History
The Moravians are Protestants who trace their origins to ancient Bohemia, in the present-day Czech Republic. The denomination was founded in the fifteenth century. Today, only one Moravian congregation exists in Georgia. The Hussite movement that was to become the Moravian Church was started by Jan Hus in early 15th-century Bohemia, in what is today the Czech Republic. Hus objected to some of the practices and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church. Specifically, he wanted the liturgy to be celebrated in Czech, married priests, and eliminating indulgences and the idea of Purgatory. Since these actions predate the Protestant Reformation by a century, some historians claim the Moravian Church was the first Protestant church. The movement gained support from the Crown of Bohemia. However, Hus was summoned to attend the Council of Constance, which decided that he was a heretic.
Hus was released to the secular authority, which sentenced him to be burned at the stake on 6 July 1415. From 1419 to 1437 were a series of Hussite Wars, initially between various Roman Catholic rulers and the Hussites. Then there was a Hussite civil war, between the more compromising Utraquists and the radical Taborites. In 1434, an army of Utraquists and Roman Catholics defeated the Taborites at the Battle of Lipany. The Utraquists signed the Compacts of Basel on 5 July 1436. The name Moravian identifies the fact that this historic church had its origin in ancient Bohemia and Moravia in what is the present-day Czech Republic. In the mid-ninth century these countries converted to Christianity chiefly through the influence of two Greek Orthodox missionaries, Cyril and Methodius.
They translated the Bible into the common language and introduced a national church ritual. In the centuries that followed, Bohemia and Moravia gradually fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Rome, but some of the Czech people protested. Moravian activities in Georgia were closely watched, debated, and written about in Europe. While the community in Georgia did not last long and was never very large, it marked the beginnings of the group’s very successful settlement in North America, and the community became an important part of the ongoing transatlantic evangelical revival then occurring in Europe and British North America, where it is usually referred to as the Great Awakening. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Slavic-speaking inhabitants of Moravia publicly identified themselves as Moravians, not Czechs. Then, for fear of Germanization, Moravians would begin to publicly refer to themselves as Moravian Czechs.
Hus was released to the secular authority, which sentenced him to be burned at the stake on 6 July 1415. From 1419 to 1437 were a series of Hussite Wars, initially between various Roman Catholic rulers and the Hussites. Then there was a Hussite civil war, between the more compromising Utraquists and the radical Taborites. In 1434, an army of Utraquists and Roman Catholics defeated the Taborites at the Battle of Lipany. The Utraquists signed the Compacts of Basel on 5 July 1436. The name Moravian identifies the fact that this historic church had its origin in ancient Bohemia and Moravia in what is the present-day Czech Republic. In the mid-ninth century these countries converted to Christianity chiefly through the influence of two Greek Orthodox missionaries, Cyril and Methodius.
They translated the Bible into the common language and introduced a national church ritual. In the centuries that followed, Bohemia and Moravia gradually fell under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Rome, but some of the Czech people protested. Moravian activities in Georgia were closely watched, debated, and written about in Europe. While the community in Georgia did not last long and was never very large, it marked the beginnings of the group’s very successful settlement in North America, and the community became an important part of the ongoing transatlantic evangelical revival then occurring in Europe and British North America, where it is usually referred to as the Great Awakening. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the Slavic-speaking inhabitants of Moravia publicly identified themselves as Moravians, not Czechs. Then, for fear of Germanization, Moravians would begin to publicly refer to themselves as Moravian Czechs.
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