ZIQQURATU – Z. of Anu, with white temple and stairways – Uruk-Warka.
He returned to Saxony in 1721 and, complying with his family’s wishes, accepted a public office. Yet, always faithful to his youthful ideal of joining with others in order to sanctify themselves and spread the Gospel, he united with Baron Federico Watteville, formerly his companion at the College of Halle, with Rothe, pastor of the Lutheran church of Berthelsdorf, situated in his county, and with Schaefer, pastor of the nearby city of Görlitz, and formed the “Covenant of the Four Brothers” for the purpose indicated. At that time, some Bohemian Brethren (v.), fugitives from Moravia, had sought refuge in the count’s lands and had founded the colony of Herrnhut. Z. soon realized that among them he could readily accomplish his desire. In 1727 he renounced his public office and settled in Berthelsdorf, near Herrnhut, determined to make those emigrants a center of intense Pietist and missionary Lutheran piety; but, encountering difficulties in the doctrines and organization of the Brethren, he thought it better to revive their Church, while preserving within it everything he believed good in Pietist Lutheranism, so as to create an “Ecclesiola in Ecclesia.” With this aim he first had himself ordained a Lutheran minister and then, in 1737, bishop of the Brethren by the two Bohemian bishops, Jablonsky and Nitschmann. From this moment onward, Z.’s life was intimately connected with the work of the “Moravian Brethren,” or “United Brethren,” or also “Unitas Fratrum,” names which he substituted for the former name of “Bohemian Brethren.” Among them he fostered the spirit of piety and missionary activity, but he never wished to give them a confession of faith, although the Lutheran Augsburg Confession remained the foundation of their beliefs. He never allowed them to unite with other sects and saw to it that they always preserved their distinctive character. Meanwhile, the Lutherans of Saxony, who disliked that “Ecclesiola,” obtained from the elector a decree of exile against him in 1736; he knew how to make use of this period to be consecrated bishop, as has been said, and to visit various European nations and make his Moravian Brethren known there. In 1739 he travelled to the island of St. Thomas in the Antilles, where a small Brethren mission had already been established, and in 1741 he went to the English colonies. In Pennsylvania he consolidated the Moravian Brethren. When the decree of exile was lifted in 1749, he returned to Herrnhut, visiting Holland, England, and other countries once again.