ZINZENDORF, Ntco1..1LS LUDWIG. Count von, the founder of the existing sect of the Moravian brethren. or rlerrnlitners. was b. at Dresden, May 20, 1700. His father, a Saxon state minister, dying while Ziuzeudorf was a child, the was educated by 'his grandmother, a learned and pious lady, the baroness von Gcrsdorf. Spencer, the head of the Pietists, was a frequent visitor at her house, and his conversation, and the devotional exercises in which Zinzendorf took part, influenced his character while a mere child. In 1710 he went to Halle, where he spent six years, under the special care of Francke, the philanthropist. Zinzeudorf founded among his fellow-pupils a religious society, to which he gave the name of the " order of the grain of mustard-seed." ' In 1716 lie was sent by his relatives to Wittenberg, where Pietism was in less repute than at Halle; but he adhered to his early religious impressions. Two years afterward he traveled through Holland and France, everywhere endeavoting to convert the distin guished persons whom he met to his own religious views. On his return to Dresden, he was appointed a member of the Saxon state council, and married the sister of the count Reuss von Ebersdorf. But political life was little to his mind, and he returned to his country-seat in upper Lusatia. While residing there, he accidentally met a wandering carpenter, named Christian David, a member of the old sect of Moravian brethren, of whom some still remained in Moravia, professing the doctrines taught by John Huss. David described the persecutions to which the sect were exposed; and Zinzendorf invited him and his friends to settle on his estate. They accepted the proposal, and the colony received the name of " Herrnhut." Zinzendorf acted with great liberality to the settlers, and their success attracted much attention. In 1734 Zinzendorf went under a feigned name to Stralsund to pass an examination in theology, and was ordained a min ister of the Lutheran church. In 1736 he was banished front Saxony, on a charge of
introducing dangerous novelties in religion. He repaired to Holland, where he founded a Moravian colony, and afterward to Esthonia. and Livonia, where he also founded colonies. In 1737, at the request of king Frederick-William I. of Prussia, he was ordained bishop of the Moravians. In the same year he went to London, where he was received with much consideration by Wesley. In 1741 he went to North America, accompanied by his daughter, and founded the celebrated Moravian colony at Bethle hem. The Herruhuters, in the meanwhile, by their good conduct and industry, had won the respect of all classes in Saxony, and in 1747 Zinzendorf was allowed to return to Herrnhut. Having received authority by act of parliament to establish Moravian settlements in the English colonies of North America, he returned thither to do so. He finally settled at Herrnhut; and, his first wife being dead, married Anne Nitsehmann, one of the earliest colonists from Moravia, He died on May 9, 1760. Thirty-two preachers, from all parts of the globe, accompanied the coffin to the grave. Zinzendorf was the author of more that( 100 works in verse and prose. His hymns, used in worship by the Moravians, are objectionable on account of their pious indecency. The same may be said of his sermons, especially of those which refer to the Holy Ghost as a spiritual mother. His writings are often incoherent or mystical, but they abound with passages in which deep and original thought is expressed with great clearness and beauty.—There are lives of Zinzendorf by Spangenberg (1775), Varnhagen von Ense (in his Biograph ische Denkmate, 1830), and Burkhardt (1876).