Thomas Müntzer, in an 18th century engraving by C. Van Sichem. No contemporary image of the reformer exists.

Thomas Muentzer (actually Müntzer) (1489 or 1490–27 May 1525) was an early Reformation-era German pastor who was a rebel leader during the Peasants' War. Cf. Radical Reformation, Protestant reformers. Image File history File links from en. ... Image File history File links from en. ... Events March 14 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. ... Events Tirant Lo Blanc by Joanot Martorell, Martí Joan De Galba is published. ... May 27 is the 147th day (148th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 218 days remaining. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... The Protestant Reformation was a movement which began in the 16th century as a series of attempts to reform the Roman Catholic Church, but ended in division and the establishment of new institutions, most importantly Lutheranism, Reformed churches, and Anabaptists. ... A pastor is a minister or priest of a Christian church. ... Peasants War map. ... The Radical Reformation was a 16th century response to both the perceived corruption in the Roman Catholic Church and the expanding Protestant movement led by Martin Luther. ... The Protestant Reformation, begun 1517 with the nailing of Martin Luthers 95 theses to a church door in Wittenberg, divided the Roman Catholic Church and created the Protestant branch of churches. ...

Early life

Müntzer was born in the small village of Stolberg in the Hartz Mountains, Thuringia (what is now central Germany), in about 1489. Thomas Müntzer initially studied for the priesthood, earning the MA degree and completing the Baccalaureus biblicus. He became versed in the Greek, Hebrew and Latin languages. After ordination in 1513 he became a priest at St. Michael's in Braunschweig in May 1514. The Harz is a mountain range in northern Germany. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany and is considered one of the smaller of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 km² and 2. ... Events March 14 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. ... “Hebrew” redirects here. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ... 1513 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Coordinates: Time zone: CET/CEST (UTC+1/+2) Administration Country: Germany State: Lower Saxony District: Urban district City subdivisions: 20 Boroughs Lord Mayor: Gert Hoffmann (CDU) Governing parties: CDU / FDP Basic Statistics Area: 192. ... 1514 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

From 1517-19 Müntzer stayed in Wittenberg and was influenced by Andreas Karlstadt and Martin Luther, agreeing with their opposition to the Roman Catholic church's sale of indulgences and its priests' abusive use of power. Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt (1486 – December 24, 1541), better known as Andreas Karlstadt, was a Christian theologian during the Protestant Reformation. ... Martin Luther (November 10, 1483 – February 18, 1546) was a German monk,[1] priest, professor, theologian, and church reformer. ...

Increasing radicalism

In May 1520, Müntzer became a pastor in Zwickau in Saxony in 1520 on Luther's recommendation.^{[citation needed]} In 1521 and 1522, however, the growing divide between Luther and Müntzer’s beliefs became apparent, as Müntzer developed his anti-intellectualism further and rejected infant baptism.^{[citation needed]} Zwickau is a city of Germany, in the Bundesland Saxony (Sachsen), situated in a valley at the foot of the Erzgebirge, on the left bank of the Zwickauer Mulde, 130 km (82 miles) southwest of Dresden, south of Leipzig and south west of Chemnitz. ... The Free State of Saxony (German: Freistaat Sachsen; Sorbian: Swobodny Stat Sakska) is the easternmost federal state of Germany. ... mary elline m. ...

The Zwickau authorities expelled Müntzer in April 1521. He fled to Prague. He was initially feted in the town when he arrived in June, welcomed as a follower of Luther, with accommodation provided for him and invitations to preach in Latin and German in the University chapels. For unknown reasons, however, by November he was far less welcome in the town. That month he wrote the Prague Manifesto. This survives in 4 different versions in German and Latin, and is an angry, anticlerical, apocalyptic work. Events January 3 - Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther in the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem. ...

In December 1521, Muntzer left Prague. He spent 1522 moving about, not staying in many places. In March 1523 he became pastor at Allstedt, a town of around 900 people in an enclave of Electoral Saxony in Thuringia. In June 1523 he married a former nun, Ottilie von Gerson. In November he was interrogated by George Spalatin and Frederick the Wise. Luther pressed for a private confrontation in Wittenberg, but Müntzer wanted a more public disputation, and nothing happened. In December 1523, Müntzer produced the first completely German liturgy, the Order of German Church Service, for use in Allstedt. Events April - Battle of Villalar - Forces loyal to Emperor Charles V defeat the Comuneros, a league of urban bourgeois rebelling against Charles in Spain. ... George Spalatin, the name taken by George Burkhardt (January 17, 1484 - January 16, 1545), an important figure in the history of the Reformation, who was born at Spalt (whence he assumed the name Spalatinus), near Nuremberg, where his father was a tanner. ... Friedrich III (January 17, 1463 — May 5, 1525), also known as Frederick the Wise, was Elector of Saxony (from the House of Wettin) from 1486 to his death. ...

On 13 July 1524, Müntzer apparently delivered his Sermon to the Princes, a sermon allegedly given to Duke John of Saxony and his advisors in Allstedt, though the circumstances surrounding this event are unclear. The sermon focuses on Daniel 2, a chapter in which Daniel, hostage in Babylon, becomes an adviser to the king because of his ability to interpret dreams. In the sermon, Müntzer presents himself as a new Daniel to interpret the dreams of the princes to them. He interpreted Daniel 2:44 as speaking of the kingdom of God that would consume all earthly kingdoms. Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... Daniel (Hebrew: , Standard Tiberian  ; Arabic: دانيال, Danyal) is a figure appearing in the Hebrew Bible and the central protagonist of the Book of Daniel. ... Daniel (Hebrew: , Standard Tiberian  ; Arabic: دانيال, Danyal) is a figure appearing in the Hebrew Bible and the central protagonist of the Book of Daniel. ...

Probably as a result of this event, combined with Luther's Letter to the Princes of early July 1524 which attacked Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt, Müntzer and others from Allstedt were called to a hearing at Weimar with Duke John of Saxony on 31 July or 1 August. He decided that the printing press at Allstedt was to be shut down. Müntzer fled Allstedt soon after. Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt (1486 – December 24, 1541), better known as Andreas Karlstadt, was a Christian theologian during the Protestant Reformation. ...

Peasants' War

In August 1524, Müntzer became one of the leaders of the uprising later known as the Peasants' War. One of his battle cries was Omnia sunt communia, all things are common. After fleeing Allstedt, he arrived in the imperial city of Mühlhausen in Thuringia. In mid-September, he and his associate Heinrich Pfeiffer took advantage of long-standing tensions between the middling craftsmen and city council to produce the Eleven Mühlhausen Articles, which called for the dissolution of the existing town council and the formation of an "eternal council" based on divine justice and the Word of God. Copies of this were sent to the peasantry in the surrounding villages, but support did not materialise, apparently because the article expressed predominantly urban grievances which did not address peasant needs. On 27 September 1524, Müntzer and Pfeiffer were expelled from Mühlhausen. Events March 1, 1524/5 - Giovanni da Verrazano lands near Cape Fear (approx. ... Peasants War map. ... The term Imperial City can refer to several cities: An Imperial Free City of the Holy Roman Empire, a city formally responsible to the emperor only Imperial City (Beijing), usually refers to the central section of the city of Bejing that is known for its collections of gardens, palaces, shrines... Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state Thuringia, Germany. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany and is considered one of the smaller of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 km² and 2. ...

Müntzer spent late 1524 in Nuremberg, but in mid-February was able to return to Mühlhausen. The following month, the citizenry voted out the old council and a new "Eternal League of God" was formed, composed of a cross-section of the male population and some former councillors.

Müntzer led a group of about 8000 peasants at the battle of Frankenhausen (15 May 1525) against political and spiritual oppression, convinced that God would intervene on their side. Utterly defeated, captured, imprisoned and tortured, Müntzer recanted and accepted the Roman Catholic mass prior to his beheading in Mühlhausen in Thuringia on May 27, 1525. His head and body were displayed as a warning to all those who might again preach treasonous doctrines. Peasants War map. ... May 15 is the 135th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (136th in leap years). ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ... Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state Thuringia, Germany. ... The Free State of Thuringia (German: Freistaat Thüringen) is located in central Germany and is considered one of the smaller of Germanys sixteen Bundesländer (federal states), with an area of 16,200 km² and 2. ... May 27 is the 147th day (148th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 218 days remaining. ... Events January 21 - The Swiss Anabaptist Movement was born when Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, George Blaurock, and about a dozen others baptized each other in the home of Manzs mother on Neustadt-Gasse, Zürich, breaking a thousand-year tradition of church-state union. ...

Müntzer's teachings

Luther and Müntzer disagreed on several religious doctrines. Müntzer believed and taught of the "living word of God" (i.e., continued revelation and prophecy), the banning of infant baptism, and that the wine and bread of the Eucharist were only emblems of Jesus Christ's sacrifice. Luther disagreed with all of these doctrines. Because of his position on infant baptism, Müntzer ranks as one of the founders of the Anabaptist movement. Yet doubt exists as to whether he ever received adult "rebaptism". Infant baptism (also called paedobaptism and pedobaptism), the baptism of the infant children of believers, is an ancient custom of much of Christianity, including the Roman Catholic church, the Orthodox churches, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and Methodists, to name a few. ... This article is about Jesus of Nazareth. ... Anabaptists (Greek ανα (again) +βαπτιζω (baptize), thus, re-baptizers[1], German: Wiedertäufer) are Christians of the Radical Reformation. ...

Luther was also not as radical as was Müntzer. In criticizing the Roman Catholic clergy who did not believe in continued revelation from heaven Müntzer stated, "These villainous and treacherous parsons are of no use to the church in even the slightest manner, for they deny the voice of the bridegroom, which is a truly certain sign that they are a pack of devils. How could they then be God's servants, bearers of his word, which they shamelessly deny with their whore's brazenness? For all true parsons must have revelations, so that they are certain of their cause."

Müntzer's legacy

In studies of the Reformation, Müntzer has often been ignored. To Protestant historians, he was a short-lived radical. Müntzer was then adopted by socialists as a symbol of early class struggle. Müntzer's movement and the peasants' revolt formed an important topic in Friedrich Engels' book The Peasant War in Germany, a classic defense of historical materialism. Engels describes Müntzer as a revolutionary leader who chose to use biblical language—the only language the peasants would understand. He then became a symbolic hero for the East German state (German Democratic Republic, GDR) in the 20th century, appearing from 1975 on their 5 mark banknote. Friedrich Engels (November 28, 1820, Wuppertal – August 5, 1895, London), a 19th-century German political philosopher, developed communist theory alongside his better-known collaborator, Karl Marx, co-authoring The Communist Manifesto (1848). ... The Peasant War in Germany is a book written by Friedrich Engels in London, during the summer of 1850, following the failure of the revolutions of 1848-1849, drawing a parallel between that failure and that of the Peasants War of 1525. ... Historical materialism is the methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history which was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818-1883), although Marx himself never used the term (he referred it as philosophical materialism, a term he used to distinguish it from what he called popular materialism). Historical... GDR redirects here. ... GDR redirects here. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...

More recent studies, however, have been more sensitive to the context of Müntzer's life. He stands as a symbol of one of the many theological directions which could have been taken by the Reformation movement in its earliest stages.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Thomas Müntzer

• Sermon to the Princes - by Thomas Müntzer
• Thomas Müntzer in the Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online

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References

• The Collected Works of Thomas Muntzer, by Peter Matheson ISBN 0-567-09495-2
• Thomas Muntzer: Apocalyptic Mystic and Revolutionary, by Hans-Jurgen Goertz ISBN 0-567-09606-8
• Religion og Vold, by Torkel Brekke ISBN 82-90425-34-1
• The Prague Protest in Revelation and Revolution: Basic Writings of Thomas Muntzer, translated by Michael G. Baylor
• Reformer Without a Church. The Life and Work of Thomas Muentzer (1488?-1525) by Eric W. Gritsch (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967).