4.6.2011 MORAVIANS#9 - LIFE IN HERRNHUT

as the Brethren settled down in herrnhut, they endeavored, under the count's direction, to realize the dignity of labor. for rich and poor, for catholic and protestant, for all able bodied men and women, the same stern rule held good.

if a man desired to settle at herrnhut, the one supreme condition was that he earned his bread by honest toil and lived a godly, righteous and sober life. for industrious catholics there was a hearty welcome; for vagabonds, tramps and whining beggars there was not a bed to spare. if a man would work he might stay and worship God according to his conscience; but if he was lazy, he was ordered off the premises. as the Brethren met on sunday morning for early worship in the public hall, they joined with one accord in the prayer, 'bless the sweat of the brow and faithfulness in business'; and the only business they allowed was business which they could ask the lord to bless. to them work was a sacred duty, a delight and a means for the common good. if a man is blessed who has found his work, then blessed were the folk at herrnhut. 'we do not work to live. we live to work.' said the count.

the whole aim was the good of each and the good of all. as the grocer stood behind his counter or the weaver plied his flying shuttle, he was toiling, not for himself alone, but for all his brethern and sisters. if a man desired to set up in business, he had first to obtain the permission of the elders; and the elders refused to grant the permission unless they thought that the business in question was needed by the rest of the people. the law there said, 'no brother shall compete with his brother in trade'. no man was allowed to lend $ on interest without the consent of the elders. if 2 men had any dispute in business, they must come to terms within a week; and if they did not, or went to law, they were expelled. if a man could buy an article in herrnhut, he was not allowed to buy it anywhere else.

it is easy to see the purpose of these regulations. they were an attempt to solve the social problem, to banish competition and to put cooperation in its place. for some years the scheme was crowned with glorious success. the settlement grew; the trade flourished; the great firm of durninger obtained a world wide reputation; the women were skilled in weaving and spinning; and the whole system worked so well that in 1747 the saxon government besought the count to establish a similar settlement at barby. at herrnhut, in a word, if nowhere else, the social problem was solved. there, at least, the aged and ill could live in peace and comfort; there grim poverty was unknown; there the widow and orphan were free from carking care; and there men and women of humble rank had learned the truth that when men toil for the common good there is a perennial nobleness in work..there was, however, no community of goods.

for pleasure the Brethren had neither time nor taste. they worked, on the average, 16 hours a day, allowed only 5 hours for sleep and spent the remaining 3 at meals and meetings. the count was as puritanic as oliver cromwell himself. for some reason he had come to the conclusion that the less the settlers knew of pleasure the better and therefore he laid down the law that all strolling popular entertainers should be forbidden to enter the holy city. no public buffoon ever cracked his jokes at herrnhut. no tight rope dancer posed on giddy height. no barrel dancer rolled his empty barrel. no tout for lotteries swindled the simple. no juggler mystified the children. no cheap jack cheated the innocent maidens. no quack doctor sold his nasty pills. no melancholy bear made his feeble attempt to dance. for the social joys of private life the laws were stricter still. at herrnhut, ran one comprehensive clause, there were to be no dances whatever, no wedding breakfasts, no christening bumpers, no drinking parties, no funeral feasts, and no games like those played in the surrounding villages. no bride at herrnhut ever carried a bouquet. no sponsor ever gave the new arrival a mug or a silver spoon.

for sins of the coarse and vulgar kind there was no mercy. if a man got drunk or cursed or stole or used his fists or commit adultery or fornication, he was expelled and not permitted to return till he had given infallible proofs of true repentance. no guilty couple were allowed to 'cheat the parson'. no man was allowed to strike his wife and no wife was allowed to henpeck her husband and any woman found guilty of the latter crime was summoned before the board of elders and reprimanded in public.

again, the count insisted on civil order. he appointed a number of other officials. some, called servants, had to clean the wells, to sweep the streets, to repair the houses, and to trim the gardens. for the sick there was a board of sick waiters; for the poor a board of almoners; for the wicked a board of monitors; for the ignorant a board of schoolmasters; and each board held a conference every week. once a week, on saturday nights, the elders met in council; once a week, on monday mornings, they announced any new decrees; and all inhabitants vowed obedience to them as elders, to the count as warden, and finally to the law of the land. thus had the count, as lord of the manor, drawn up a code of civil laws to be binding on all. we have finished the manorial injunctions and prohibitions. we come to the free religious life of the community.

let us first clear a difficulty out of the way. as the count was a loyal son of the lutheran church and regarded the augsburg confession as inspired, it seems, at first sight, a marvelous fact that here at herrnhut he allowed the Brethren to take steps which led ere long to the renewql of their church.

he allowed them to sing Brethren's humns; he allowed them to revive old Brethren's customs; he allowed them to hold independent meetings; and he even resolved to do his best to revive the old church himself. his conduct certainly looked very inconsistent. if a man in england were to call himself a loyal member of the anglican church and yet at the same time do his very best to found an independent denomination, he would soon be denounced as a traitor to the church and a breeder of schism and sissent. but the count's conduct can be easily explained. it was all due to his ignorance of history. he had no idea that the bohemian Brethren had ever been an independent church. he regarded them as a 'church within a church,' of the kind for which luther had longed and which spener had already established. he held his delusion down to the end of his days; and, therefore, as lutheran and pietist alike, he felt at liberty to help the Brethren in all their religious endeavours.