Unity of the Brethren

This map showing religious distribution in Central Europe c. 1618 goes with the label:

  Moravians

...even though most Protestants were actually Utraquist Hussites and the Unity of the Brethren was only present locally in Moravia

Brethren bishop Jan Ámos Komenský (Comenius)

Brethren elder Daniel Ernest Jablonski

Brethren's house Na sboru in Kunvald

Former church of Unity of the Brethren in Leszno, Wielkopolskie Voivodeship, Poland - now a Roman Catholic church

Moravian Church in Genadendal, South Africa

The reforms of Jan Hus, which included providing the Scriptures to the people in their own language and making both elements of communion available to the people, were popular with the Czech people, but met extreme opposition from church authorities. Hus was executed, but his preaching and writings were instrumental in the formation of the Hussite movement. The Hussite movement broke into several strands, one of which (the smallest) became known as the Unity of the Brethren.

The roots of this radical and pacifistic stream within the early Hussite movement go back to Petr Chelčický. Official formation is usually attributed to the year 1457 when the first ordinations took place in a small village called Kunvald near Žamberk and Litice, which was under the lordship of King George Podiebrad, in northeastern Bohemia. The original theological foundation for the future Unity of the Brethren was laid by Petr Chelčický and Brother Řehoř (Gregor), the latter often considered one of the main founders. Lukáš Pražský, whose theological ideas strongly shaped the movement after the passing of Chelčický and Řehoř, provided later leadership. Another important leader was Jan Augusta, who spent many years in horrible imprisonment. The "last bishop" of Unity of the Brethren, Comenius (Jan Amos Komenský) is known for his reforms in education. During the second half of the 16th century, members of the Unity of the Brethren translated the Bible from the original languages into the Czech. This translation is known as the Bible of Kralice (Bible kralická), which until recently was the most widely used Czech biblical translation, with an influence similar to the King James Version in the English-speaking world.

After 1620, due to a counter-reformation by the Roman Catholic Church, Bohemian Protestants were forced to choose between leaving the country or practicing their beliefs secretly. Descendants of members of the Unity of the Brethren who stayed in Bohemia and Moravia (keeping the Unity teachings alive by clandestine meetings), mostly from villages on the Moravian-Silesian border, made up the core of a regrouping a century later in Saxony under the influence of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf. They formed the church which is now known as the Moravian Church (in Canada and United States except Texas), Jednota bratrská (in the Czech Republic) and the Unity of the Brethren (in local languages mostly everywhere else, including Texas).

During the Thirty Years War, the Unity of the Brethren churches were severely persecuted, as they were targeted by local counter-reformation nobles. As a result, they were dispersed to other Slavic lands, various German states, and as far as the Low Countries, where Comenius attempted to direct a resurgence in manner similar to the secret Jews (Marranos) in Spanish Habsburg and other Roman Catholic lands.

Those who stayed in Bohemia and Moravia practiced their beliefs in secret and privately passed their beliefs from one generation to the next. Even after Emperor Joseph II proclaimed toleration in 1781, only Lutherans, Calvinists and Eastern Orthodox were allowed to openly practice their faith. Many of the Brethren united with the Lutherans and Calvinists around that time. After the end of World War I and the formation of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Czech Lutherans and Calvinists formed a united church – the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren.

After the imperial edict of 1861, which granted legal rights to Reformed churches, Unity of the Brethren missionaries from Germany were able to restore the church to its original Czech homeland. The first congregations was founded in 1870 in Potštejn, and in Dube in 1872. Before the First World War, eight other churches had been planted. The Unity of the Brethren in the Czech Republic worked among the Czechs and the Germans, started orphanages in Čermná and Dubá, and conducted missionary work in South Africa.

The Czech-originated Unity of the Brethren should not be confused with the Unity of the Brethren Baptists, a Baptist organization in the Czech and Slovak Republics.

From about the middle of the 19th century until the outbreak of the First World War, a number of Czech Protestants immigrated to the United States. In many parts of the U.S. they formed Czech congregations within the Presbyterian Church. Some who settled as farmers in the state of Texas decided to form their own denomination. Jindřich Juren (1850–1921) came to Texas in 1876, and from 1881 to 1888 was the only minister to these Brethren congregations. Representatives of these congregations met in 1903 and formed the Evangelical Unity of the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren in North America. The early churches reflected their origin and worshipped in the Czech language. By the 1940s, most of the churches reflected assimilation into the surrounding culture and worshipped in the English language. In 1959, the name Unity of the Brethren was adopted.

• Polish brethren
• Minor Party (Unity of the Brethren)

• Encyclopedia of American Religions, J. Gordon Melton, editor
• Handbook of Denominations in the United States, by Frank S. Mead, Samuel S. Hill, and Craig D. Atwood
• Renewal of Church and Society in the Hussite Reformation, by Jacob K. Zeman

• Unity of the Brethren (Texas) – official Web site
• The Birth, Life, and Death of the Bohemian Revival – a historical overview of the Unity's early days (1457–1620)
• Jindřich Juren – Unity of the Brethren minister, father of Texas church
• West Brethren Church, West, Texas