The Russian era from the 1720s to the First World War was the golden age of the German elites. They owned most of the land and businesses, controlled the serfs, dominated all the cities, and got along quite well with the Russian imperial authorities. Unrest and rebellion was uncommon. The Germans were Lutherans, and so were the vast majority of the Estonian population, but the Germans had full control of the Lutheran churches. Moravian Protestant missionaries made an impact in the eighteenth century, and translated the complete Bible into Estonian. The Germans complained, so the imperial government banned the Moravians from 1743 to 1764. A theological faculty opened at the University of Dorpat (Tartu), with German professors. The local German gentry controlled the local churches and rarely hired Estonian graduates, but they made their mark as intellectuals and Estonian nationalists. In the 1840s, there was a movement of Lutheran peasants into the Russian Orthodox Church. The czar discouraged them when he realized they were challenging the local authorities. The German character of the Lutheran churches alienated many nationalists, who emphasized the secular in their subcultures. For example, choral societies offered a secular alternative to church music.