 |
| Mennonites in Russia profusely blessed Alexander II at his 1856 coronation (note 1 below). |
It is from the entire 'Mennonite Brotherhood' in Russia, with the exception of the Kleine Gemeinde group, and was signed by 9 church elders and two district chairmen (note 2). They are ancestors of Kansas, Minnesota, Dakota and Nebraska Mennonites.
Most serene and supremely powerful Emperor! Most Gracious Emperor and Lord!
May your Imperial Majesty, Most Gracious One be willing to accept our heartfelt congratulations and thankful feelings, which we are so bold to lay down before the feet of the Most High's illustrious throne in all humility, All Gracious One.
In the happy knowledge that we, the whole Mennonite Brotherhood in southern Russia, with sincere hearts and filled with thanksgiving, are true subjects of your Imperial Majesty, we gladly follow with all our soul the inner drive of the heart, to express reverently and in childlike manner before our Imperial Majesty, that we owe our thanks for this noble peace [Crimean War had just ended], next to God's all-wise guidance, to the most gracious and fatherly sentiments of your Imperial Majesty, through whose blessings we feel constantly committed, and especially for the upcoming coronation, to prayer with all inwardness, that God the Lord would bestow the richest fullness of His blessings and gifts upon your Imperial Majesty as well as upon our whole, passionately beloved Imperial House, so that the reign of your Imperial Majesty may be long and blessed.
Mindful of the privileges most graciously bestowed upon our Mennonite Brotherhood by the revered Emperor and Lord Paul in a Most High Decree of Grace (Privilegium) on the 6th of September, 1800, we will gratefully continue to show ourselves more and more worthy, and strive with all of the strength and means at our disposal, to secure the benevolence of the Most Gracious One (Emperor) toward us in the future as well, that we and our children may live a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and respectability under the most gracious protection of your Imperial Majesty, as we have been so blessed to this day under your Imperial Majesty and His majestic, most-blessed ancestors.
May the Lord our God fulfill in the richest measure our childlike prayers and wishes for a long, happy and blessed life and rule of your Imperial Majesty and direct the heart of your Imperial Majesty according to His divine [God's] good pleasure.
We are unspeakably happy to be in deepest reverence your Imperial Majesty's most humble and most faithful subjects, the Mennonite Brotherhood in southern Russia, in the name and on behalf of the churches and district of Chortitza, Mariupol [Bergthal] and Molotschna.
[Signatures]
Here is some commentary on the above by Neufeldt-Fast:
Here is some commentary on the above by Neufeldt-Fast:
Without being too judgmental; knowing that their era is not ours; believing that they were not "just" saying this to get on the good side of the new Tsar; convinced that they were sincere in their praise but not naive about the need to protect their charter of privileges; certain that nine elders are not ignorant about their Anabaptist heritage; knowing that this Mennonite praise for the Romanov dynasty predates 1856 and continues decades later ... I think it's ok to test out the term "Imperial Anabaptists." (as opposed to democratic Anabaptists)
At one level, the letter is a restatement of the contract: We Mennonites will continue to "show ourselves even more worthy" of the generous charter of privileges, that is, to be a model community, and we will strive toward that end "with all of the strength and means at our disposal." And in return, we expect the Tsar to be benevolent toward us, so that "we and our children may live a quiet and peaceful life in all godliness and respectability" under the Tsar's protection.
At one level, it is wholly compatible with the recently republished 1660 confession (United Frisian/Flemish/German; now "Rudnerweide 1853"): "Article XI: Concerning Secular Authority" and I Tim. 1:2f (link: https://anabaptistwiki.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Confession,_or_Short_and_Simple_Statement_of_Faith_(Rudnerweide,_Russia,_1853)#XI._Concerning_Secular_Authority).
But ... can an Anabaptist-Mennonite really be a Monarchist?
Their question was the exact opposite: Can a Mennonite/Christian ever be a Democrat?!
To Russian Mennonites (and not just them), the democratic revolutions across Europe appeared as chaotic eruptions that aimed to replace divinely ordained rulers with human institutions established on the “grace of the people” alone, not of God.
When this Tsar, Alexander II, was assassinated in 1881, Russian Mennonites tell their recently resettled siblings now in America of their deepest grief at this “irreplaceable loss” at the hands of “democrats" (note 3).
Even the very popular evangelist and poet-minister Bernhard Harder wrote a poem / hymn mentioning these "democratic assassins."
What was at stake? Harder and at least two if not three generations of Russian Mennonites were convinced that the Russian monarch was a divinely ordained bulwark against the “pestilence” and “vain and sinister schemes of democrats” and “servants of Satan”: “God lives! And no assassin can arrest his truth” (note 4).
Years later after the 1905 Russian Revolution, P. M. Friesen writes about the Mennonites: "as a genuine Christian-conservative and generally bourgeois group, ninety-nine out of one hundred Mennonites considered such words as 'democrat,' 'democratic' with suspicion, foreboding ill, and from a democracy only evil was expected" (note 5). He was ignoring the social unrest in large Mennonite factories and huge class distinctions growing larger every decade among Mennonites in Russia.
Is there anything to learn here for contemporary American politics? What are the hopes and fears?
Are they defined in an apocalyptic manner with a “pessimistic” view of human nature, and advocating for patterns and institutions to hold the chaos in check until the apocalyptic end? Or are hopes dreams of the millennium articulated with “optimism” about human potential, seeking a movement forward to an improved fulfillment of history?
Some things have changed -- but maybe much has remained the same too.
--Best wishes from Canada. "God Save the Queen!"
---Notes---
Note 1: Coronation Album, from Brown University Library. https://library.brown.edu/readingritual/totos.html
Note 2: Mennonite Library and Archives, Bethel College, N. Newton, KS. https://mla.bethelks.edu/gmsources/newspapers/Mennonitische%20Blaetter/1854-1900/1857/DSCF0069.JPG.
Note 3: Cf. letters from the villages of Fabrikerweise (Mennonitische Rundschau I, no. 23 [May 1, 1881] 1), Schönau and Halbstadt (MR I, no. 22 [April 15, 1881] 1), and Grossweide (MR II, no. 1 [June 1, 1881] 1).
Note 4: Geistliche Lieder und Gelegenheitsgedichte von Bernhard Harder, edited by Heinrich Franz ( Hamburg: A-G, 1888) vol. 1, no. 519, 566; no. 533, 583f. Re: democratic assassins, see no. 521, p. 568f. http://chort.square7.ch/Pis/Hard1.pdf.
Note 5: Peter M. Friesen, Mennonite Brotherhood in Russia 1789–1910 (Winnipeg, MB: Christian, 1978) 627; https://archive.org/details/TheMennoniteBrotherhoodInRussia17891910/.
No comments:
Post a Comment