‘Brothers, think what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth’ (1 Cor. 1:26). Praise God for the exceptions too, and one such was Count Nikolaus Ludwig of Zinzendorf and Pottendorf.

Count Nikolaus was born with ‘blue blood’ running through his veins. He was one of the wealthiest men of his age, he was intellectually gifted and he was able to move freely through the royal courts of Europe. He had everything most people dream of, but counted them of no value other than to use in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

A godly beginning

On 26 May 1700, Count Nikolaus was born into one of the noblest and wealthiest families of Europe in Dresden, Saxony. His father died when he was an infant and he was raised by his godly grandmother in Gros Hennersdorf castle, his ancestral home.   

From a very early age, the young Count showed signs of spiritual awakening. He wrote of his childhood:

I loved the Saviour, and had abundant communion with Him. In my fourth year I began to seek God earnestly, and determined to become a true servant of Jesus Christ.

He was soon able to say:

… of all the noble ideas in the world, the noblest is the idea that the Creator should die for His children. If the Lord were forsaken by all the world, I still would cling to Him and love Him.

In 1710 Count Nikolaus was sent to boarding school in Halle. His time there was generally unhappy. Envy led to him being bullied mercilessly by teachers and pupils alike. The young Count was driven to rely on God. Aged fifteen, he formed a club called The Honourable Order of the Mustard Seed.  Each new member made a pledge to be true to Christ, to be upright and moral, and to do good to his fellow-men. They acknowledged that their first loyalty and service was sworn to Christ alone.

In 1715, whilst dining with his headmaster, the Count heard a guest, the Danish missionary, Ziegenbalg speak of his mission work in India. Nikolaus was deeply moved and this affected his later life.

Preparation for service

Aged sixteen, Zinzendorf left Halle to study law at the great Lutheran university of Wittenberg. Not content with his own subject, the Count used his spare time to study the works of Luther and Spener. On finishing his University studies, he went on a continental tour to polish his education as befitted a nobleman of his age. He was far from impressed by the opulence and trappings of wealth and privilege he saw displayed. He decided to use the tour to seek out the company of men and women who loved and were in communion with the living Christ, regardless of their theological ‘label’. 

Whilst visiting Dusseldorf, Nikolaus entered an art gallery where he saw a painting Ecce Homo (‘Behold the Man’) by Domenico Feti. The painting was of the crucified Christ and had the caption below it ‘All this I did for you; what are you doing for Me?’. The Count was profoundly moved and answered the question, ‘I will do more’.

Mission starts at home

On completing his education, the Count Zinzendorf married his cousin Erdmuth Dorothea von Reuss and purchased the estate of Hennesdorf from his grandmother to take up the position of landlord. His aim was not to live off the income from his many tenants. He wrote, ‘I bought this estate because I wanted to spend my life among peasants, and win their souls for Christ’.  This statement from an eighteenth century aristocrat is a remarkable testimony to Zinzendorf’s desire to imitate Christ’s humility (see Phil. 2).

The Count started his home mission by installing his friend, John Andrew Rothe, as pastor of the village church with the words ‘Go, Rothe, to the vineyard of the Lord. You will find in me a brother and helper rather than a patron’. With Rothe and others the Count worked ‘to plant a pleasant garden of the Lord’. The focus of the work was the ministry of the word but the Count also devoted himself to the distribution of Bibles and Christian literature, the organisation of prayer meetings, visitation of his tenants, correspondence and care of the needy. A spiritual awakening occurred. Many people turned to Christ and the local church was stirred from long-standing apathy.

In 1722, Count Nikolaus was approached by a man from Moravia (part of the modern Czech Republic) called Christian David. This man requested that the Count allow a group of believers from Moravia to settle on his land. These people were part of the Hussite ‘Unity of the Brethren Church’, an evangelical reformed church which pre-dated the reformation. This church had been banned and persecuted by the Roman Catholic church. Its members in Moravia and neighbouring Bohemia had been either murdered or enslaved. The decision by Count Nikolaus to allow the settlement was one which would help shape church history and in particular the modern missionary movement.

The Count and the Moravians

The decision to allow these refugees to settle was an extremely brave decision and ultimately led to Count Nikolaus being exiled from his home. The refugees were not part of the Lutheran church and their presence in Saxony brought the Count into conflict with both spiritual and secular authorities. The Moravians were viewed both as aliens and heretics, (albeit Luther himself had recognised the orthodoxy of their church).

On 8 June 1722, a small group of Moravian refugees arrived at Count Nikolaus’ estate. They were weary and possessed nothing. The Count gave them land on which to build and the settlement of Herrnhut (the Lord’s Watch) was founded and the settlers determined to build a town in which God would be honoured and glorified.

The early years of the Herrnhut settlement saw a rapid increase in the number of settlers, both Moravian refugees and Germans dissatisfied with the Lutheran church. Count Nikolaus initially had little personal involvement in Herrnhut and the early years of the settlement were characterised by division which threatened to bring the gospel into disrepute. In 1727 Count Nikolaus decided that he had to intervene and provide leadership for the settlers. He urged the believers to be united in the faith and to live disciplined and godly lives.

On 13 August 1727 during a communion service at the local church in Berthelsdorf, the entire congregation felt a powerful awareness of God’s presence. Count Nikolaus described it as ‘a sense of the nearness of Christ’ given to everyone present, and also to others of their community who were working elsewhere at the time.

The impact was profound. Not only were differences put aside, but the believers in Herrnhut became known for their holy and disciplined lives. Count Nikolaus drew up a document known as the ‘Brotherly Agreement’, which set forth basic tenets of Christian behaviour. All residents of Herrnhut were required to sign a pledge to abide by these biblical principles.

Count Nikolaus urged the Moravian believers to consider mission overseas and on 11 February 1728, a group of single men covenanted that they would respond to God’s call to the mission field when it came. However, the Count’s great influence on foreign missions, both of Moravians and others, demands an article to itself!

The legacy

Count Nikolaus died on 9 May 1760 in Herrnhut aged fifty-nine. He was one of faith’s giants and left an enormous legacy. This article has referred briefly to his evangelistic zeal but it has not even touched upon the influence that he and his Moravian brethren had on Methodism and the conversion of John and Charles Wesley. It has not dealt with the Moravian contribution to hymnology nor has it considered his role in the growth of the Moravian church from a handful of believers to a church which had millions of members worldwide.

It must be acknowledged that Count Nikolaus had serious weaknesses. He was impetuous and prone to doctrinal error. He had flawed views of the Trinity, the authority of Scripture and the church. Nevertheless, his was a life devoted to his Saviour. He recognised that he owed everything to the Christ who died for him and he used all that God had given him, status, wealth and intellect, in his master’s service. He knew where true riches lay. The words of his own hymn are a statement of testimony, ‘Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress; Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed, with joy shall I lift up my head’.  When Count Nikolaus faced the question at the foot of the Ecce Homo, ‘All this I did for you; what are you doing for Me?’ he answered, ‘I will do more’. What is our answer?

David Rees is a member of Emmanuel Baptist Church, Cardiff.