Battle of White Mountains

“It is an undeniable fact that the Battle of White Mountain, Nov 6, 1620 was the most important turning point in the history of the Czech Lands. It represented the end of Czech religious and political independence. The Protestant, Hussite nation which had defied the rule of the Catholic Hapsburgs was now defeated and the victorious Hapsburg Emperor, Ferdinand II instituted a policy of
religious persecution led by the Order of Jesuits. Pastors of the Unitas Fratum had to leave the country.

All remaining inhabitants had to confess to the Roman Catholic Church (Vacovsky, Adolf,“History of the Hidden seed” in Van Buijtenen, Maria, UNITAS
FRATUM, 1975, pp35-36)

(NOTE: this is why all the remaining sources date from the Catholic archives. The Unitas Fratum archives were destroyed and all records after 1621 exist only as Catholic archives)

In fact, the last Brethern Church to be closed was in Suchdol and is used to this day as a Catholic Church. “It is a large stone building painted white, with a tower in front and a small belfry at the rear end of the roof.” (Hutton HISTORY OF
THE MORAVIAN CHURCH, p 548) Many of the Unitas Fratum nobles emigrated and their lands were forfeited to the foreign supporters of the Catholic Habsburg. Commoners like peasant farmers were forbidden to leave and as noted above had to join the Roman Catholic Church. Thus, the Fulnek Domain while it
remained in the hands of Lutheran nobles sympathetic to the Brethren cause, eventually came under the control of the Count of Liechtenstein.

So, the Unitas Fratum went underground and the period 1621-1721 in Moravian Church history is called the “Period of the Hidden Seed.” While they were baptized in the Roman Catholic Church, the Brethren worshiped in secret in their homes with lay pastors. The principal Unity of the Brethren centers in Moravia were at Zerawic, Fulneck, Suchdol in O (old Zauchtel) and Kunin (old Kunwald).