MORAVIANS. The community of Christians known as Moravians had its origin in Bohemia, and the con nection of Bohemian Christianity with England goes back to the 14th century. At various periods Bohemian refugees sought freedom of conscience in England. About the beginning of the 16th century there was a colony of Moravian Waldenses at Lerwick. and in 15S3 we find a member of the Brethren's Church. John Bernardus, graduating B.D. at Oxford. In 1641 J. A. Comenius. Bishop of the Brethren's Church, visited England, and in 1716 Christian Sitkovsky. In 1734 A. G. Spangenberg came to London to make arrangements for sending out a colony of Moravian emigrants to do mission work among the Indians. In 1735 Bishop David Nitschmann brought to London a second party of emigrants for Georgia. Before the end of the year they sailed for America in company with John and Charles Wesley, Benjamin Ing ham, and Charles Delamotte. In 1737 Count Zinzendorf came to London and rented a house in Chelsea. Here his daily meetings for household worship were attended by other Germans resident in London, and a small society was formed. When Peter Baler came to London in 173S be worked amongst the members of a small society which met in Little Wild Street. This Society was more fully organised on the lines of the Herrnhut " Band " system, and rules were drawn up for It by BUhler and John Wesley. Later in the same year its place of meeting was moved to a room in Fetter Lane. The Wesleys withdrew from the Society later (1740). During the years 1739-1741 a number of new Societies sprang up in various parts of the country. In 1741 Spangenberg opened a " Pilgrim House " or Central Office in Little Wild Street, London, and in 1742 a " Pilgrim Congrega tion " was settled for Yorkshire. On September 7th of the same year the Fetter Lane Society was registered as a Dissenting Congregation, under the name of " Moravian Brethren, formerly of the Anglican Communion ": and on November 10th it was " settled " as a Congregation of the Moravian Church. The General Synod of Hirsch
berg, held in 1743, decided that London was the " Pilgrim Congregation " or headquarters for England. In course of time Societies or Congregations were formed in Wales, Ireland, and Scotland. In 1860 a Theological College was opened at Fulneek. In IS7S this was moved to Fair field, in order that use might be made of Owen's College, Manchester, and since 1904 it has been affiliated with the Theological Faculty of Manchester University. The Moravian Church is described as " that branch of the visible body of Christ which took a separate form at Litiz in Bohemia in 1457: which was crushed in its first home by Roman influence, as the result of the Thirty Years' War, and was renewed in 1722 at Herrnhut in Saxony." The Moravians have an episcopacy of their own, and the Church as a whole is represented by a con stitutional body known as the General Synod. The Holy Scriptures are the only rule of faith and life. On individual points of doctrine no detailed standard is allowed to bind the conscience and quench the Spirit. All worship is scriptural and congregational, and is to be in Spirit and in Truth, and not in dead cold form. The Moravians " have always been distinguished for the simplicity of their evangelical faith and worship, the purity and beneficence of their lives, and the ardour of their missionary zeal " (J. A. Houlder). They exercised considerable influence upon the Wesleys. It was indeed at a meeting of the Moravian Brethren in London (173S) that John Wesley experienced his " conversion." See the Moravian Church Atnianack.