The Moravian Church, both ancient and modern, has produced numerous confessions of faith. Generally, though, they have served not as guidance for members of the church, but as explanation to outsiders of what the church teaches. This was certainly the case with the Confession of 1535.

The Moravians had been accused of teaching and practicing all sorts of weird things and in some cases had been persecuted because of this. It was felt that to reduce misunderstandings it might help to lay out clearly what our church really believed and taught and to place this before Ferdinand I, king of the Romans, Bohemia, and Hungary, and Charles V, the Holy Roman emperor. The Lutherans had done this in 1530 with their famous Augsburg Confession. That document gave an impetus and guidance for the production of the Confession of 1535. Basically then, the Confession of 1535 provides our own Moravian slant while agreeing with the Lutherans’ Augsburg Confession in the theological substance of our salvation by faith through Christ’s suffering, death, and resurrection. Martin Luther even wrote a preface to the Confession of 1535 approving its basic content.

The Confession of 1535 did not achieve its goal of winning over King Ferdinand or Emperor Charles, but it does furnish us with a summary of Moravian theology of the time. The Moravian Church was almost totally destroyed in the Thirty Years War, surviving only as a “hidden seed.” When the church was renewed in Germany in the 1700s it was thought more prudent to adhere publicly to the legally recognized Augsburg Confession to assert our basic orthodoxy and respectability rather than reintroduce the Confession of 1535. In addition, the Confession was written in a somewhat difficult style and dealt with several things that were more of an issue in the 16th century than centuries later. Moreover, the Confession was too long to be used liturgically in a church service, and Moravians were — and are — more interested in expressing our theology in hymns and liturgies rather than in formal confessions.

That attitude has prevailed until recent years when questions have arisen again about “what do you Moravians really believe and teach.” So once again the Confession of 1535 gives us a valuable resource for giving an answer to such queries.

About This Translation

The Confession of 1535 was first printed in 1538 by Georg Rhaw,1 the Lutheran printer and composer. It appeared in the universal language of European theologians and scholars of the time, Latin. An English version was not done until the 1950s when Jaroslav Pelikan translated it.2 Now 470 years after its first appearance it is timely — some may say it is about time — for the Moravian Church to have its own English translation of the Ancient Unity’s principal statement of faith, the Confession of 1535.

This translation of the Confession was done from a facsimile reprint located in Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf Materialien und Dokumente: Bekenntnisse der Böhmischen Brüder (Hildesheim, Germany, and New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 1979, Reihe 1, Band 3). In accordance with current fashion, this translation employs inclusive language. Scripture translations are generally taken from the New Revised Standard Version and the King James Version. Where appropriate, though, a completely new translation of the Scripture was done adhering to the words the Brethren used to emphasize their point.

Since verse numbering was not done until the Reformed Church began it in 1551, the Confession of 1535 identifies Scripture quotations only by chapter at best. Careful textual comparison with the Latin Vulgate has provided the verse references and confirmed many of the identifications originally made by Jaroslav Pelikan.

C. Daniel Crews, Archivist
Moravian Church in America, Southern Province
Winston-Salem, North Carolina
October 17, 2005