USA > Pennsylvania > Chronicles of Pennsylvania from the English revolution to the peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, 1688-1748, Vol. II > Part 29
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hood, they started a town by the Lehigh on a tract bought from William Allen.
Zinzendorf visited Pennsylvania to take up land for the faithful, to start settlements, and to preach, asking to be known by the less distinguished name of Thürn- stein, and in fact called Brother Ludwig by the Mo- ravians. Accompanied by his daughter Benigna and others, including an amanuensis, Zinzendorf arrived in Philadelphia on December 10, 1741 (N. S.), Christian Fröhlich having previously rented for him a three- story house in Second Street near Sassafras (Race). On a journey into the country, Zinzendorf stopped at the house of Henry Antes, who had, in 1725, urged Boehm to assume clerical functions without ordination, and who had since become one of the "Skippack Brethren," and who now induced Zinzendorf to attempt a combination or harmonization of the various sects, or, at least, the chief sects among the foreign settlers. Antes accordingly wrote under date of December 15, to the Ephrata community, and, probably under the same date, to every other "dear Friend and Brother," to come on the following New Year's Day-speaking to Germans, he meant January 1st, but the same day as the English called January 1st-to meet in Ger- mantown to deal lovingly concerning the weightiest articles of belief, in order to see how near at bottom one could be to another, and to suffer one another in opinions which do not affect the basis of happiness.
Zinzendorf began Gospel preaching acceptable to earnest Christians generally, startling to the indiffer- ent, and often corrective of the vagaries of the smaller sects. For a while he preached nearly every Sunday in the Reformed Church in Germantown. During the period covered by the earlier conferences of the sects, he was well received by most of the German Lutherans, and by some of the Reformed not under the influence of Boehm, upon whose stern Calvinism Zinzendorf
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animadverted. Zinzendorf excited opposition by inter- views with Mennonites and others to lead them to yield as to infant baptism.
He made a great impression upon the Lutherans in the city of Philadelphia, brought them to tears before he would agree to administer the communion to the congregation, and was elected Pastor, if not unani- mously, at least without much opposition. An arrange- ment was made with the German Reformed Congrega- tion for joint use of the stable or butchering-place men- tioned in the chapter on the Germans. The contract was dated Jany. 1, 1741-2, Zinzendorf signing it as Ludwig Herr zu Thurnstein. The Lutherans were to have the place three Sundays in every month, but the Reformed were to be allowed besides one Sunday an additional one, if they could get a minister to preach twice a month.
Visiting the new Moravian settlement on the Lehigh, Zinzendorf named the town there Bethlehem, that sug- gesting itself, when, at the close of service on Christmas Eve, 1741, he started the hymn:
"Nicht Jerusalem, "Sondern Bethlehem,
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"Aus dir kommet "Was mir frommet."
We are told, that, when Zinzendorf learned of the objection made by the Indians to the inclusion of this region in the notorious Walking Purchase, he paid them for what Allen was selling to the Moravians.
Reichel, who has undertaken to translate all dates into New Style, says that the conference called by Antes for New Year's Day met on January 12. The printed Authentic Relation of the Conferences says that on Jany. 1 there were present a number from the three oldest Protestant religions [by which probably were
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meant Moravian, Lutheran, and Reformed], and also from those called Quakers, from the Mennonists, from the Baptists, from those who were keeping the Sabbath, from the so-called Schwenkfelders, from the Separa- tists, from the Hermits, and from the Inspired. At the outset, there was a remonstrance made by a Separatist against some of Zinzendorf's preaching: Zinzendorf, quoted by Spangenberg, tells us: "I was compelled contrary to expectation to take the place of an accused person, and defend myself against severe accusations brought against me by each of the sects in particular."
Rev. Levin Theodore Reichel has given a pretty full account of these conferences, or Synods, as he calls them, in his Early History of the Church of the United Brethren (Unitas Fratrum), commonly called Mora- vians, in North America, 1734-1748. He says that Antes opened the first conference, and that Zinzen- dorf's speech moved those present to see how much they had in common. On the second day, a confession was unanimously adopted that no one else can save from eternal death but the Lord and God Jesus Christ by his blood, for which purpose His Father sent him: every one remaineth in sin except called to life by Christ, and must be regenerated, but when and in what manner is known only to the Lord; every pardoned sinner must have heart and mind guarded by grace of the Lord our God; it was not the preacher's purpose to bring souls to life, but to impart the Word of Life to those who had been awakened by Christ. The first confer- ence ended amicably. The Ephrata company was rep- resented at it by Eckerling, the Prior, and by Johannes Hildebrand, and it was arranged that the second con- ference, a fortnight later, should be held at Ephrata, but Beissel and such Ephrata brethren as had not at- tended, would not permit this. Beissel's letter to Zin- zendorf, given by Sachse, is dated the 9th of 11th month
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(January), 1741 [1741-2], between the first and sec- ond conference.
The second conference was held at George Hübner's at Falkner Swamp. Zinzendorf was chosen Syndic. An agreement was reached, to avoid a poor inquirer being directed in twelve different ways, that, if he were not connected already with any religious society, any one who had directed him in the way should be at liberty to keep him in religious guidance.
The third conference was held in February at Oley, the second day's session being in John de Turck's barn. Possibly it was at the very beginning that Zinzendorf declared, that, far from agreeing with all the views that might be expressed, he took the office of Syndic as the Lutheran preacher in Philadelphia for the time being. At some stage of the proceedings, a Scotch Presbyterian raised ill feeling by speaking of "secret enemies of Jerusalem." No Moravians attended this conference except as individuals, probably classed by Zinzendorf as members of the Lutheran Church. It was proposed that the hearers of Andrew Eschenbach, a Moravian living near Oley, be organized as Mora- vians ; but Zinzendorf opposed this, and the union char- acter of that congregation was declared. There came up the subject of the difference between the celibate, immersing, and Saturday-keeping Ephrata brethren and Zinzendorf, who, in strong language, as has been intimated, urged marital duties. Sachse prints the compromise declaration, whereby, on the latter subject, the Ephrata brethren disavowed attributing Zinzen- dorf's position to the flesh, and Zinzendorf disavowed attributing the Ephrata brethren's position to the Devil. However, the Ephrata brethren withdrew. The record of this is as discreet as the aforesaid declara- tion, and in fact shows that Zinzendorf's aptitude for diplomacy had not been overrated. The record says that they were excused on the evening of the second
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day, in order that they could reach home without break- ing their Sabbath by travelling on Saturday. As they never again attended the conferences, it is evident that they appreciated the hopelessness of union. The Mennonites and Schwenkfelders also made up their minds to drop out. The Dunkards arranged for an an- nual conference of their own. Among the other attend- ants at this third conference, the idea of a spiritual union, a harmony leaving congregations unbroken, and speaking in conferences of workers, created enthusiasm. To preserve the union, a curious agency was devised. By sifting down the membership by lot to smaller num- bers, three Trustees were chosen, viz: Andrew Frey, a Dunkard, Gottfried Haberecht, who had been first a Moravian and lately an inmate of Ephrata, and had re- turned to the Moravians, and Anton Seyffert of Bethle- hem; and these were to choose in secret, subject to con- firmation by lot, two persons, whose office should be taken away if their names became known, whose duty it should be secretly to counteract any danger of the union being dissolved. On the second day of the conference, perhaps contributing by arousing enthusiasm to the adoption of the aforesaid measures, Nitschmann, Zin- zendorf, and Anton Seyffert ordained to the ministry Andrew Eschenbach for the Oley congregation, also Christian Henry Rauch, the laborer among the Indians at Shekomeko, also Gottlob Büttner and John Chris- topher Pyrlæus. Rauch then baptized three Indians whom he had brought with him; John Hager was set apart as a missionary ; and it was decided to give up an intended colony in Georgia. From that decision, Penn- sylvania became the North American seat of the Mora- vians. Congregations started in Germantown and Falkner Swamp. Oley became Moravian in the course of time. On Zinzendorf's recommendation, Pyrlæus was agreed upon by the Philadelphia Lutherans to act as Pastor when Zinzendorf should be absent.
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When, on March 21, at Ashmead's house in German- town, the fourth conference met, Zinzendorf was chagrined by the absence of the Mennonites, Schwenk- felders, and others. He proposed to dissolve, but was overruled. It was then that he made an address ex- pressing his strong preference for the Lutheran Church, even over the Old Moravian, if the ministers of the former would be valiant, single minded, well grounded in doctrine, and act with divine wisdom. As to the Reformed, he said, that, in the first part of the published proceedings of the Synod of Bern, the chief points of doctrine were according to the truth, so that a servant of Christ could under that creed proclaim a pure Gospel.
Immediately after the fifth Synod, which was held from April 17 to 20 in the German Reformed Church in Germantown, John Bechtel was ordained by Bp. Nitschmann to be Pastor of those attending that church: and thus, we may say, there was completed a sort of Union called the Congregation of God in the Spirit, the members of which were to retain their former beliefs and connection with their former sects, and, in fact, were to dominate the latter. This Union was to be formed, like the United States of America in the making of the Constitution, by the People, in- stead of by the organizations, which in this case were the sects, corresponding to the States which formed the Federation: and the members were to come in no official capacity, but as individuals, who, by increase of their number, might ultimately be the majority of a particular sect. The sectarian tie uniting certain of those who were under the influence of the Union was called by Zinzendorf a "tropus," meaning a manner of training; and, when, on a larger scale, Moravian unity, fellowship, or comity was spread in the Old World, Bishop Wilson of Sodor and Man, one of the most revered prelates of the Church of England, was ap-
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pointed President of the Reformed Tropus, the other tropes being the Moravian, with the old customs of the Unitas, and the Lutheran, although Rimius says, that, in 1748, Zinzendorf made all tropes, probably all fellow workers of whatever denominational antece- dents, receive the Augsburg Confession.
There was no company of Zinzendorf's Union which was distinctly called Moravian until the sixth Synod, the Moravians being ostensibly Lutherans. In May, 1742, about fifty-six persons from England, known as the first Sea Congregation, reached Philadelphia. In June, they attended the sixth Synod. It was held in Germantown. This conference formally recognized these fifty-six persons as a congregation of an inde- pendent and inviolable true Church of God, the Old Moravian; and color was thus given to the claim that three religious denominations-three tropes-were represented in the spiritual league. Antes was com- missioned to issue a circular to the whole country, ask- ing all the children of God to join this Gemeine, and to attend the conferences, which were to be held quarterly. The circular added: "All of us taken together con- stitute the body of Jesus in Pennsylvania," no doubt meaning all to whom the circular was addressed.
We can not believe that in either Zinzendorf's patronizing the Moravians or his promoting the estab- lishment of this Gemeine, personal ambition was actu- ating this Count of the Roman Empire, whom we see, without, as we are told, such marks of dignity as sword and wig, and with Slavs from Bohemia and Moravia as his companions, riding over the mountains of Penn- sylvania in Midwinter to give a religious turn to the feelings of yokels, and in the season of almost impene- trable foliage to make the acquaintance of savages. Yet his scheme has been truly decribed by Prof. Oswald Seidensticker: "He sought to bring them all under one hat, that is, his own hat."
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The conduct of Zinzendorf and his followers was often arbitrary. Prior to his arrival in America, the Moravians had been keeping together the former par- tisans at Tulpehocken of Leutbecker, mentioned in the chapter on the Germans. Zinzendorf stationed Büttner there temporarily. Büttner sent questions in writing to Stoever, insinuating that that gatherer of the German Lutherans had not been ordained; and Büttner's adherents had the church building deeded to them, so as to keep Stoever out of his turn to use it. Büttner found himself so unpopular in the locality that he resigned on May 30, but he was induced by his party to return in July. At said sixth conference of the Con- gregation of God in the Spirit, Zinzendorf, Büttner, Pyrlæus, and Brycelius resolved themselves into a Consistory of the Lutheran Church of Pennsylvania, and, as one of its first acts, sentenced Stoever to depo- sition from the ministry. Then again, even if Bechtel's ordination to labor among some Reformed was justi- fiable, there can be condemned, as a reprehensible at- tempt to undermine Boehm, the giving to Bechtel of the title of Commissary or Overseer of all the German Reformed Churches in Pennsylvania, and the asking of Boehm, who was within the obedience of the Church of Holland, to submit to Bechtel. Of course, Boehm did not comply.
The Sea Congregation settled at Nazareth. Zinzen- dorf, who accompanied the congregation on the journey thither, proposed on June 23, that the Moravians keep Saturday as a day of rest commanded by God, Sunday remaining the day for religious services. This was decided upon. It is not now the practice.
In July, Zinzendorf made a visit to the Delaware Indians. On his way back, he felt imperatively called to Tulpehocken: sending most of his party back to Bethlehem, he says: "In strong faith I obeyed the call, although knowing neither why nor wherefore." Reach-
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ing Weiser's house in Heidelberg in the Tulpehocken region, on August 3, he found there the chiefs of the Six Nations on their return from the meeting, or treaty, with Lieutenant-Governor Thomas to be mentioned in the next chapter. Zinzendorf's unexpected presence and his design, neither to buy land, nor to trade, im- pressed the chiefs, and they granted to his associates permission to preach in the country of the Six Nations. In August, he proceeded across the wilderness to Esopus, New York, and thence to Shekomeko, and or- ganized there a congregation of Mohicans converted by Rauch. At Hurley, Ulster County, N. Y., a Reformed Dutch neighbourhood, Zinzendorf and his daughter were arrested and fined for Sabbath-breaking in writ- ing on Sunday! In the Autumn, after baptizing the first Indian ever baptized at Bethlehem,-the Mora- vians, caring more for the intensiveness than the ex- tension of discipleship, were in no hurry to baptize,- Zinzendorf went to Shamokin, and secured the good wishes of Shikallima, who had unexpectedly returned; and from that settlement of the Delawares, Zinzendorf visited the Montours at the mouth of the Loyal Sock (Montoursville), and thence, turning nearly due east, journeyed to Wyoming, where, although he found the Mohicans complaisant, he utterly failed to obtain the consent of the Shawnees to the sending of missionaries, and seemed in peril of his life, until he left.
While the interviews with the Indians were the in- troduction of a wonderful work among them, while the attention to the affairs of the Moravian Brethren built up in Pennsylvania a large religious denomination, which became independent of all others, the project of combining groups of sincere advocates of different beliefs into a confederation, naturally failed. The total result was additions to the Moravian fold.
Stoever even at Tulpehocken, although not in the old log church, continued holding services, and with an
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increasing number of attendants. It being found that Büttner's friends had taken title to the church building for themselves personally, Zinzendorf was nearly mobbed on a visit to Tulpehocken. However, a deed of trust was produced, and his appointee, John Philip Maurer, was accepted as Pastor by the few who had not gone over to Stoever. Zinzendorf performed the strange ecclesiastical act of ordaining Maurer in writ- ing, or perhaps merely commissioning him, for on Nov. 29, 1742, there was the laying on of hands upon him by Pyrlæus.
A noticeable defeat of Zinzendorf in his scheme to have the Lutherans of Pennsylvania directed by Mo- ravians took place in Philadelphia. Apparently some of the few Lutherans there had not wanted him as Pastor, and the number of the dissatisfied ones in- creased, when Pyrlæus had taken the pulpit, pursuant to the arrangement, and they found themselves hearing Moravianism. On Sunday, July 29, when it was the Lutheran turn to use the butchering-place, the trustees did not hand over the key, and Pyrlæus broke in. When the congregation was at worship, four young men, de- scribed by Spangenberg as "some wicked people who called themselves Reformed," came in, crying out that, they would not tolerate Pyrlæus, and accordingly tore him out of the pulpit, dragged him out of the building, and kicked him, and then took possession, neither he nor anybody else making any resistance. Boehm, in a letter printed with the minutes of the Coetus, speaks of the people turning Pyrlæus out with the aid of some of the Reformed. Zinzendorf, while undertaking to obtain justice for the "tumult" and breach of agreement, secured for his party among the Lutherans a lot at the southeast corner of Sassafras (Race) Street and an alley long called Moravian Street, and laid the cor- nerstone for a house of worship on Sep. 10.
Rev. Valentine Kraft, a Pastor in the Palatinate,
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dismissed by the authorities of Zweibrücken, arrived in Philadelphia on August 25, 1742, and, without bringing letters, announced that he had been sent by the Con- sistory of Darmstadt, to whom the congregations of Philadelphia and Germantown and New Hanover and New Providence had applied for a Pastor. He was received with enthusiasm by the opponents of Zinzen- dorf, and enabled them to keep up some services in the butchering-place. Kraft is said to have organized a Consistory to be presided over by himself, but the only minister who may have joined was Stoever, who had been his pupil in Germany, and in whose behalf Kraft visited Tulpehocken on November 5. Zinzendorf was obliged by the civil courts to surrender the Phila- delphia church book. Spangenberg speaks of a newly arrived Lutheran preacher, evidently Kraft, acting against Zinzendorf, and causing a split among the Lutherans, Zinzendorf finally letting him and his sub- sequent assistants, evidently including Mühlenberg, act as they pleased, because Zinzendorf was satisfied by Christ being preached. Apparently restricting the work of the Moravians in the city to the English, Zin- zendorf sent Pyrlæus to Tulpehocken, where and at Canajoharie, New York, he studied the Mohawk lan- guage, afterwards becoming the teacher of it to various Moravians.
The seventh conference of the Congregation of God in the Spirit was held at the house of Edward Evans in the city of Philadelphia on Oct. 16, Zinzendorf being absent. It was decided to establish a boys' school in Philadelphia and a girls' school in Germantown, and the project was endorsed that the Moravians build a church in the city for the Lutherans to use as long as they were willing to have the Gospel proclaimed by the Moravian Brethren. This matter was pushed forward so well that Zinzendorf was able to consecrate the build- ing on Nov. 25.
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During the closing weeks of Zinzendorf's visit to America, there were, if we can count the Moravians from Herrnhut as Lutherans, four different kinds of Lutherans represented in Pennsylvania, viz: 1st, the Swedish Church; 2nd, the old, we might say "High Church," Lutherans, like Kraft and Stoever, who con- sidered anything from Halle as scarcely Lutheran; 3rd, Zinzendorf's Moravians calling themselves of the Luth- eran Tropus; 4th, moderate Pietists, if some of those welcoming Mühlenberg can be so classified, otherwise Pietism not Moravian was the religion of a single indi- vidual, viz: Rev. Heinrich Melchior Mühlenberg. The Lutherans of every kind aforesaid were earlier or later, temporarily or permanently, in violent opposition or merely estranged from those of the three other kinds, as has been partly shown.
Rev. Henry E. Jacobs, in his History of the Evan- gelical Lutheran Church in the United States, has said that no more determined opponents of Zinzendorf were to be found than the theologians of the Halle school, who were anxious not to be held responsible for the carrying of Pietism to such extremes, and feared the consequences of Zinzendorf's custom of withholding doctrine. Jacobs goes on to show that it was Zinzen- dorf's labors in Pennsylvania which woke the Halle authorities to do something there. Mühlenberg, born in 1712, was a native of Einbeck in Hannover, and a graduate of Göttingen, and had been Pastor near Herrnhut, ordained at Leipzig. He was sent from Halle, in response to a request for a Pastor, made about ten years before, and since repeated, by the con- gregations of Philadelphia, Falkner Swamp, and New Providence, the German Lutherans in Philadelphia and Germantown being one congregation at the time. He reached Philadelphia on November 25, 1742. He brought letters from the Lutheran Court Chaplain in London, but had some trouble at first in being accepted.
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On November 26, he arrived at Falkner, and, although he preached there the next day, Sunday, without objec- tion from the lay preacher employed there, the congre- gation hesitated about turning off the latter. At New Providence, suggestions were made by Kraft and others of a division of the work between him and Muhlenberg. In Philadelphia, Mühlenberg waited some time, before Kraft, backed by the elders and deacons, would allow him to preach in the butchering-place; but, soon after his first sermon there, the congregation turned to him. Kraft retired to the country districts, taking charge first at Moselem (in Berks Co.), afterwards at Lan- caster, and in 1747 at Hanover, York Co., on a contract for a year. He died in Maryland in 1751.
From another side, Zinzendorf opposed Mühlenberg in Philadelphia. Zinzendorf arranged for Mühlenberg to come to see him, and then received Mühlenberg in presence of "the officers of the Lutheran congrega- tion," and was little disposed to recognize the validity of so belated an appointment in response to the con- gregation's call. Mühlenberg was calm and courteous : Zinzendorf, by nature vehement. Had he not, however, yielded, he would have been a formidable rival, with a new church, offered free, to appeal to German par- simony, and with a better ecclesiastical right to the Pastorate to appeal to the flock's conscience: for the divines at Halle had no jurisdiction over Pennsylvania, and a minister sent by them to an organized congrega- tion was an intruder, unless he had a call from the congregation ; and a call unaccepted could not hold good indefinitely, and prevent a congregation after a reason- able time from putting itself under some other ordained minister; and the ordination which Zinzendorf had re- ceived from Jablonsky was deemed valid. Under date of December 25, the deacons and elders of New Han- over and New Providence in writing accepted Mühlen- berg, and promised to permit no man to preach, or to
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