A History of the Moravian ChurchHutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Religion
A History of the Moravian Church
Hutton, J. E. (Joseph Edmund)
Moravian Church -- History
Already the ruin of the colony was in sight. At the
very time when the Brethren's labours should have been crowned with
success, Captain Jenkins, at the bar of the House of Commons, was
telling how his ear had been cut off by Spaniards {1738.}. The great
war between England and Spain broke out. The chief aim of Spain was to
destroy our colonial supremacy in America. Spanish soldiers threatened
Georgia. The Brethren were summoned to take to arms and help to defend
the colony against the foe. But the Brethren objected to taking arms
at all. The farm colony was abandoned; and the scene shifts to
Pennsylvania.
Meanwhile, the good Spangenberg had been busy in Pennsylvania, looking
after the interests of the Schwenkfelders. He attended their meetings,
wore their clothing--a green coat, without buttons or pockets--studied
the works of Schwenkfeld, and organized them into what he called an
"Economy." In other words, he taught them to help each other by joining
in common work on a communist basis. At the same time, he tried to teach
them to be a little more broad-minded, and not to quarrel so much with
other Christians. But the more he talked of brotherly love the more
bigoted the poor Schwenkfelders became. At this time the colony had
become a nest of fanatics. For some years, in response to the generous
offers of Thomas Penn, all sorts of persecuted refugees had fled
to Pennsylvania; and now the land was infested by a motley group of
Episcopalians, Quakers, Baptists, Separatists, Sabbatarians, Unitarians,
Lutherans, Calvinists, Memnonites, Presbyterians, Independents, Inspired
Prophets, Hermits, Newborn Ones, Dunckers, and Protestant Monks and
Nuns. Thus the land was filled with "religions" and almost empty of
religion. Instead of attending to the spiritual needs of the people,
each Church or sect was trying to prove itself in the right and all the
others in the wrong; and the only principle on which they agreed was the
principle of disagreeing with each other. The result was heathendom and
babel. Most of the people attended neither church nor chapel; most of
the parents were unbaptized, and brought up their children in ignorance;
and, according to a popular proverb of the day, to say that a man
professed the Pennsylvania religion was a polite way of calling him an
infidel.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account