Robyn Lebron furthered their growth The impact of the Brethren on the spiritual life in their country and over the boundaries of their homeland far exceeded the numerical strength of membership By 1517 the Unity of Brethren numbered at least 200,000 with over 400 parishes Using a hymnal and catechism of its own, the church promoted the Scriptures through its two printing presses and provided the people of Bohemia and Moravia with the first Bible in their own language The prime leader of the Unitas Fratrum in these tempestuous years was Bishop John Amos Comenius (1592–1670) Comenius, lived most of his life in exile in England and in Holland; where he eventually died His prayer was that some day the “hidden seed” of his beloved Unitas Fratrum might once again spring to new life.6 Persecution had all but wiped the ancient Unitas Fratrum out of existence Her enemies boasted that she was no more The church buildings and the schools were gone The printing houses and the libraries were but heaps of gray ashes Many members were dead or scattered so far that not a single congregation existed in the lands where there had been a membership that totaled more than 200,000 A century later, representatives of German pietism encouraged survivors of the Unity to migrate from Moravia to Saxony, where in 1722 the community of Herrnhut was founded The eighteenth century saw the renewal of the Moravian Church through the patronage of Count Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, a Pietist nobleman in Saxony A loyal member of the Lutheran Church, the state church of his time, Zinzendorf had no idea that a separate church would be established under his patronage He, too, as Gregory and his companions before him, assumed that they would become a spiritual body within the established church to bring about a purer and better life within the church itself, and he used his strongest influence in this direction Some Moravian families fleeing persecution in Bohemia and Moravia found refuge on Zinzendorf ’s estate The new community became the haven for many more Moravian refugees Other people of widely differing views also found there a place of religious freedom, but their differences threatened to make it a place of strife Zinzendorf gave up his position in state service to devote himself to unite these 15