We have elsewhere seen how some countries and towns more or less recently reformed, had felt the need of union after the decree of the diet of Augsburg, of 1530, and had formed at Smalcalde, March 29, 1531, an alliance for six years, by which they engaged to defend each other.[501] Under these circumstances, and considering that the Sultan Solyman was advancing towards Austria with an immense army, the Emperor had determined to treat with the Protestants, and the religious peace of Nürnberg was concluded, July 23, 1532. The leaguers of Smalcalde, nevertheless, were still subject to molestation, for various reasons, by the tribunals of the Empire. The landgrave of Hesse, by a bold measure, re-established the Protestant duke, Ulrich of Würtemberg, in his dominions, thus opening them to the Reformation and increasing the power of the League of Smalcalde.[502]
CHAPTER III.
THE TRIUMPH OF THE ANABAPTISTS OF MUNSTER.
(1533.)
Unfortunately, there was going on at this time a fanatical movement, which the Roman Catholics were fain to turn to account against the Reformation, but which in truth furnished no ground of reproach against it; for the attitude of the Reformation towards the fanatics was chiefly one of resistance and suppression. When after a long winter the springtide comes again, it is not only the good seed which grows up, but weeds too appear in abundance. It could not happen otherwise in this new springtide of the church, which is called the Reformation. The mightiest power of the Middle Ages—the Papacy—was assailed. In place of the opinions which it had professed and imposed on the world for centuries, the reformers presented evangelical doctrine. It was easy to understand that not all who rejected the views of the Roman pontiffs would accept those of the reformers, but that many would invent or adopt others.
There was a diversity of doctrines, and sometimes, even within the limits of a single party, all manner of opinions. This was the case with the so-called Spirituals, who have been erroneously named Anabaptists, for opposition to infant baptism, so far from being their distinctive doctrine, was hardly their badge. They held in general the power for good of the natural will (free-will). Haetzer denied the divinity of Christ, and led a bad life. Many of them said, 'Christ took nothing of human nature from his mother, for the Adamic nature is accursed.' There were some who looked upon the observance of Sunday as an antichristian practice. These fanatics fancied themselves alone to be the children of God, and like the Israelites of old believed that they were called to exterminate the wicked. One of this sect, Melchior Hoffmann, after being in turn in kings' courts and in ignominious imprisonment, went into Alsace, supposing that at Strasburg the new Jerusalem was to come down from heaven, and that from this town would go forth the messengers charged to gather together God's elect. Almost all of them expected that the end of the world was very near at hand, and some even fixed the day and the hour.
BERNARD ROTTMANN.
These fanatics, in consequence of the persecution to which they were subjected in South Germany, in Switzerland, and in Holland, turned their steps towards the regions bordering on the Rhine, where more freedom was to be enjoyed, and where the Reformation was not yet thoroughly organized. Munster, in Westphalia, was a strong town, fortified with a citadel, and the seat of a bishop, with a cathedral, and a numerous body of clergy. Near the town stood a church dedicated to St. Maurice; here a false reformer preached a false reformation. This preacher was one Bernard Rottmann, a fiery man, eloquent and daring, who had to some extent apprehended the reformed doctrine, but whose heart remained unaffected by it. As he used to deliver fine discourses, the townspeople flocked to hear him; and at length requested that he should be called into Munster. Some influential men among the Roman Catholics, acquainted with the man, and anxious to avoid any disturbance, offered him money to go away.[503] Rottmann accepted the money and took his departure, thus giving the measure of his faith and zeal. He then visited several towns and universities in Germany, but made no stay anywhere, and in the course of a few months returned to Munster. Some of the citizens and the populace, who were very fond of listening to his declamation, joyfully welcomed him; but the bishop and the clergy were opposed to his preaching in the churches. His partisans now set up a pulpit for him in the market-place, and his hearers increased in number daily. Two pastors from Hesse, taking Rottmann for a minister of good standing, joined him, and drew up a statement of the errors of Rome in thirty-one articles, and submitted it to the council. The priests were then assembled at the town-hall, and the council laid the document before them. 'This is indeed our doctrine,' they said, 'but we are not prepared to defend it.' They were consequently deprived. The bishop, who had quitted Munster, resolved to cut off the supply of food to the town—a measure not exactly within a pastor's function, whose call is to feed his flock. The townsmen, provoked, arrested most of the canons and the priests and imprisoned them; and it was arranged in 1533, that evangelical doctrine should be preached in the six churches of the town, and that the old abuses should be no longer allowed except in the cathedral.[504]
Among the most respected inhabitants of Munster was the syndic Wiggers, whose wife, continually followed by a host of admirers, was a person of doubtful character. She had a great admiration for Rottmann, and, clever woman as she was, knew how to captivate him. Her husband died shortly afterwards, and the rumor was spread that she had poisoned him.[505] This is, however, uncertain. Whatever the fact may be, Rottmann married her, and thus showed again, that although he was a preacher of the Gospel, he did not practise it. Honorable men now withdrew from his society. This circumstance, with others, drove him to take an extreme course.