Radical Anabaptists seize Münster, proclaim the New Jerusalem, and institute polygamy and community of goods before the city falls and its leaders are tortured to death; the catastrophe discredits the movement's revolutionary wing and drives its survivors toward pacifism.
Tagged: Anabaptist Christian
The Event
- Date
- 1534-1535 (exact)
- Era
- Reformation; Standard ecumenical periodization
- Location
- Münster; today Münster, Germany
- Traditions
- Christianity
- Streams
- Anabaptist
- Key figures
- Jan Matthys, John of Leiden, Bernhard Rothmann
Primary Sources
- Hermann von Kerssenbrock, Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness
Secondary Sources
- González, The Story of Christianity, vols. 1–2 (Harper, 2010)
- MacCulloch, A History of Christianity (Allen Lane, 2009)
Provenance: HIST-0067; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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