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

In regard to the Bohemian-Moravian Brethren, the remnant which was able to survive their persecutions was gathered by Count Zinzendorf together with other German believers and organized as the “Moravian Brethren” (1725). This group is more familiarly known to us as the Zinzendorf or Hermhuter brotherhood, their first location on the property of Count Zinzendorf, Hermhut. It was the last ordained bishop of the old brotherhood, the court preacher Jablonsky in Berlin (who had been ordained bishop by the genial and pious pedagogue, the Unitas bishop Amos Comenius), who transferred the bishopric to the new group by consecrating David Ritschmann and Count Zinzendorf. Thus the descendants of the old Waldensian and Moravian churches (churches under the cross), have, as is apparent from the above and some other things that will follow, maintained themselves to the present in three ecclesiastical forms: in the evangelical Waldensian Church of northern Italy, the Moravian Brethren and the Mennonite-Anabaptist brother- hood. 22 c) According to Hartknoch, therefore, the first Anabaptists in Prussia came from Silesia, while Reiswitz and Wadzeck believe that these were Moravian Brethren. Such frequently recurring family names among our Prussian-Russian Mennonite brotherhood as Sawatzky (Sawadsky), Koslowsky, Rogalsky, Delesky, Selewsky, Retzlaf or Ratzlaf (Rodoslaw?), perhaps even Spenst (Uspensky?) point to Slavic, that is Czecho-Moravian and Polish elements. (The Bohe mian -Moravian Brethren had also spread to many parts of Poland.) d) The spiritual importance of the first known Anabaptists of Prussia is apparent (according to Reiswitz and Wadzeck) from the complaints of an important contemporary Lutheran minister of Koenigs- berg in East Prussia, the bishop Polyander. In 1530 he complained that the Elector Albrecht no longer regarded him as highly as previously and that, “since he listened to the fanatics,” he attended his sermons only infrequently. Thereupon the radicals were put to silence! e) The true, later followers of Menno’s teachings (with whom the Moravians in Prussia naturally intermingled), according to Reiswitz and Wadzeck, first arrived in Prussia between 1540-49 from the Netherlands. Aside from authentic documents, still preserved by the Prussian congregations, the Dutch origin of the majority of the Prussian Mennonites is proven by their Christian and family names, the family and inheritance ties which still existed between the Prussian and Dutch 44 DUTCH-PRUSSIAN ANABAPTISTS 46 DUTCH-PRUSSIAN ANABAPTISTS Mennonites around 1820, Dutch customs and life style, their knowledge of the Dutch language, and Dutch religious books 23 [which our immigrants brought along with them to Molotschna]. The main proof for their Dutch origin, however, is that the Dutch language was originally used in the church services, in Danzig as late as 1790 [the first Chortitza Mennonites immigrated to Rus