For fictional writers and political theorists, Münster has something for everyone. Later sympathetic communists and some Mennonites have argued that the sources themselves added in the more salacious details. It’s certainly a possibility for some of the anecdotes, but not all of them. On the other end of the spectrum from the apologists have been […]
Read more "The Legacy of Anabaptist Münster"Over the next six months the Anabaptist leaders were alternately subjected to rounds of theological questioning and torture. As Franz von Waldeck picked through the ashes of Münster, it was not enough to defeat Jan van Leiden, they had to actually get him to repent his beliefs. The task fell to a team of inquisitors […]
Read more "Look on my works, ye mighty"In May, Henry Gresbeck finally decided to try his own chances at fleeing. In letters written back to his liege lord, he painted a picture of himself as a reluctant Anabaptist from the start, having come to Münster “for the sake of my poor mother, and for the sake of my possessions that I had”.[1] […]
Read more "The End is (Actually) Nigh"By early winter, the city was truly feeling the pinch of the siege. While King Jan’s inner circle and the city’s guards continued to eat well, everyone else was running out of food. Hoping for a Christmas Miracle Jan opted to try his apostle’s trick a third time in December. Reasoning that numbers had just […]
Read more "Christmas Miracles, Easter Resurrections"
Bartered History 