THE MENNONITE BROTHERHOOD IN RUSSIA (1789 - 1910), P. M. Friesen, 1911

all this inflicted upon the wife and children can hardly be expressed. f) “An auction sale was soon announced. All items were to be sold for cash, and because there was still very little money circulating in the colony the prospect of realizing any substantial amount of cash was meager, not even enough to cover the imperial debts [the advance which he had received from the government was to be repaid from the receipts of the sale]. As a consequence, some thinking members of the colony informed the landlords [Russian noblemen] of the surrounding region and asked them to attend the auction in the hope that they might buy something in order to make a profit. But because these landlords believed the accusation against Hoeppner to have been without foundation, they regarded the action of the Mennonites to be unmerciful and illegal. For Hoeppner had been accused of embezzling funds. But the case against him had been decided in the highest courts and the sentence had to be fulfilled, and in cases dealing with injustice Tsar Paul was very severe. The day of the sale arrived . . . and when enough cash had been realized to satisfy the demands of the crown, the sale was terminated. And now sympathy began to surface: the person who had bought the sheep returned ten of them; the one who had purchased the horses returned a yearling; and he who had bought the cattle returned a cow. These were Christians of the Greek Orthodox Church with whom, dear Documentary Supplement 117 reader, you would also like to be in heaven! The kinds of injustices that can be perpetrated by a group of rabble-rousers coming from our very midst is amply demonstrated by these events. Instead, according to the teachings of Christ, they should have sought to convict the culprits of the error of their ways, punish them according to their crimes, and attempt to convert them and lead them to improvement. These rabble-rousers, however, vented their rage against him in senseless blustering, thereby bringing misfortune down upon themselves and their offspring. “It was rumored that Hoeppner had been sent to Siberia. But those in immediate authority over him showed sympathy and delayed executing the order as long as possible. Lutheran Christians bailed him out of jail. And then a miracle occurred. Tsar Paul died suddenly and was succeeded by Tsar Alexander I who pardoned all those imprisoned debtors who owed the crown less than 2,000 rubles. Hoeppner was released immediately. Had his property not already been sold, it would not now have been confiscated. He had been in prison for about one year, but remained excluded from the colony co mmuni ty after his release and never sought to be reinstated. . . . He became a citizen of the nearby city of Alexandrovsk but did not take out membership in any church. . . . Finally, he attempted once more to be accepted into the membership of the Frisian [Kronsweide] congregation, against whose exclusive orga