The Peasants And The Anabaptists
Germany, in great part, under the leadership of Martin Luther, had
broken loose from the Church of Rome, the ball which he had set rolling
being kept in motion by other hands. The ideas of many of those who
followed him were full of the spirit of fanaticism. The pendulum of
religious thought, set in free swing, vibrated from the one extreme of
authority to the opposite extreme of license, going as far beyond Luther
as
name of Anabaptists, from its rejection of infant baptism, a sect with a
strange history, which it now falls to us to relate.
The new movement, indeed, was not confined to matters of religion. The
idea of freedom from authority once set afloat, quickly went further
than its advocates intended. If men were to have liberty of thought, why
should they not have liberty of action? So argued the peasantry, and not
without the best of reasons, for they were pitifully oppressed by the
nobility, weighed down with feudal exactions to support the luxury of
the higher classes, their crops destroyed by the horses and dogs of
hunting-parties, their families ill-treated and insulted by the
men-at-arms who were maintained at their expense, their flight from
tyranny to the freedom of the cities prohibited by nobles and citizens
alike, everywhere enslaved, everywhere despised, it is no wonder they
joined with gladness in the revolutionary sentiment and made a vigorous
demand for political liberty.
As a result of all this an insurrection broke out,--a double
insurrection in fact,--here of the peasantry for their rights, there of
the religious fanatics for their license. Suddenly all Germany was
upturned by the greatest and most dangerous outbreak of the laboring
classes it had ever known, a revolt which, had it been ably led, might
have revolutionized society and founded a completely new order of
things.
In 1522 the standard of revolt was first raised, its signal a golden
shoe, with the motto, "Whoever will be free let him follow this ray of
light." In 1524 a fresh insurrection broke out, and in the spring of the
following year the whole country was aflame, the peasants of southern
Germany being everywhere in arms and marching on the strongholds of
their oppressors.
Their demands were by no means extreme. They asked for a board of
arbitration, to consist of the Archduke Ferdinand, the Elector of
Saxony, Luther, Melanchthon, and several preachers, to consider their
proposed articles of reform in industrial and political concerns. These
articles covered the following points. They asked the right to choose
their own pastors, who were to preach the word of God from the Bible;
the abolition of dues, except tithes to the clergy; the abolition of
vassalage; the rights of hunting and fishing, and of cutting wood in the
forests; reforms in rent, in the administration of justice, and in the
methods of application of the laws; the restoration of communal property
illegally seized; and several other matters of the same general
character.
They asked in vain. The princes ridiculed the idea of a court in which
Luther should sit side by side with the archduke. Luther refused to
interfere. He admitted the oppression of the peasantry, severely
attacked the princes and nobility for their conduct, but deprecated the
excesses which the insurgents had already committed, and saw no safety
from worse evils except in putting down the peasantry with a strong
hand.
The rejection of the demands of the rebellious peasants was followed by
a frightful reign of license, political in the south, religious in the
north. Everywhere the people were in arms, destroying castles, burning
monasteries, and forcing numbers of the nobles to join them, under pain
of having their castles plundered and burned. The counts of Hohenlohe
were made to enter their ranks, and were told, "Brother Albert and
brother George, you are no longer lords but peasants, and we are the
lords of Hohenlohe." Other nobles were similarly treated. Various
Swabian nobles fled for safety, with their families and treasures, to
the city and castle of Weinsberg. The castle was stormed and taken, and
the nobles, seventy in number, were forced to run the gantlet between
two lines of men armed with spears, who stabbed them as they passed. It
was this deed that brought out a pamphlet from Luther, in which he
called on all the citizens of the empire to put down "the furious
peasantry, to strangle, to stab them, secretly and openly, as they can,
as one would kill a mad dog."
There was need for something to be done if Germany was to be saved from
a revolution. The numbers of the insurgents steadily increased. Many of
the cities were in league with them, several of the princes entered in
negotiation concerning their demands; in Thuringia the Anabaptists,
under the lead of a fanatical preacher named Thomas Muenzer, were in full
revolt; in Saxony, Hesse, and lower Germany the peasantry were in arms;
there was much reason to fear that the insurgents and fanatics would
join their forces and pour like a rushing torrent through the whole
empire, destroying all before them. Of the many peasant revolts which
the history of mediaevalism records this was the most threatening and
dangerous, and called for the most strenuous exertions to save the
institutions of Germany from a complete overthrow.
At the head of the main body of insurgents was a knight of notorious
character, the famed Goetz von Berlichingen,--Goetz with the Iron Hand,
as he is named,--a robber baron whose history had been one of feud and
contest, and of the plunder alike of armed foes and unarmed travellers.
Goethe has honored him by making him the hero of a drama, and the
peasantry sought to honor him by making him the leader of their march of
destruction. This worthy had lost his hand during youth, and replaced it
with a hand of iron. He was bold, daring, and unscrupulous, but scarcely
fitted for generalship, his knowledge of war being confined to the
tactics of highway robbery. Nor can it be said that his leadership of
the peasants was voluntary. He was as much their prisoner as their
general, his service being an enforced one.
With the redoubtable Goetz at their head the insurgents poured onward,
spreading terror before them, leaving ruin behind them. Castles and
monasteries were destroyed, until throughout Thuringia, Franconia,
Swabia, and along the Rhine as far as Lorraine the homes of lords and
clergy were destroyed, and a universal scene of smoking ruins replaced
the formerly stately architectural piles.
We cannot go further into the details of this notable outbreak. The
revolt of the southern peasantry was at length brought to an end by an
army collected by the Swabian league, and headed by George Truchsess of
Waldburg. Had they marched against him in force he could not have
withstood their onset. But they occupied themselves in sieges,
disregarding the advice of their leaders, and permitted themselves to be
attacked and beaten in detail. Seeing that all was at an end, Goetz von
Berlichingen secretly fled from their ranks and took refuge in his
castle. Many of the bodies of peasantry dispersed. Others made head
against the troops and were beaten with great slaughter. All was at an
end.
Truchsess held a terrible court of justice in the city of Wuerzburg, in
which his jester Hans acted as executioner, and struck off the heads of
numbers of the prisoners, the bloody work being attended with laughter
and jests, which added doubly to its horror. All who acknowledged that
they had read the Bible, or even that they knew how to read and write,
were instantly beheaded. The priest of Schipf, a gouty old man who had
vigorously opposed the peasants, had himself carried by four of his men
to Truchsess to receive thanks for his services. Hans, fancying that he
was one of the rebels, slipped up behind him, and in an instant his head
was rolling on the floor.
"I seriously reproved my good Hans for his untoward jest," was the easy
comment of Truchsess upon this circumstance.
Throughout Germany similar slaughter of the peasantry and wholesale
executions took place. In many places the reprisal took the dimensions
of a massacre, and it is said that by the end of the frightful struggle
more than a hundred thousand of the peasants had been slain. As for its
political results, the survivors were reduced to a deeper state of
servitude than before. Thus ended a great struggle which had only needed
an able leader to make it a success and to free the people from feudal
bonds. It ended like all the peasant outbreaks, in defeat and renewed
oppression. As for the robber chief Goetz, while he is said by several
historians to have received a sentence of life imprisonment, Menzel
states that he was retained in prison for two years only.
In Thuringia, as we have said, the revolt was a religious one, it being
controlled by Thomas Muenzer, a fanatical Anabaptist. He pretended that
he had the gift of receiving divine revelations, and claimed to be
better able to reveal Christian truth than Luther. God had created the
earth, he said, for believers, all government should be regulated by the
Bible and revelation, and there was no need of princes, priests, or
nobles. The distinction between rich and poor was unchristian, since in
God's kingdom all should be alike. Nicholas Storch, one of Muenzer's
preachers, surrounded himself with twelve apostles and seventy-two
disciples, and claimed that an angel brought him divine messages.
Driven from Saxony by the influence of Luther, Muenzer went to Thuringia,
and gained such control by his preaching and his doctrines over the
people of the town of Muelhausen that all the wealthy people were driven
away, their property confiscated, and the sole control of the place fell
into his hands.
So great was the disturbance caused by his fanatical teachings and the
exertions of his disciples that Luther again bestirred himself, and
called on the princes for the suppression of Muenzer and his fanatical
horde. A division of the army was sent into Thuringia, and came up with
a large body of the Anabaptists near Frankenhausen, on May 15, 1525.
Muenzer was in command of the peasants. The army officers, hoping to
bring them to terms by lenient measures, offered to pardon them if they
would give up their leaders and peacefully retire to their homes. This
offer might have been effective but for Muenzer, who, foreseeing danger
to himself, did his utmost to awaken the fanaticism of his followers.
It happened that a rainbow appeared in the heavens during the
discussion. This, he declared, was a messenger sent to him from God. His
ignorant audience believed him, and for the moment were stirred up to a
mad enthusiasm which banished all thoughts of surrender. Rushing in
their fury on the ambassadors of peace and pardon, they stabbed them to
death, and then took shelter behind their intrenchments, where they
prepared for a vigorous defence.
Their courage, however, did not long endure the vigorous assault made by
the troops of the elector. In vain they looked for the host of angels
which Muenzer had promised would come to their aid. Not the glimpse of an
angel's wing appeared in the sky. Muenzer himself took to flight, and his
infatuated followers, their blind courage vanished, fell an easy prey to
the swords of the soldiers.
The greater part of the peasant horde were slain, while Muenzer, who had
concealed himself from pursuit in the loft of a house in Frankenhausen,
was quickly discovered, dragged forth, put to the rack, and beheaded,
his death putting an end to that first phase of the Anabaptist outbreak.
After this event, several years passed during which the Anabaptists kept
quiet, though their sect increased. Then came one of the most remarkable
religious revolts which history records. Persecution in Germany had
caused many of the new sectarians to emigrate to the Netherlands, where
their preachings were effective, and many new members were gained. But
the persecution instigated by Charles V. against heretics in the
Netherlands fell heavily upon them and gave rise to a new emigration,
great numbers of the Anabaptists now seeking the town of Muenster, the
capital of Westphalia. The citizens of this town had expelled their
bishop, and had in consequence been treated with great severity by
Luther, in his effort to keep the cause of religious reform separate
from politics. The new-comers were received with enthusiasm, and the
people of Muenster quickly fell under the influence of two of their
fanatical preachers, John Matthiesen, a baker, of Harlem, and John
Bockhold, or Bockelson, a tailor, of Leyden.
Muenster soon became the seat of an extraordinary outburst of profligacy,
fanaticism, and folly. The Anabaptists took possession of the town,
drove out all its wealthy citizens, elected two of themselves--a
clothier named Knipperdolling and one Krechting--as burgomasters, and
started off in a remarkable career of self-government under Anabaptist
auspices.
A community of property was the first measure inaugurated. Every person
was required to deposit all his possessions, in gold, silver, and other
articles of value, in a public treasury, which fell under the control of
Bockelson, who soon made himself lord of the city. All the images,
pictures, ornaments, and books of the churches, except their Bibles,
were publicly burned. All persons were obliged to eat together at public
tables, all made to work according to their strength and without regard
to their former station, and a general condition of communism was
established. Bockelson gave himself out as a prophet, and quickly gained
such influence over the people that they were ready to support him in
the utmost excesses of folly and profligacy.
One of the earliest steps taken was to authorize each man to possess
several wives, the number of women who had sought Muenster being six
times greater than the men. John Bockelson set the example by marrying
three at once. His licentious example was quickly followed by others,
and for a full year the town continued a scene of unbridled profligacy
and mad license. One of John's partisans, claiming to have received a
divine communication, saluted him as monarch of the whole globe, the
"King of Righteousness," his title of royalty being "John of Leyden,"
and declared that heaven had chosen him to restore the throne of David.
Twenty-eight apostles were selected and sent out, charged to preach the
new gospel to the whole earth and to bring its inhabitants to
acknowledge the divinely-commissioned king. Their success was not
great, however. Wherever they came they were seized and immediately
executed, the earth showing itself very unwilling to accept John of
Leyden as its king.
In August, 1534, an army, led by Francis of Waldeck, the expelled
bishop, who was supported by the landgrave of Hesse and several other
princes, advanced and laid siege to the city, which the Anabaptists
defended with furious zeal. In the first assault, which was made on
August 30, the assailants were repulsed with severe loss. They then
settled down to the slower but safer process of siege, considering it
easier to starve out than to fight out their enthusiastic opponents.
One of the two leaders of the citizens, John Matthiesen, made a sortie
against the troops with only thirty followers, filled with the idea that
he was a second Gideon, and that God would come to his aid to defeat the
oppressors of His chosen people. The aid expected did not come, and
Matthiesen and his followers were all cut down. His death left John of
Leyden supreme. He claimed absolute authority in the new "Zion,"
received daily fresh visions from heaven, which his followers implicitly
believed and obeyed, and indulged in wild excesses which only the insane
enthusiasm of his followers kept them from viewing with disgust. Among
his mad freaks was that of running around the streets naked, shouting,
"The King of Zion is come." His lieutenant Knipperdolling, not to be
outdone in fanaticism, followed his example, shouting, "Every high place
shall be brought low." Immediately the mob assailed the churches and
pulled down all the steeples. Those who ventured to resist the monarch's
decrees were summarily dealt with, the block and axe, with
Knipperdolling as headsman, quickly disposing of all doubters and
rebels.
Such was the doom of Elizabeth, one of the prophet's wives, who declared
that she could not believe that God had condemned so many people to die
of hunger while their king was living in abundance. John beheaded her
with his own hands in the market-place, and then, in insane frenzy,
danced around her body in company with his other wives. Her loss was
speedily repaired. The angels were kept busy in picking out new wives
for the inspired tailor, till in the end he had seventeen in all, one of
whom, Divara by name, gained great influence by her spirit and beauty.
While all this was going on within the city, the army of besiegers lay
encamped about it, waiting patiently till famine should subdue the
stubborn courage of the citizens. Numbers of nobles flocked thither by
way of pastime, in the absence of any other wars to engage their
attention. Nor were the citizens without aid from a distance. Parties of
their brethren from Holland and Friesland sought to relieve them, but in
vain. All their attempts were repelled, and the siege grew straiter than
ever.
The defence from within was stubborn, women and boys being enlisted in
the service. The boys stood between the men and fired arrows effectively
at the besiegers. The women poured lime and melted pitch upon their
heads. So obstinate was the resistance that the city might have held out
for years but for the pinch of famine. The effect of this was
temporarily obviated by driving all the old men and the women who could
be spared beyond the walls; but despite this the grim figure of
starvation came daily nearer and nearer, and the day of surrender or
death steadily approached.
A year at length went by, the famine growing in virulence with the
passing of the days. Hundreds perished of starvation, yet still the
people held out with a fanatical courage that defied assault, still
their king kept up their courage by divine revelations, and still he
contrived to keep himself sufficiently supplied with food amid his
starving dupes.
At length the end came. Some of the despairing citizens betrayed the
town by night to the enemy. On the night of June 25, 1535, two of them
opened the gates to the bishop's army, and a sanguinary scene ensued.
The betrayed citizens defended themselves desperately, and were not
vanquished until great numbers of them had fallen and the work of famine
had been largely completed by the sword. John of Leyden was made
prisoner, together with his two chief men,--Knipperdolling, his
executioner, and Krechting, his chancellor,--they being reserved for a
slower and more painful fate.
For six months they were carried through Germany, enclosed in iron
cages, and exhibited as monsters to the people. Then they were taken
back to Muenster, where they were cruelly tortured, and at length put to
death by piercing their hearts with red-hot daggers.
Their bodies were placed in iron cages, and suspended on the front of
the church of St. Lambert, in the market-place of Muenster, while the
Catholic worship was re-established in that city. The cages, and the
instruments of torture, are still preserved, probably as salutary
examples to fanatics, or as interesting mementos of Muenster's past
history.
The Muenster madness was the end of trouble with the Anabaptists. They
continued to exist, in a quieter fashion, some of them that fled from
persecution in Germany and Holland finding themselves exposed to almost
as severe a persecution in England. As a sect they have long since
vanished, while the only trace of their influence is to be seen in those
recent sects that hold the doctrine of adult baptism.
The history of mankind presents no parallel tale to that we have told.
It was an instance of insanity placed in power, of lunacy ruling over
ignorance and fanaticism; and the doings of John of Leyden in Muenster
may be presented as an example alike of the mad extremes to which
unquestioned power is apt to lead, and the vast capabilities of faith
and trust which exist in uneducated man.
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While Central and Southern Europe was actively engaged in wars by land, Scandinavia, that nest of pirates, was as actively engaged in wars by sea, sending its armed galleys far to the south, to plunder and burn wherever they could find footing on ... The Railroad In Turkestan
On the 24th of January, 1881, Edward O'Donovan, a daring traveller who had journeyed far through the wastes and wilds of Turkestan, found himself on a mountain summit not far removed from the northern boundary of Persia, from which his startled ey... The Reign Of A Glutton
The death of Nero cut all the reins of order in Rome. Until now, as stated in a preceding tale, some form of hereditary succession had been followed, the emperors being of the family of Caesar, though not his direct descendants. Now confusion reigne... The Reign Of Otho Ii
Otho II., Emperor of Germany,--Otho the Red, as he was called, from his florid complexion,--succeeded to the Western Empire in 973, when in his eighteenth year of age. His reign was to be a short and active one, and attended by adventures and fluc... The Reign Of Taitsong The Great
The history of China differs remarkably from that of Japan in one particular. In the latter a single dynasty of emperors has, from the beginning, held the throne. In the former there have been numerous dynasties, most of them brief, some long extend... The Relief Of Londonderry
Frightful was the state of Londonderry. "No surrender" was the ultimatum of its inhabitants, "blockade and starvation" the threat of the besiegers; the town was surrounded, the river closed, relief seemed hopeless, life, should the furious besiege... The Rescue Of Thebes
On a certain cold and wet evening, in the month of December of the year 379 B.C., seven men, dressed as rustics or hunters, and to all appearance unarmed, though each man had a dagger concealed beneath his clothes, appeared at the gate of Thebes, ... The Retreat Of Napoleon's Grand Army
In the spring of 1812 Napoleon reached the frontiers of Russia at the head of the greatest army that had ever been under his command, it embracing half a million of men. It was not an army of Frenchmen, however, since much more than half the total... The Retreat Of The Ten Thousand
We have now to tell of one of the most remarkable events in Grecian history, to describe how ten thousand Greeks, who found themselves in the heart of the great Persian empire, without a leader and almost without food, marched through the land of ... The Return Of Columbus
In the spring succeeding the fall of Granada there came to Spain a glory and renown that made her the envy of all the nations of Europe. During the year before an Italian mariner, Christopher Columbus by name, after long haunting the camp and cour... The Revenge Of Coriolanus
Caius Marcius, a noble Roman youth, descended from the worthy king Ancus Marcius, fought valiantly when but seventeen years of age in the battle of Lake Regillus, and was there crowned with an oaken wreath, the Roman reward for saving the life of a ... The Revolt Of The Gladiators
At the beginning of the first Punic War, or war with Carthage, a new form of entertainment was introduced into Rome. This was the gladiatorial show, the fights of armed men in the arena, the first of which was given in the year 264 B.C., at the fune... The Revolt Of The People
The overthrow of the kings of Rome did not relieve the people from all their oppression. The inhabitants of that city had long been divided into two great classes, the Patricians, or nobles, and the Plebeians, or common people, and the former held i... The Ring Of Polycrates
Near the coast of Asia Minor lies the bright and beautiful island of Samos, one of the choicest gems of the AEgean archipelago. This island was, somewhere about the year 530 B.C., seized by a political adventurer named Polycrates. He accomplished ... The Rise Of The Manchus
Twice had a Tartar empire been established in China, that of the Kin dynasty in the north, and that of their successors, the Mongols, over the whole country. A third and more permanent Tartar dynasty, that of the Manchus, was yet to come. With the s... The Rival Kings Of Granada
"In the hand of God is the destiny of princes. He alone giveth empire," piously says an old Arabian chronicler, and goes on with the following story: A Moorish horseman, mounted on a fleet Arabian steed, was one day traversing the mountains which ... The Rival Queens
From the days of Clovis to the days of Charles Martel and Charlemagne the history of the Frankish realm, so far as its kingship is concerned, is almost a blank. It was an era of several centuries of incompetent and sluggish monarchs, of whom we can ... The Rivalry Of Tristram And Palamides
When morning again dawned over the forest and the smiling fields that surrounded the castle of Epinegris, the two brothers rode out, taking with them the blessings and prayers for good fortune of those they left behind. But had they known into wha... The Rock Of Gibraltar
The great Mediterranean Sea has its gate-way, nine miles wide, opening into the Atlantic, the gate-posts being the headland of Ceuta, on the African coast, and the famous rock of Gibraltar, in southwestern Spain, two natural fortresses facing each... The Romantic Story Of The Prince Of Tezcuco
About a hundred years before the Spanish conquest of the Aztecs, there reigned over the kingdom of Tezcuco, in the valley of Mexico, a monarch whose history is as interesting and romantic as any that can be found in the annals of Europe. His story... The Royal And Diamond Jubilees Of Queen Victoria
In the year 1887 came a great occasion in the life of England's queen, that of the fiftieth anniversary of her reign, a year of holiday and festivity that extended to all quarters of the world, for the broad girdle of British dominion had during h... The Sabine Virgins
A tract of ground surrounded by walls does not make a city. Men are wanted, and of these the new city of Rome had but few. The band of shepherds who were sufficient to build a wall, or perhaps only a wooden palisade, were not enough to inhabit a cit... The Sacred War
There were two places in Greece which had been set aside as sacred,--Plataea, the scene of the final defeat of the Persian invaders, and Delphi, the seat of the great temple of Apollo, in whose oracles all Greece placed faith. We have already seen... The Sacrifice Of Virginia
In the year 504 B.C. a citizen of Regillum, of much wealth and importance, finding himself at odds with his fellow-citizens, left that city and proceeded to Rome, with a long train of followers, much as the elder Tarquin had come from Tarquinii. His... The Sea Fight In The Waters Of Japan
On the memorable Saturday of May 27, 1905, in far eastern waters in which the guns of war-ships had rarely thundered before, took place an event that opened the eyes of the world as if a new planet had swept into its ken or a great comet had sudde... The Sea-kings And Their Daring Feats
From the word vik, or bay, comes the word viking, long used to designate the sea-rovers of the Northland, the bold Norse wanderers who for centuries made their way to the rich lands of the south on plundering raids. Beginning by darting out suddenly... The Second Conquest Of The Capital Of Mexico
The ancient city of Mexico, the capital of the Aztecs and their Spanish successors, has been the scene of two great military events, its siege and capture by Cortez the conqueror in 1521, and its capture by the American army under General Scott in...