ZINZENDORF, NIKOLAUS (1700–1760), German nobleman, theologian, leader of the Moravian church; born Count Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf on May 26, 1700, in Dresden, Saxony. At his baptism his parents invited the electress of Saxony to be his godmother and the Pietist leader Philipp Jakob Spener to be his godfather. These choices represented the influences of noble lineage and pietistic devotion that were to be so decisive in Zinzendorf's later life.

Even as a child Zinzendorf displayed an extraordinary interest in religious matters. At the age of ten, following private tutoring, he was sent to the Halle boarding school run by the Pietist leader August Hermann Francke. In 1716 he transferred to the orthodox Lutheran University of Wittenberg to prepare for a career as a lawyer, but he continued to read theological literature in his free time. His perennially irenic approach to theological disputes showed up in his ultimately unsuccessful attempts...