CHAPTER I

THE RISING STORM.

When an ordinary Englishman, in the course of his reading, sees
mention made of Moravians, he thinks forthwith of a foreign land, a
foreign people and a foreign Church. He wonders who these Moravians
may be, and wonders, as a rule, in vain. We have all heard of the
Protestant Reformation; we know its principles and admire its
heroes; and the famous names of Luther, Calvin, Melancthon, Latimer,
Cranmer, Knox and other great men are familiar in our ears as
household words. But few people in this country are aware of the
fact that long before Luther had burned the Pope's bull, and long
before Cranmer died at the stake, there had begun an earlier
Reformation, and flourished a Reforming Church. It is to tell the
story of that Church--the Church of the Brethren--that this little
book is written.

For her cradle and her earliest home we turn to the distressful land
of Bohemia, and the people called Bohemians, or Czechs. To us
English readers Bohemia has many charms. As we call to mind our
days at school, we remember, in a dim and hazy way, how famous
Bohemians in days of yore have played some part in our national
story. We have sung the praises at Christmas time of the Bohemian
Monarch, "Good King Wenceslaus." We have read how John, the blind
King of Bohemia, fell mortally wounded at the Battle of Crecy, how
he died in the tent of King Edward III., and how his generous
conqueror exclaimed: "The crown of chivalry has fallen today; never
was the like of this King of Bohemia." We have all read, too, how