Z I Z I R 789 and book distribution, and by practical benevolence might awaken the somewhat torpid religion of the Lutheran Church. The " band of four brothers " (Kothe, pastor at Berthelsdorf ; Schitffer, pastor at Gb rlitz; Francis von Watte- wille, a friend from boyhood ; and himself) set themselves by sermons, books, journeys, and correspondence to create a revival of religion, and by frequent meetings for prayer to preserve in their own hearts the warmth of personal trust in Christ. From the printing establishment at Ebersdorf large quantities of books and tracts, catechisms, collec tions of hymns, and cheap Bibles were issued ; and a translation of Arndt s True Christianity was published for circulation in France. Dislike to the high and dry Lutheran orthodoxy of the period gave Zinzendorf some sympathy with that side of the growing rationalism which was attacking dogma, while he at the same time felt its lack of earnestness, and of a true and deep understanding of religion and of Christianity, and endeavoured to counteract its tendency by pointing men to the historical Christ, the revelation of the Father. It is also more than probable that he began to doubt the wisdom of Spener s plan of not separating from the Lutheran Church, and that he began to think that true Christianity could be best promoted by free association of Christians, who in course of time might grow into churches with no state connexion. These thoughts of his took a practical turn from his connexion with the Bohemian or Moravian Brethren. Zinzendorf offered an asylum to a number of persecuted wanderers from Moravia (see MORAVIAN BRETHREN), and built for them the village of Herrnhut on a corner of his estate of Berthelsdorf. The refugees who came to this asylum the first detachment under Christian David in 1722 and continued coming from various regions where persecution raged, for a succession of years (till 1732), belonged to more than one Protestant organization. Persecution had made them cling pertina ciously to the small peculiarities of creed, organization, and worship, and they could scarcely be persuaded to live in peace with each other. Zinzendorf devoted himself to them. He, with his wife and children, lived in Herrnhut and brought Rothe with him. He had hard work to bring order- out of the confusion. He had to satisfy the authorities that his religious community could be brought under the conditions of the peace of Augsburg ; he had to quiet the suspicions of the Lutheran clergy ; and, hardest of all, he had to rule in some fashion men made fanatical by persecu tion, who, in spite of his umvearied labours for them, on more than one occasion, it is said, combined in his own house to denounce him as the Beast of the Apocalypse, with Pastor Rothe as the False Prophet. Patience had at last its perfect work, and gradually Zinzendorf was able to organize his refugees into something like a militia Christi, based not on monastic but on family life. He was able to establish a common order of worship in 1727, and soon afterwards a common organization, which has been described in the article MORAVIAN BRETHREN. Zinzendorf took the deepest interest in the wonderful missionary enterprises of the Brethren, and saw with delight the spread of this Protestant family (not monastic) order in Germany, Denmark, Russia, and England. He travelled widely in its interests, visiting America in 1741-42 and spending a long time in London in 1750. Missionary colonies had by this time been settled in the West Indies (1732), in Greenland (1733), amongst the North American Indians (1735); and before Zinzendorfs death the Brethren had sent from Herrnhut missionary colonies to Livonia and the northern shores of the Baltic, to the slaves of North Carolina, to Surinam, to the Negro slaves in several parts of South America, to Travancore in the East Indies, to the Copts in Egypt, and to the west coast of South Africa. The community in Herrnhut, from which almost all these colonies had been sent out, had no money of its own, and its expenses had been almost exclusively furnished by Zinzendorf. His frequent journeyings from home made it almost impossible for him to look after his private affairs ; he was compelled from time to time to raise money by loans, and about 1750 was almost reduced to bankruptcy. This led to the establishment of a financial board among the Brethren, on a plan furnished by a lawyer, John Frederick Kober, which worked well. In 1752 Zinzendorf lost his only son, Christian Renatus, whom he had hoped to make his successor ; and four years later he lost his wife Erdmute, who had been his counsellor and confidante in all his work, and without whose wise guidance he could never have accomplished what he achieved. Zinzendorf remained a widower for one year, and then (June 1757) contracted a second marriage with Anna Nitschmann, on the ground that a man in his official position ought to be married. Three years later, overcome with his labours, he fell ill and died (on 9th May), leaving John de Wattewille, who had married his eldest daughter Benigna, to take his place at the head of the community. See Spangenberg, Leben des Graf en von Zinzendorf, 1772-75; Schrautenbach, Dcr Graf v. Zinzendorf, 1871 (written in 1782, and interesting because it gives Zinzendorf s relations to such Pietist rationalists as Dippel) ; F. Bovet, Le Comte dc Zinzendorf, 1860; Becker, Zinzendorf im Vcrhiiltniss z. Philosophic u. Kirchenthum seiner Zeit, 1886 (the best account ; written by the author of the article " Zinzendorf" in Herzog-Plitt s Encykl.}. See also the books mentioned under MOKAVIAN BRETHREN. (T. M. L.) ZION. See JERUSALEM and TEMPLE. ZIRCONIUM, a rare element, closely allied to titanium. Klaproth in 1789 analysed zircon and found it to contain a new earth, which he called " zirconia." Zircon is essen tially a silicate of zirconia, Zr0 2 .SiO 2 . For the extraction from it of zirconia the mineral is first of all heated and quenched in water to render it brittle, and then reduced to a fine powder, which is fused up with three to four parts of acid fluoride of potassium at a gentle heat in a platinum crucible. When the mass fuses tranquilly and all the water is expelled, the platinum crucible is placed in a Hessian crucible ; the two crucibles are then covered and kept for two hours at the highest temperature producible by means of a wind-furnace. The porcelain -like fuse is powdered, boiled in water, and acidified with hydrofluoric acid, and the residual fluosilicate of potassium is filtered off. The filtrate on cooling deposits crystals of fluozircon- ate of potassium, ZrF 6 K 2 , which are purified by re-crystal lization from hot water. The double fluoride is decomposed with hot concentrated sulphuric acid ; the mixed sulphate is dissolved in water ; and the zirconia is precipitated with ammonia in the cold. The precipitate, being difficult to wash, is (after a preliminary washing) re-dissolved in hydrochloric acid and re-precipitated with ammonia. Hydrated zirconia, Zr(OH) 4 , as thus obtained, is quite appreciably soluble in water and easily in mineral acids, with formation of zirconic salts, e.g., ZrCl 4 , analogous to SnCl 4 . But, if the hydrate is precipitated in the heat, it demands concentrated acids for its solution. The hydrate readily loses its water at a dull red heat and passes into anhydride with vivid incandescence. The anhydrous oxide, ZrO 2 , is with difficulty soluble even in hydrofluoric acid ; but a mixture of two -parts of concen trated sulphuric acid and one of water dissolves it on con tinued heating as Zr(SO 4 ) . Zirconia, when heated to whiteness remains unfused, and radiates out abundance of white light. This property has been utilized for the con struction of a new kind of gas lamp, in which a colourless flame, produced by the combustion of a mixture of gas and air, serves to heat a hollow cylinder of zirconia suspended over it by means of platinum gauze. Zirconia, like oxide
of tin and oxide of titanium, unites not only with acids