Nine years afterwards, consequences equally disastrous were produced by fanatical leaders of the same sect. In 1534, John Matthias of Haarlem, and John Boccold, who, from his birthplace being Leyden, is generally known as John of Leyden, at the head of their followers, among the most conspicuous of whom were Knipperdolling, and Bernard Rothman, a celebrated preacher, succeeded in making themselves masters of the city of Munster. Though Matthias was originally a baker, and the latter a journeyman tailor, they were unquestionably men of great courage and ability. As soon as they were in possession of the place, the authority was assumed by Matthias, and equality and a community of goods were established, and the name of Munster was changed to that of Mount Sion. The city was soon besieged by its bishop, Count Waldeck. Matthias, who had hitherto displayed considerable skill in his military preparations, now took a step which proved that his reason had wholly deserted him. He determined, in imitation of Gideon, to go forth with only thirty men, and overthrow the besieging host. Of course he and his associates perished.
John of Leyden now became the principal leader. To establish his authority, he pretended to fall into a trance, and have visions. Among the revelations made to him were, that he was to appoint twelve elders of the people, similar to those of the twelve Hebrew tribes, and that the laws of marriage were to be changed, each person being henceforth at liberty to marry as many wives as he chose. Of the latter permission he availed himself to the extent of three wives, one of whom was the widow of Matthias. A new prophet now started up, who was a watchmaker by trade. Charged, as he pretended, with a mission from above, he gathered round him a multitude, and announced it to be the will of Heaven, that John of Leyden should be crowned king of all the earth, and should march at the head of an army to put down princes and unbelievers. John was accordingly enthroned; and, decked in royal ornaments, he held his court in an open part of the city. Among his first acts of sovereignty appears to have been the despatching, in pursuance of a celestial order, twenty-eight missionaries, to spread the doctrines of his sect through the four quarters of the world. The twenty-eight apostles were readily found, and they proceeded to execute his orders. Of these unfortunate enthusiasts all but one endured tortures and death.
The bishop had by this time increased his force to an extent which enabled him to hold the city completely blockaded. The citizens suffered dreadfully from famine and disease; but John of Leyden lost not one jot of his confidence. One of his wives, having incautiously expressed her sympathy for the sufferers, was instantly punished by being beheaded, and her death was celebrated by the multitude with singing and dancing.
During all this time, John of Leyden displayed a degree of firmness, vigilance, and prudence in guarding against the enemy, which did credit to his abilities. Till nearly the end of June 1535, he contrived to hold the blockading army at bay. But the end of his reign was now approaching. Two fugitives gave the bishop information of a vulnerable point; and on the 24th of June a band of picked soldiers effected an entrance into the city. A desperate struggle ensued, and the king and his partisans fought with such desperate courage, that the assailants were on the very verge of defeat, when they contrived to open a gate, and admit the troops from without the walls. Resistance was speedily subdued by overwhelming numbers. Rothman was fortunate enough to fall by the sword; but John of Leyden, Knipperdolling, and another of the leaders, were taken, and died in the most barbarous torments; their flesh was torn from their bones by burning pincers, and their mangled remains were hung up in iron cages.
Passing to the commencement of the eighteenth century, we find a group of pretended prophets, and miracle-workers, perhaps not less fanatical than those which have just been described, but certainly less noxious. They were Protestants, and were known by the appellation of the French prophets. It was towards the latter end of 1706 that they came to England, from the mountains of the Cevennes, where their countrymen had for a considerable time maintained a contest with the troops of the persecuting Louis XIV. As exiles for conscience sake, they were treated with respect and kindness; but they soon forfeited all claim to respect by the folly or knavery of their conduct. Of this group Elias Marion was the prominent figure; the others acting only subordinate parts. He loudly proclaimed that he was the messenger of Heaven, and was authorized to denounce judgments, and to look into futurity. All kinds of arts were employed by Marion and his associates to excite public attention—sudden droppings down as though death-struck; sighs and groans, and then shrieks and vociferations, on recovering; broken sentences, uttered in unearthly tones; violent contortions; and desperate strugglings with the Spirit, followed by submission and repentance; were all brought into the play. The number of the believers in their power soon became considerable. In proportion as they gained partisans, they increased their vaunts of miraculous gifts; and at length they boldly announced that they were invested with power to raise the dead. They even went so far as to try the experiment; and, notwithstanding repeated failures, their besotted followers continued to adhere to them. In vain did the ministers and elders of the French chapel, in the Savoy, declare their pretensions to be blasphemous and dangerous. Far from being deterred by this censure, the prophets grew more strenuous in their exertions to make proselytes, and more daring in their invectives; prophesying daily in the streets to crowds, launching invectives against the ministers of the established church, and predicting heavy judgments on the British metropolis and nation. It was at last thought necessary to put a stop to their career, and they were consequently prosecuted as impostors. They were sentenced to be exposed on a scaffold, at Charing Cross and the Royal Exchange, with a paper declaring their offence; to pay each of them a fine of twenty marks; and to find security for their good behaviour. After a time the sect which they had formed died away, but its ruin was less to be attributed to the punishment of the prophets, or the recovery of reason by their votaries, than by a report which was spread that they were nothing more than the instruments of designing men, who wished to disseminate Socinianism, and destroy orthodoxy.
About twenty years after the freaks of the French prophets had been put down in England, scenes occurred in the French capital which degrade human nature, and appear almost incredible. Those scenes arose out of the contest between the Jansenists and their antagonists, and the dispute respecting the celebrated Bull Unigenitus, which the Jansenists held in abhorrence. One of the oppugners of the bull was the deacon Paris, a pious and charitable man, whose scruples on the subject prevented him from taking priest’s orders, and who relinquished his patrimony to his younger brother, and lived by making stockings, the gains arising from which humble occupation he shared with the poor.
His benevolence, his piety, and his austere life, gained for him admiration and affection; and when he died, in 1727, his grave in the churchyard of St. Medard was visited by crowds, as that of a saint. Some of his votaries, who were diseased or infirm, soon began to imagine that a miracle was worked on them by the influence of the blessed deceased. Blind eyes were said to be restored to their faculty of seeing, and contracted limbs to be elongated. As faith increased, cures increased, and so did the multitudes which thronged from all parts, and consisted of the highest as well as the lowest ranks. The votaries now began to exhibit the most violent convulsionary movements, and to utter groans, shrieks, and cries. As such movements are readily propagated by sympathy, the number of persons affected grew daily greater. At length, the matter beginning to wear a serious aspect, the government shut up the churchyard; a proceeding which gave birth to a witty but somewhat profane distich, which was written upon the gate:
“De par le Roi, defense à Dieu
De faire miracle en ce lieu.”