Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 65:259 (Jul 1908)
Article: The Unitas Fratrum
Author: Louis Francis Miskovsky

BSac 65:259 (July 1908) p. 510

The Unitas Fratrum

Prof. Louis F. Miskovsky

No other Christian nation has had the religious experience of Bohemia. During her fifteen centuries on the stage of history she has changed her religion five times. Her first venture was the abandonment of Slavic paganism for Greek Christianity in 863. In the course of the tenth century she embraced Romanism, from which, over a century before Luther, she revolted during the Hussite reformation. For two centuries subsequent she remained the first of the Protestant nations, only to succumb to the Catholic counter-reformation during the Thirty Years’ War, since which time Bohemia has again been almost exclusively Roman Catholic. A nation with such varied experience will have something of value to teach the religious world. Bohemia’s pregnant history and tragic end entitle her to speak an authoritative word of warning and encouragement to her more favored sisters in the galaxy of Protestant nations. Moreover, it is a mistake to think that interest in Bohemia is confined to her religious history, and ceases with her decline after the Thirty Years’ War. The nineteenth century witnessed her national resurrection, an event unparalleled in the annals of the race, and calling forth the wonder and admiration of no less a mind than Goethe’s. Ignorance alone is responsible for the neglect of this rich historic lore on the part of English writers. Wherefore it is our purpose to shed a ray of light on this neglected subject by

BSac 65:259 (July 1908) p. 511

giving a sketch of the best achievement of Bohemia in the religious field, the organization known as the Unitas Fratrum.

The rise, development, and decline of this church1 present a unique phenomenon in history. It is generally conceded by Protestant writers that since the days of the Apostles no other church has so fully realized in practical life the ethical teachings of Christ, and that none other has shown a more earnest missionary spirit. Its type of piety, manifesting both a wholesome seriousness and a sane realism;, its quiet but effective aggressiveness, its unflinching heroism during a century and a half of ceaseless persecution, its persistence and revival after apparent extermination, are facts which impress even the cursory student of its history. What were the causes that contributed to determine the unique character and career of the Unitas Fratrum among the Protestant churches? The answer lies partly in the circumstances that gave it birth, and partly in the peculiar temper and organization of this church.

As to the first, it is necessary to remove the common misconception that the Unitas Fratrum had its origin in the Taborite, or radi...