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

members were not removed from the congregation until they became contrite but were merely subjected to a temporary ecclesiastical punishment. And yet the “good seed”, of which Hildebrand speaks, remained strong and plentiful: so much salt and light was present that the old ideals were never quite vanquished. Sufficient strength was available to avert both an economic and a final moral and spiritual ruin (for proof cf. H 57) and to effect salvage and reform efforts later in every respect with varying degrees of success. Periods of emigration and settlement are always extremely trying, revealing everything that is evil and rotten and forcing the good and the healthy to fight to its very existence. Even the later groups of our people, who emigrated and settled under much more favorable conditions— the M.B. groups included— have amply demonstrated the truth of the above. That is the way it was already during the exodus from Egypt and the settlement in Canaan! Read the book of Judges! k) “Through the withdrawal of the delegates from public life,” writes D. H. Epp in another place, “the mutual attacks by the opposing parties were ameliorated. ... It is true that thick fog banks once again swept over the Chortitza Colony in the ’40s when the ‘Agricultural Society’ took up the quarrel with the colony administration and the ministers of the church, which enjoyed the support of the vast majority of the church Documentary Supplement 119 members. However, this quarrel no longer produced any permanent divisions in the church.” (Compare VI: “Lichtenau” and “Heinrich Wiens.”] 3. The Imperial Charter or Charter of Privileges (Supplement to #32) In spite of all the disheartening experiences of the early years the settlers never lost sight of the future or the welfare of their descendants with regard to spiritual and civil matters. A new petition, to be given the promised imperial privileges, was submitted to the government. Elder David Epp and Minister Gerhard Willms were dispatched to St. Petersburg on June 29, 1798, to procure this document. After more than two years of anxious waiting in the capital city, they finally returned on October 28, 1800. A parchment with gold print, this document, whose unessential articles we have condensed while giving the important ones in full, reads as follows: “We, through God’s enabling grace, Paul the First Emperor and Autocrat of all Russians, etc. etc., etc., “In order to authenticate our most gracious grant in response to the petition received by us from the Mennonites settled in the New Russian provinces, who, according to the testimony of their supervisors 42 and because of their outstanding industry and their commendable way of life, can serve as an example to the others settled there, and who, because of this, have become deserving of our special attention, we have, in this charter of privileges granted to them, not only affirmed all of the rights and priv