the present time.

The leader of the movement was Philipp Jacob Spener, pastor of St.
Nicolai Church, in Berlin. Spener, although a loyal and zealous son of
the Lutheran Church, was not blind to the formalism and dead orthodoxy
which had overtaken it following the Thirty Years' War and which
threatened to dry up the streams of spiritual life. To stimulate
spiritual endeavor and personal piety, Spener and his followers organized
Bible study groups. They also encouraged private assemblies for mutual
edification. These were known as _collegia pietatis_, which gave rise to
the name, "Pietists."

August Hermann Francke, the foremost disciple of Spener, succeeded the
latter as leader of the movement. The University of Halle, where Francke
was called as professor in 1691, became the center of Pietism. Here
Francke laid the foundations for the remarkable philanthropic and
educational institutions that made his name known throughout the
Christian world. It began in 1695 when the great-hearted man opened a
room in his own house for the instruction of poor children. Within a few
years he had established his great orphanage, a high school, and a home
for destitute students. The orphans' home was erected on a site where
there had been a beer and dancing garden.

When Francke began he had no money, nor did he receive any support from
the state, but as the marvelous work progressed funds poured in from all
quarters. In the year of his death, 1727, more than 2,000 children were
receiving care and instruction from 170 teachers. Altogether, some 6,000
graduates of theology left Halle during Francke's career, "men imbued
with his spirit, good exegetes, and devoted pastors, who spread their
doctrines all over Germany, and in the early decades of the 18th century
occupied a majority of the pulpits."

Halle also became the cradle of the modern missionary movement. From this
place, in 1705, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Pluetschau, were sent
forth as the first missionaries to India, nearly a century before William
Carey left England for the same field. At Halle the youthful Count von
Zinzendorf became a pupil under Francke and received the inspiration that
in later years led to the establishment of the far-reaching missions of
the Moravians. To Halle the founder of Methodism, John Wesley, came in
1738, shortly after his conversion in London, in order to become more
familiar with the teachings of Luther and the Pietists.

The secret of