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The Reformation started by John Hus (1369–1415) in Bohemia did not die when he was burned at the stake. A number of small communities spun off from the Hussites, each rebelling against Rome in its own ways. The first “Brethren” moved to a remote village called Kunvald in 1457 to live together as the early church did, and follow the law of Christ.

From the start, the Unity of the Brethren, as they became known, had contacts with the Waldensians, a communal group that preserved the teachings of Peter Waldo from the twelfth century, promoting equality of believers and opposing ecclesiastical hierarchy. Significant also for the Unity’s founding was the thought of Peter Chelcicky, who condemned the use of force in matters of faith and the participation of Christians in political power struggles, especially in war. Chelcicky dared to call the Pope and the emperor “whales who have torn the net of true faith,” since they had established the Church as the head of a secular empire.

These ideas, denial of material aspirations and refusal of secular power, as adopted by the Unity, did not sit well with the authorities. The Unity was outlawed and persecuted by secular and religious powers alike, but its numbers grew, new communities were formed, and its influence went far beyond its ranks.

Despite their commitment to Christlike poverty, the Brethren presented the Czech nation with a wealth of spiritual resources. They translated the Scriptures into Czech; they composed hymns that are still sung in Czech churches today; they published a confession of faith praised by Luther, and left an unmistakable mark on the Confessio Bohemica (Czech Confession)—the first ecumenical confession the world had seen.

Jan Amos Comenius stands as the most notable figure in the Unity, though the church was dying out during his lifetime. The death blow was their banishment from their homeland, Bohemia, after the Battle of White Mountain in 1620.

Leading a group of exiles over the mountains into Poland, Comenius prayed that a “hidden seed” of this faith would grow and bear fruit. But that prospect looked dim in the ensuing years, as the Brethren dispersed throughout Europe. Some fled with Comenius to Poland; some to Transylvania (now part of Hungary); some to Germany. Wherever they went, they found persecution, caught between Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics.

By 1650, Comenius had written a treatise entitled “The Bequest of a Dying Mother, the Unity of Brethren, by which, ceasing to exist in her own nation and her separate individuality, she distributes among her sons, daughters, and heirs the treasures which God entrusted to her.”

In this bequest for his “dying church,” Comenius called for reformation in the Bohemian and Polish Unity, in the “beloved sisters, Protestant communions,” and in “our mother who has borne us, thou Church of Rome.”

In what sounds like the ecumenical language of today, Comenius wrote: “To all Christians together I bequeath lively desire for unanimity of opinion and for reconciliation among themselves, and for union in faith, and love of the unity of spirit.”

In 1660 Comenius published the Ratio Disciplinae, a Latin book containing a history of the Brethren’s church and the essentials of their faith. He dedicated the book to the Church of England and urged that communion to care for his beloved Unity. “If there is no help from man, there will be help from God,” he wrote in hoping against hope for the church’s faith to be preserved.

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