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

THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH q) “1. The position ... as to have totally become the slave of the devil.” [Cf. above #89.] r) “IV. The church elder, Johann Harder, on March 25 and 29, 1860.” [Cf. above #92-93.] s) “The result thereof. The voice of the honest Elder Harder naturally found no hearing with the other elders, so that the municipal court soon proceeded with mistreatment and violence for the purpose of therewith moving the newly formed church to retreat into the old church groups. To correctly characterize the Area Administrative Office’s manner of action it seems sufficient to cite the mistreatment suffered by Mennonites Johann Regier, Gerhard [?] Wall and Abraham Comelssen solely as a consequence of the fact that they had not given a declaration required by the Area Administrative Office that they would return to their previous congregations. They were placed under arrest by the Area Administrative Office and detained in the cellar on a diet of bread and water— Regier two-and-a-half weeks, until he, in order to avoid further punishment, gave the required signature, but then, gripped by remorse, immediately recanted [small honor!]; and Wall, at first fourteen days detention followed by ten days of heavy work in the community, until he finally became ill because of hunger, work and incarceration and had to spend another three days in the cellar. Only then, when his condition became critical was he released, and that in spite of his remaining true to his convictions. Nevertheless, he was forced to leave the colony. Finally, Comelssen, a generally respected teacher and father of a large family, was removed from his position in the dead of winter and forced to leave his [official ] residence so that he had to spend a considerable period of time on the Nogai steppes in a [sod] hut, became ill together with his family and finally settled in a nearby Nogai village. And yet, in spite of the fact that the Area Administrative Office did not wish to tolerate these people in the colonies, they still refused them the necessary passes which would have allowed them to reside outside the colonial district. t) “As a consequence of the reports of the colonial inspector and the Area Administrative Office, the Supervisory Commission requested an explanation from the latter. “V. The Questions of the Supervisory Commission for the Welfare of Foreign Settlers in South Russia. Nov. 29, 1860, No. 8575 [cf. above #99], u) “In reaction thereto, the new church, in a petition to the Supervisory Commission, dated Dec. 27, 1860, explained its true aspirations as well as the untruthful and ill-intended character of the reports of the Area Administrative Office, and concluded with the most humble plea that the brethren, as the true followers of Menno Simons, be Documentary Supplements 351 protected against further persecution as well as allowed the free practice of their faith according to their convictions.