Perilous Journey: The Mennonite Brethren in Russia 1860-1910, John B. Toews, 1988

the Molot- schna colonists had settled on better land, with more capital and under rather promising conditions, they seemed less content. Resolves for a peaceful co-existence were put to the test when one early elder, Jacob Enns, began correcting the erring members of his flock. Instead of admonishing them in love he resorted to corporal punishment and even imprisonment. Apparently the preaching of the Word no longer deterred dishonesty, debauchery and violence. Concerned parishioners argued that the Scriptures called for spiritual not physical discipline. Unfortunately Jacob Enns proved an insensitive elder given to vindictive action against those who opposed him. As the dissident leader Klaas Reimer expressed it: "...so many evil works emanated from the elder that it was necessary for us to leave their fellowship." 3 11 The ecclesiastical establishment led by Enns not only excommunicated the rebels but in cooperation with civilian powers even threatened exile to Siberia. The small group, which had earlier met for Bible study and prayer, was forced to hold its own worship services. Sporadic encouragement came from other more moderately inclined Molotschna leaders and eventually the dissidents obtained a measure of legal recognition. The surviving documents make one thing clear. The secessionists were primarily concerned that the established church used civil means for disciplining church members. For Klaas Reimer and his associates this violated nonresistance since it involved the use of violence. They had another concern. The true church of Christ must find expression in a restricted setting. Mennonite backsliding was associated with the accumulation of wealth and economic power, the participation in the magistry and the lapse of the nonresistance principle. Restitution was only possible through separation in order "that our church could be led back to the foundation and original constitution of the church." 4 "Kleine Gemeinde" not only implied a small part of the whole but a committed church, a faithful remnant. What, in the opinion of the secessionists, was essential to the restitution of faith? They stressed the necessity of repentance and spiritual rebirth though they did not hold particularly dramatic views on the exact nature of the salvation experience. Discipleship expressed itself in the context of the local congre- gation and took issue with the besetting sins of the community such as dishonesty, violence and material extravagance. The church must strive for purity. In this context the exercise of spiritual discipline was essential. These serious believers also held that the pure church must be nurtured by pure doctrine. They were concerned with the corrupting religious ideas permeating the Mennonite world via "alien books published by other confessions." 5 Some elders in Prussia and Russia were apparently avid readers of pietistic literature emanating from Germany. Klaas Reim