Speaking about marriage: Notes from the 1744 married choir conferences

The document presented in this essay is a transcription and translation of the minutes of a series of “speakings” held with married couples in Herrnhut and Berthelsdorf during the year 1744. The original was found in the Unity Archives in Herrnhut, Germany, where it survived despite repeated attempts by eighteenth-century archivists to destroy anything considered too confidential. The text offers a rare insight into the intimate realm of married couples and into the reception of Zinzendorf’s ideas on marriage among common church members.