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

ions. The consolidation process culminated in 1851 with the formal organization of the Kirchen- konvent (Ecclesiastical Council). From the very onset its instincts were administrative and legal, rather than visionary and creative. The council rather that the community became the supreme arbitrator of most religious problems. In such a setting, pleas for deeper piety or free religious inquiry were often interpreted as a threat to the elders' leadership. 26 Since the leaders of church and state increasingly reflected the same economic interests it was easy for them to cooperate in other areas. Though power in the Mennonite world was vested in two authorities, it readily shifted in either direction. It was soon evident that within this diarchy the elders held the lesser sway. On May 26, 1842, David Epp confided the following to his diary. Elder Jacob Dyck has received a communication from elder Bernhardt Fast in Halbstadt. It included a letter addressed to Fast by Johann Cornies, Ohrloff. In it elder Jacob Dyck is ordered not to involve himself in any ecclesiastical matters by his excellency state counsellor Eduard von Hahn of the Supervisory Commission in Odessa. If there is unrest in Warkentin's church the agitators are to be reported to the state counsellor. 18 Warkentin is to be taken into custody and [transported] to Orechov [for his part in the unrest.] 27 Epp made two other references to von Hahn in 1842. The state counsellor demanded to know the exact title of the hymnal elder Jacob Dyck was importing from Prussia as well as the individual titles of the songs. 28 The second entry was more foreboding. The elder Jacob Warkentin of Altonau has been deposed from his office by state counsellor von Hahn on account of the disobedience of the church and other disputes. Four elders were elected upon orders of the state counsellor. 29 Warkentin's ecclesiastical jurisdiction included almost three-quarters of the Molotschna population. He apparently resisted "progressive" measures issued by the estate owner Johann Cornies, head of the Agricultural Union. Eduard von Hahn proved a willing ally. Acting only on the authority of the Odessa Supervisory Commission he illegally deposed Warkentin. Warkentin's religious jurisdiction was then divided among the newly elected elders. Apparently there was no protest from other Mennonite leaders. Unchallenged, the earthly city continued its aggressive tactics. Elder Heinrich Wiens of Margenau had excommunicated several of his members who assisted in the corporal punishment of a youth on orders of the local mayor. Angered by this intrusion into civil jurisdiction Hahn ordered Wiens to appear before him in Halbstadt on July 20, 1846. Since the Mennonite Privilegium guaranteed religious freedom Wiens argued, he had the right to discipline his own members. Hahn held that ministers, like others in the community, must submit to civic authority. 30 When elder Wi