John of Leiden
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John of Leiden, born Jan Beuckelson, was a Dutch religious reformer and a prominent leader of the radical Anabaptist movement. He became known for his role in the Münster Rebellion of 1534–35, where he, along with other Anabaptist leaders, established a theocratic kingdom in Münster, Germany.1
The Anabaptists, a fringe group of the Protestant Reformation, advocated for adult baptism, believing that infant baptism was invalid. They also called for a separation of church and state and were often pacifists.1
In Münster, under the influence of figures like Jan Mathijs and John of Leiden, the Anabaptists expelled non-Anabaptists and implemented practices such as communal ownership of goods and polygamy. This radical experiment ended when the city was besieged and recaptured by an army of Catholics and Protestants in 1535. John of Leiden and other leaders were subsequently tortured and executed. The Münster Rebellion is often viewed as an aberration within the broader Anabaptist movement, which largely continued as a pacifist tradition, notably through the Mennonites led by Menno Simons.1
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- Anabaptist
…Jan Mathijs (died 1534) and John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson; died 1536), and many persecuted Anabaptists settled in Münster, Westphalia. Hofmann’s disciples were attracted to the city by dramatic changes that occurred there in the early 1530s. Under the influence of the reformer Bernhard Rothman, Anabaptist sentiment was strong enough…
Read More…Jan Mathijs (died 1534) and John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson; died 1536), and many persecuted Anabaptists settled in Münster, Westphalia. Hofmann’s disciples were attracted to the city by dramatic changes that occurred there in the early 1530s. Under the influence of the reformer Bernhard Rothman, Anabaptist sentiment was strong enough…
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Münster…in 1536 the Anabaptists’ “king,” John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson), was executed with two of his accomplices; the iron cages in which their bodies were publicly exhibited still hang in the Gothic tower of St. Lambert’s Church. A neutralized Münster was the scene of the peace congress (1645–48) that resulted…
Read More…in 1536 the Anabaptists’ “king,” John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson), was executed with two of his accomplices; the iron cages in which their bodies were publicly exhibited still hang in the Gothic tower of St. Lambert’s Church. A neutralized Münster was the scene of the peace congress (1645–48) that resulted…
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