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

n performing these our heavy and dangerous duties is apparent to all well-disposed people, who may readily judge from the works and their rewards. Herewith I humbly entreat the reader for Jesus’ sake to accept this my forced confession concerning my illumination, conversion, and calling and to receive it in a good spirit. I have made it out of great necessity so that the pious reader may know how it happened, seeing that I am slandered by the preachers and am accused without foundation of truth of being called and ordained to this service by a seditious and heretical sect. He that fears God let him read and judge.” 2. Johannes Deknatel: Report Concerning Menno and the Origin of the Anabaptist Movement. Johannes Deknatel, teacher (elder and pastor) of the Amsterdam Anabaptists, who died in 1759, edited a collection of the most remarkable of Menno Simons’ works, which were translated from the Dutch into German in 1765 and printed in Koenigsberg, East Prussia, under the title Fundamente der Christlichen Lehre (Foundations of Christian Doctrine), etc., in three volumes. In the introduction Deknatel presents the following information and opinions concerning Menno Simons and the origins of the Anabaptists, later called Mennonites. This is also contained in Reiswitz and Wadzeck, Beitraege. Deknatel was a pious man, deeply committed to his religious fellowship and its teachings, and an important academic theologian as well as tolerant and brotherly toward other believers. It is a pleasure to be able to substantiate that he was an intimate friend and brother of Count von Zinzendorf, and that he and many other Mennonites participated in the founding of the Moravian Brethren (intended originally to be merely an association, not a separate church). Zinzendorf had communion with Deknatel and his household in the latter’s home. In like manner, he was closely associated with John Wesley (according to Kiefemdorf as reported in Leendertz). Deknatel wrote both in Dutch and in German. However, we are not tied to the style of either edition and paraphrase freely. a) Deknatel writes that, “just as there were many reform move- ments like the Waldensians, the Wycliffites and the Hussites, which God used to prepare the way for the great Reformation, Anabaptists existed before Menno. [Compare below: “Bohemian-Moravian Brethren” Menno Simons 11 or peaceful Hussites]. Some of the Waldensians too, as Menno reports, who existed as ‘churches under the cross,’ practiced adult baptism and refrained from swearing oaths or participating in wars and so forth. Because of the intense persecutions they were exposed to, however, they had become dispersed sheep; it was probably they who called Menno, according to his own testimony in his withdrawal from the Catholic church, to be their bishop.” b) Thus I assume, writes Deknatel, after having carefully weighed all the evidence, that Menno, after having begun his reformation activ