German Culture Past and Present

E >> Ernest Belfort Bax >> German Culture Past and Present

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The Peasants' War in Germany we have been considering is the last
great mediaeval uprising of the agrarian classes in Europe. Its result
was, with some few exceptions, a riveting of the peasant's chains and
an increase of his burdens. More than 1,000 castles and religious
houses were destroyed in Germany alone during 1525. Many priceless
works of mediaeval art of all kinds perished. But we must not allow our
regret at such vandalism to blind us in any way to the intrinsic
righteousness of the popular demands.

The elements of revolution now became absorbed by the Anabaptist
movement, a continuation primarily in the religious sphere of the
doctrines of the Zwickau enthusiasts and also in many respects of
Thomas Muenzer. At first Northern Switzerland, especially the towns of
Basel and Zuerich, were the headquarters of the new sect, which,
however, spread rapidly on all sides. Persecution of the direst
description did not destroy it. On the contrary, it seemed only to
have the effect of evoking those social and revolutionary elements
latent within it which were at first overshadowed by more purely
theological interests. As it was, the hopes and aspirations of the
"common man" revived this time in a form indissolubly associated with
the theocratic commonwealth, the most prominent representative of
which during the earlier movement had been Thomas Muenzer.

But, notwithstanding resemblances, it is utterly incorrect, as has
sometimes been done, to describe any of the leaders of the great
peasant rebellion of 1525 as Anabaptists. The Anabaptist sect, it is
true, originated in Switzerland during the rising, but it was then
confined to a small coterie of unknown enthusiasts, holding
semi-private meetings in Zuerich. It was from these small beginnings
that the great Anabaptist movement of ten years later arose. It is
directly from them that the Anabaptist movement of history dates its
origin. Movements of a similar character, possessing a strong family
likeness, belong to the mental atmosphere of the time in Germany. The
so-called Zwickau prophets, for example, Nicholas Storch and his
colleagues, seem in their general attitude to have approached very
closely to the principles of the Anabaptist sectaries. But even here
it is incorrect to regard them, as has often been done, as directly
connected with the latter; still more as themselves the germ of the
Anabaptist party of the following years. Thomas Muenzer, the only
leader of the movement of 1525 who seems to have been acquainted with
the Zuerich enthusiasts, was by no means at one with them on many
points, notably refusing to attach any importance to their special
sign, rebaptism. Chief among the Zuerich coterie may be mentioned
Konrad Grebel, at whose house the sect first of all assembled. At
first the Anabaptist movement at Zuerich was regarded as an extreme
wing of the party of the Church reformer, Zwingli, in that city, but
it was not long before it broke off entirely from the latter, and
hostilities, ensuing in persecution for the new party, broke out.

To understand the true inwardness of the Anabaptist and similar
movements, it is necessary to endeavour to think oneself back into the
intellectual conditions of the period. The Biblical text itself, now
everywhere read and re-read in the German language, was pondered and
discussed in the house of the handicraftsman and in the hut of the
peasant, with as much confidence of interpretation as in the study of
the professional theologian. But there were also not a few of the
latter order, as we have seen, who were becoming disgusted with the
trend of the official Reformation and its leading representatives. The
Bible thus afforded a _point d'appui_ for the mystical tendencies now
becoming universally prominent--a _point d'appui_ lacking to the
earlier movements of the same kind that were so constantly arising
during the Middle Ages proper. Seen in the dim religious light of a
continuous reading of the Bible and of very little else, the world
began to appear in a new aspect to the simple soul who practised it.
All things seemed filled with the immediate presence of Deity. He who
felt a call pictured himself as playing the part of the Hebrew
prophet. He gathered together a small congregation of followers, who
felt themselves as the children of God in the midst of a heathen
world. Did not the fall of the old Church mean that the day was at
hand when the elect should govern the world? It was not so much
positive doctrines as an attitude of mind that was the ruling spirit
in Anabaptism and like movements. Similarly, it was undoubtedly such a
sensitive impressionism rather than any positive dogma that dominated
the first generation of the Christian Church itself. How this acted
in the case of the earlier Anabaptists we shall presently see.

The new Zuerich sect, by one of those seemingly inscrutable chances in
similar cases of which history is full, not only prospered greatly but
went forth conquering and to conquer. It spread rapidly northward,
eastward, and westward. In the course of its victorious career it
absorbed into itself all similar tendencies and local groups and
movements having like aims to itself. As was natural under such
circumstances, we find many different strains in the developed
Anabaptist movement. The theologian Bullinger wrote a book on the
subject, in which he enumerates thirteen distinct sects, as he terms
them, in the Anabaptist body. The general tenets of the organization,
as given by Bullinger, may be summarized as follows: They regard
themselves as the true Church of Christ well pleasing to God; they
believe that by rebaptism a man is received into the Church; they
refuse to hold intercourse with other Churches or to recognize their
ministers; they say that the preachings of these are different from
their works, that no man is the better for their preaching, that their
ministers follow not the teaching of Paul, that they take payment from
their benefices, but do not work by their hands; that the Sacraments
are improperly served, and that every man, who feels the call, has
the right to preach; they maintain that the literal text of the
Scriptures shall be accepted without comment or the additions of
theologians; they protest against the Lutheran doctrine of
justification by faith alone; they maintain that true Christian love
makes it inconsistent for any Christian to be rich, but that among the
Brethren all things should be in common, or, at least, all available
for the assistance of needy Brethren and for the common cause; that
the attitude of the Christian towards authority should be that of
submission and endurance only; that no Christian ought to take office
of any kind, or to take part in any form of military service; that
secular authority has no concern with religious belief; that the
Christian resists no evil and therefore needs no law courts nor should
ever make use of their tribunals; that Christians do not kill or
punish with imprisonment or the sword, but only with exclusion from
the body of believers; that no man should be compelled by force to
believe, nor should any be slain on account of his faith; that infant
baptism is sinful and that adult baptism is the only Christian
baptism--baptism being a sacrament which should be reserved for the
elect alone.

Such seem to represent the doctrines forming the common ground of the
Anabaptist groups as they existed at the end of the second decade of
the fifteenth century. There were, however, as Heinrich Bullinger and
his contemporary, Sebastian Franck, point out, numerous divergencies
between the various sections of the party. Many of these recalled
other mediaeval heretic sects, e.g. the Cathari, the Brothers and
Sisters of the Spirit, the Bohemian Brethren, etc.

For the first few years of its existence Anabaptism remained true to
its original theologico-ethical principles. The doctrine of
non-resistance was strictly adhered to. The Brethren believed in
themselves as the elect, and that they had only to wait in prayer and
humility for the "advent of Christ and His saints," the "restitution
of all things," the "establishment of the Kingdom of God upon earth,"
or by whatever other phrase the dominant idea of the coming change was
expressed. During the earlier years of the movement the Anabaptists
were peaceable and harmless fanatics and visionaries. In some cases,
as in Moravia, they formed separate communities of their own, some of
which survived as religious sects long after the extinction of the
main movement.

In the earlier years of the fourth decade of the century, however, a
change came over a considerable section of the movement. In Central
and South-eastern Germany, notably in the Moravian territories,
barring isolated individuals here and there, the Anabaptist party
continued to maintain its attitude of non-resistance and the
voluntariness of association which characterized it at first. The
fearful waves of persecution, however, which successively swept over
it were successful at last in partially checking its progress. At
length the only places in this part of the empire where it succeeded
in retaining any effective organization was in the Moravian
territories, where persecution was less strong and the communities
more closely knit together than elsewhere. Otherwise persecution had
played sad havoc with the original Anabaptist groups throughout
Central Europe.

Meanwhile a movement had sprung up in Western and Northern Germany,
following the course of the Rhine Valley, that effectually threw the
older movement of Southern and Eastern Germany into the background.
These earlier movements remained essentially religious and
theological, owing, as Cornelius points out (_Muensterische Aufruhr_,
vol. ii. p. 74), to the fact that they came immediately after the
overthrow of the great political movement of 1552. But although the
older Anabaptism did not itself take political shape, it succeeded in
keeping alive the tendencies and the enthusiasm out of which, under
favourable circumstances, a political movement inevitably grows. The
result was, as Cornelius further observes, an agitation of such a
sweeping character that the fourth decade of the sixteenth century
seemed destined to realize the ideals which the third decade had
striven for in vain.

The new direction in Anabaptism began in the rich and powerful
Imperial city of Strassburg, where peculiar circumstances afforded the
Brethren a considerable amount of toleration. It was in the year 1526
that Anabaptism first made its appearance in Strassburg. It was
Anabaptism of the original type and conducted on the old
theologico-ethical lines. But early in the year 1529 there arrived in
Strassburg a much-travelled man, a skinner by trade, by name Melchior
Hoffmann. He had been an enthusiastic adherent of the Reformation, and
it was not long before he joined the Strassburg Anabaptists and made
his mark in their community. Owing to his personal magnetism and
oratorical gifts, Melchior soon came to be regarded as a specially
ordained prophet and to have acquired corresponding influence. After a
few months Hoffmann seems to have left Strassburg for a propagandist
tour along the Rhine. The tour, apparently, had great success, the
Baptist communities being founded in all important towns as far as
Holland, in which latter country the doctrines spread rapidly. The
Anabaptism, however, taught by Melchior and his disciples did not
include the precept of patient submission to wrong which was such a
prominent characteristic of its earlier phase.

Some time after his reception into the Anabaptist body at Strassburg,
Hoffmann, while in most other points accepting the prevalent doctrines
of the Brethren, broke entirely loose from the doctrine of
non-resistance, maintaining, in theory at least, the right of the
elect to employ the sword against the worldly authorities, "the
godless," "the enemies of the saints." It was predicted, he
maintained, that a two-edged sword should be given into the hands of
the saints to destroy the "mystery of iniquity," the existing
principalities and powers, and the time was now at hand when this
prophecy should be fulfilled. The new movement in the North-west, in
the lower Rhenish districts, and the adjacent Westphalia sprang up and
extended itself, therefore, under the domination of this idea of the
reign of the saints in the approaching millennium and of the notion
that passive non-resistance, whilst for the time being a duty, only
remained so until the coming of the Lord should give the signal for
the saints to rise and join in the destruction of the kingdoms of
this world and the inauguration of the Kingdom of God on earth.
Hoffmann's whole learning seems to have been limited to the Bible, but
this he knew from cover to cover. A diffusion of Luther's translation
of the Bible had produced a revolution. The poorer classes, who were
able to read at all, pored over the Bible, together with such popular
tracts or pamphlets commenting thereon, or treating current social
questions in the light of Biblical story and teaching, as came into
their hands. The followers of the new movement in question acquired
the name of Melchiorites. Hoffmann now published a book explanatory of
his ideas, called _The Ordinance of God_, which had an enormous
popularity. It was followed up by other writings, amplifying and
defending the main thesis it contained.

Outwardly the Melchiorite communities of the North-west had the same
peaceful character as those of South Germany and Moravia, holding as
they did in the main the same doctrines. It was ominous, however, that
Melchior Hoffmann was proclaimed as the prophet Elijah returned
according to promise. Up to 1533 Strassburg continued to be regarded
as the chief seat of Anabaptism, especially by Melchior and his
disciples. It was, they declared, to be the New Jerusalem, from which
the saints should march out to conquer the world. Melchior, on his
return journey to Strassburg from his journey northwards, proclaimed
the end of 1533 as the date of the second advent and the inauguration
of the reign of the saints. Owing to the excitement among the poorer
population of the town consequent upon Hoffmann's preaching, the
prophet was arrested and imprisoned in one of the towers of the city
wall. But 1533 came and went without the Lord or His saints appearing,
while poor Hoffmann remained confined in the tower of the city wall.

Meanwhile the new Anabaptism spread and fermented along the Rhine, and
especially in Holland. In the latter country its chief exponent was a
master baker at Harleem, by name Jan Matthys, who seems to have been a
born leader of men. While preaching essentially the same doctrines as
Hoffmann, with Matthys a Holy War, in a literal sense, was placed in
the forefront of his teaching. With him there was to be no delay. It
was the duty of all the Brethren to show their zeal by at once seizing
the sword of sharpness and mowing down the godless therewith. In this
sense Matthys completed the transformation begun by Hoffmann. Melchior
had indeed rejected the non-resistance doctrine in its absolute form,
but he does not appear in his teaching to have uniformly emphasized
the point, and certainly did not urge the destruction of the godless
as an immediate duty to be fulfilled without delay. With him was
always the suggestion, expressed or implied, of waiting for the signal
from heaven, the coming of the Lord, before proceeding to action. With
Matthys there was no need for waiting, even for a day; the time was
not merely at hand, it had already come. His influence among the
Brethren was immense. If Melchior Hoffmann had been Elijah, Jan
Matthys was Elisha, who should bring his work to a conclusion.

Among Matthys' most intimate followers was Jan Bockelson, from Leyden.
Bockelson was a handsome and striking figure. He was the illegitimate
son of one Bockel, a merchant and Buergermeister of Saevenhagen, by a
peasant woman from the neighbourhood of Muenster, who was in his
service. After Jan's birth Bockel married the woman and bought her her
freedom from the villein status that was hers by heredity. Jan was
taught the tailoring handicraft at Leyden, but seems to have received
little schooling. His natural abilities, however, were considerable,
and he eagerly devoured the religious and propagandist literature of
the time. Amongst other writings the pamphlets of Thomas Muenzer
especially fascinated him. He travelled a good deal, visiting Mechlin
and working at his trade for four years in London. Returning home, he
threw himself into the Anabaptist agitation, and, scarcely twenty-five
years old, he was won over to the doctrines of Jan Matthys. The latter
with his younger colleague welded the Anabaptist communities in
Holland and the adjacent German territories into a well-organized
federation. They were more homogeneous in theory than those of
Southern and Eastern Germany, being practically all united on the
basis of the Hoffmann-Matthys propaganda.

The episcopal town of Muenster, in Westphalia, like other places in the
third decade of the sixteenth century, became strongly affected by the
Reformation. But that the ferment of the time was by no means wholly
the outcome of religious zeal, as subsequent historians have persisted
in representing it, was recognized by the contemporary heads of the
official Reformation. Thus, writing to Luther under date August 29,
1530, his satellite, Melanchthon, has the candour to admit that the
Imperial cities "care not for religion, for their endeavour is only
toward domination and freedom." As the principal town of Westphalia at
this time may be reckoned the chief city of the bishopric of Muenster,
this important ecclesiastical principality was held "immediately of
the empire." It had as its neighbours Ost-Friesland, Oldenburg, the
bishopric of Osnabrueck, the county of Marck, and the duchies of Berg
and Cleves. Its territory was half the size of the present province of
Westphalia, and was divided into the upper and lower diocese, which
were separated by the territory of Fecklenburg. The bishop was a
prince of the empire and one of the most important magnates of
North-western Germany, but in ecclesiastical matters he was under the
Archbishop of Koeln. The diocese had been founded by Charles the Great.

Owing to a succession of events, beginning in 1529, which for those
interested we may mention may be found discussed in full detail in
_The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists_ (124-71), by the present
writer, the extreme wing of the Reformation party had early gained the
upper hand in the city, and subsequently became fused with the native
Anabaptists, who were soon reinforced by their co-religionists from
the country round, as well as from the not far distant Holland; for it
should be said that the Dutch followers of Hoffmann and Matthys had
been energetic in carrying their faith into the towns of Westphalia as
elsewhere. Without entering in detail into the events leading up to
it, it is sufficient for our purpose to state that by a perfectly
lawful election, held on February 23, 1534, the Government of Muenster
was reconstituted and the Anabaptists obtained supreme political
power. Hearing of the way things were going in Muenster, Matthys and
his followers had already taken up their abode in the city a little
time before. The cathedral and other churches were stormed and sacked
during the following days, while all official documents and charters
dealing with the feudal relations of the town were given to the flames
during the ensuing month. Both the moderate Protestant (Lutheran) and
the Catholic burghers who had remained were indignant at the acts of
destruction committed, and openly expressed their opposition. The
result was their expulsion from the city; the condition of being
allowed to remain became now the consent to rebaptism and the formal
adoption of Anabaptist principles.

Muenster now took the place Strassburg had previously held as the
rallying point of the Anabaptist faithful, whence a crusade against
the Powers of the world was to issue forth. The Government of Muenster,
though it officially consisted of the two Buergermeisters and the new
Council, to a man all zealous Anabaptists, left the real power and
initiative in all measures in the hands of Jan Matthys and of his
disciple, Jan Bockelson, of Leyden. The reign of the saints was now
fairly begun. Various attempts at an organized communism were made,
but these appear to have been only partially successful. One day Jan
Matthys with twenty companions, in an access of fanatical devotion,
made a sortie from the town towards the bishop's camp. Needless to
say, the party were all killed. The great leader dead, Jan Bockelson
became naturally the chief of the city and head of the movement.

Bockelson proved in every way a capable successor to Matthys. A new
Constitution was now given by Bockelson and the Dutchmen, acting as
his prophets and preachers. It was embodied in thirty-nine articles,
and one of its chief features was the transference of power to twelve
elders, the number being suggested by the twelve tribes of Israel. The
idea of reliving the life of the "chosen people," as depicted in the
Old Testament, showed itself in various ways, amongst others by the
notorious edict establishing polygamy. This measure, however, as Karl
Kautsky has shown, there is good reason for thinking was probably
induced by the economic necessity of the time, and especially by the
enormous excess of the female over the male population of the city.
Otherwise the Muensterites, like the Anabaptists generally, gave
evidence of favouring asceticism in sexual matters.

Considerations of space prevent us from going into further detail of
the inner life of Muenster under the Anabaptist regime during the siege
at the hands of its overlord, the prince-bishop. This will be found
given at length in the work already mentioned. As time went on famine
began to attack the city.

It is sufficient for our purpose to state that on the night of June 24,
1535, the city was betrayed and that in a few hours the free-lances of
the bishop were streaming in through all the gates. The street fighting
was desperate; the Anabaptists showed a desperate courage, even women
joining in the struggle, hurling missiles from the windows upon their
foes beneath. By midday on the 25th the city of Muenster, the New Zion,
passed over once more into the power of its feudal lord, Franz von
Waldeck, and the reign of the saints had come to an end. The vengeance
of the conquerors was terrible; all alike, irrespective of age or sex,
were involved in an indiscriminate butchery. The three leaders,
Bockelson, Krechting, and Knipperdollinck, after being carried round
captives as an exhibition through the surrounding country, were, some
months afterwards, on January 22, 1536, executed, after being most
horribly tortured. Their bodies were subsequently suspended in three
cages from the top of the tower of the Lamberti church. The three cages
were left undisturbed until a few years ago, when the old tower, having
become structurally unsafe, was pulled down and replaced, with
questionable taste, by an ordinary modern steeple, on which, however,
the original cages may still be seen. A papal legate, sent on a mission
to Muenster shortly after the events in question, relates that as he and
his retinue neared the latter town "more and more gibbets and wheels
did we see on the highways and in the villages, where the false
prophets and Anabaptists had suffered for their sins."

The Muenster incident was the culmination of the Anabaptist movement.
After the catastrophe the militant section rapidly declined. It did
not die out, however, until towards the end of the century. The last
we hear of it was in 1574, when a formidable insurrection took place
again in Westphalia, under the leadership of one Wilhelmson, the son
of one of the escaped Anabaptist preachers of Muenster. The movement
lasted for five years. It was finally suppressed and Wilhelmson burned
alive at Cleves on March 5, 1580. Meanwhile, soon after the fall of
Muenster, the party split asunder, a moderate section forming, which
shortly after came under the leadership of Menno Simon. This section,
which soon became the majority of the party, under the name of
Mennonites, settled down into a mere religious sect. In fact, towards
the end of the sixteenth century the Anabaptist communities on the
continent of Europe, from Moravia on the one hand to the extreme
North-west of Germany on the other, showed a tendency to develop into
law-abiding and prosperous religious organizations, in many cases
being officially recognized by the authorities.

The Anabaptist revolt of the fourth decade of the sixteenth century,
though it may be regarded partly as a continuation or recrudescence,
showed some differences from the peasant revolt of some years
previously. The peasant rebellion, which reached its zenith in 1525,
was predominantly an agrarian movement, notwithstanding that it had
had its echo among the poorer classes of the towns. The Anabaptist
movement proper, which culminated in the Muenster "reign of the saints"
in 1534-5, was predominantly a townsman's movement, notwithstanding
that it had a considerable support from among the peasantry. The
Anabaptists' leaders were not, as in the case of the Peasants' War,
in the main drawn from the class of the "man that wields the hoe" (to
paraphrase the phraseology of the time); they were tailors, smiths,
bakers, shoemakers, or carpenters. They belonged, in short, to the
class of the organized handicraftsmen and journeymen who worked within
city walls. A prominent figure in both movements was, however, the
ex-priest or teacher. The ideal, or, if you will, the Utopian, element
in the movement of Melchior Hoffmann, Jan Matthys, and Jan
Bockelson--the element which expressed the social discontent of the
time in the guise of its prevalent theological conceptions--now
occupied the first place, while in the earlier movement it was merely
sporadic.

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