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

ith so ‘strictly’ by the Chortitza Mennonite brotherhood could apparently also produce ‘strict’ baptizers!] The second baptism, on March 17, involving 17 souls, also took place at Einlage. This writer [Jacob Janzen] was also present.” 3. Gathering the Scattered. Brother Heinrich Epp recounts: 114 Those who had been scattered about in 1855 began to congregate once more, and together with the Einlage brethren formed a church fellowship of 91 souls within a few months. Neufeld and Unger were chosen as their ministers. [The date for this election is not indicated; apparently it took place on the Sunday of the first Einlage baptism, or perhaps even earlier?] These two and Gerhard Wieler now became the object of persecution. A series of judicial procedures followed: from the village mayors to the church elders, from the elders to the Area Administrative Office. Since nothing brought the desired results, the brethren were excommunicated from the church [from which they had already withdrawn— though here also it has not been possible to establish the date] and, as had also been done in the Molotschna, put under the ban and prevented from having any civic or commercial Hardships at Einlage 315 intercourse with others. But— “whoever had debts, was pressured.” The Chortitza Area Administrative Office arraigned 27 heads of families on March 29, 1862, asking whether “they intended to persist with this their belief.” When they replied in the affirmative, they were asked to sign a paper set before them which stated that if their Mennonite congregation thought it right that they be sent away, they would render obedience immediately and renounce all their rights. It was a promise the arraigned refused to give. Shortly thereafter the new group sent Brother Gerhard Wieler as their representative to St. Petersburg [as we already know], where for a number of months he worked together with Brother Claassen of Liebenau, and, on June 4, submitted a most submissive petition to His Majesty, the Tsar [cf. below], which agreed in substance entirely with Claassen’s earlier petition. As we have already seen in relation to the Kuban settlement and elsewhere, this petition gradually brought forth good results. 4. The “Answers” of the Chortitza-Einlage Brethren, given May 7, 1862. (According to the diaries of A. Unger, Epp and others), the newly established church's two ministers, Abraham Unger and Heinrich Neufeld were called before the assistant chief of police of the Province of Ekaterinoslav, a man called Baschinsky, and were questioned in the presence of Chortitza colony administrator Dyck. Their answers can be taken as the first written confession of faith of the Brethren of the Chortitza District (cf. Confession of Faith 1900/1902, page 3). For lack of space the questions will be omitted, since the answeres make clear what their content was. “Answers [A]: “1) I, the Mennonite Heinrich Neufeld, son of Abraham, am 43 y