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

ven to us. To be sure, we are described as a sect in several other places, as, for instance, in article 179, Vol. IV of the military law, and in the supplement of the same of May 14, 1875, concerning the Mennonites; but, according to our judgment, such a designation contradicts the literal meaning of the fundamental law about denominations (Vol. I, Division 1). Since the beginning of the settlement of Mennonites at the close of the eighteenth century, until the seventies §294 632 MATTERS OF FAITH of the last century, our religious fellowship has been called the ‘Mennonite Brotherhood’ in written communications of Russian authorities (alongside the so-called Moravian Evangelical Brotherhood organized by Count Zinzendorf). Neither in the Charter of Privileges granted by Tsar Paul I in 1800 (of which a substantial part has been incorporated in the mentioned articles 1104 and 1105), nor in the Colonial Decree which constitutes the second part of Vol. XII of the Code of Laws, are we called a ‘sect.’ The complete equality of the Mennonites with other Christian denominations is, among other things, also confirmed through the articles of the Colonial Decree with respect to schools. Here the fathers (Catholic), the pastors (Lutheran and Reformed), and the ecclesiastical ministers of the Mennonites are all obligated to supervise the religio-ethical training of youth, an obligation which to this day belongs to the clergy of those of other faiths among the (former) German colonists, as this has been reiterated in the highest decrees of 1881 and later. "In Article 1104 the reference is not to ‘rules and customs’ of this sect, but to ‘church’ rules and customs. According to Article 1105, the ministers of the Mennonites practice the duties of their office not according to the rules of their ‘sect,’ but of their ‘denomination.’ In the same point there is also an allusion to their ‘priestly dignity,' a designation which in the spirit of Russian legislation cannot be applied to the leader of a sect. “From such form of the text and the codification of the law during the years 1800 and 1801 about the Mennonites, it is clearly evident that Imperial legislation does not view the Mennonites as a Protestant ‘sect’, but as one of ‘several communions of Protestant confession.’ In this number, under a general heading, the ‘Evangelical Reformed Church’ is mentioned in first place (p. 185, Division 3). In general, the concept of ‘sect’ as applying to Christians of other faiths is foreign to Russian legislation; it only knows of sects which are composed of persons who have seceded from the Orthodox Church. All other religious communions recognized by law are designated as ‘denominations,’ which are divided into two main categories: Christian and non-Christian. The Christian [denominations] are divided, however, into orthodox and those of other faiths or foreign denominations. In this latter category all branches of the