wesley].
• Spangenberg, August Gottlieb (1838). The life of Nicholas Lewis count Zinzendorf, tr. by S. Jackson.
• Rimius, Henry (1754). A solemn call on Count Zinzendorf: the author, and advocate of the sect of Herrnhuters, commonly call'd Moravians, to answer all and every charge brought against them in the Candid narrative &c ; ... By Henry Rimius. printed for A. Linde.
• Pond, Enoch (1839). Memoir of Count Zinzendorf: Comprising a Succinct History of the Church of the United Brethren from Its Renewal at Herrnhut to the Death of Its Illustrious Patron. Massachusetts Sabbath School Society.

• Dietrich Meyer: Zinzendorf und die Herrnhuter Brüdergemeine. 1700–2000, Göttingen 2009 (Digitalisat).
• Werner Raupp: Zinzendorf, Nikolaus Ludwig von (1700–1760). In: The Dictionary of Eighteenth-Century German Philosophers. General Editors Heiner F. Klemme/Manfred Kuehn, Vol. 3, London/New York 2010, p. 1320–1323.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Nicolaus Zinzendorf

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf.

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• Zinzendorf Documentary on IMDb
• Count von Zinzedorf's Letter to King Tomochichi