histofthought1

Protestants and Catholics 147German mystics. Becoming a follower almost as soon as Luther launched theReformation in 1520, Miintzer was recommended by Luther for the pastoratein the city of Zwickau. Zwickau was near the Bohemian border, and there therestless Miintzer was converted by the weaver and adept Niklas Storch, whohad been in Bohemia, to the old Taborite doctrine that had flourished inBohemia a century earlier. This doctrine consisted essentially of a continuingmystical revelation and the necessity for the elect to seize power and imposea society of theocratic communism by brutal force of arms. Furthermore,marriage was to be prohibited, and each man was to be able to have anywoman at his will.The passive wing ofAnabaptists were voluntary anarcho-communists, whowished to live peacefully by themselves; but Miintzer adopted the Storchvision of blood and coercion. Defecting very rapidly from Lutheranism,Miintzer felt himself to be the coming prophet, and his teachings now beganto emphasize a war of blood and extermination to be waged by the electagainst the sinners. Miintzer claimed that the 'living Christ' had permanentlyentered his own soul; endowed thereby with perfect insight into the divinewill, Miintzer asserted himself to be uniquely qualified to fulfil the divinemission. He even spoke of himself as 'becoming God'. Abandoning theworld of learning, Miintzer was now ready for action.In 1521, only a year after his arrival, the town council of Zwickau tookfright at these increasingly popular ravings and ordered Miintzer's expulsionfrom the city. In protest, a large number of the populace, in particular theweavers, led by Niklas Storch, rose in revolt, but the rising was put down. Atthat point, Mtintzer hied himself to Prague, searching for Taborite remnantsin the capital of Bohemia. Speaking in peasant metaphors, he declared thatharvest-time is here, 'so God himself has hired me for his harvest. I havesharpened my scythe, for my thoughts are most strongly fixed on the truth,and my lips, hands, skin, hair, soul, body, life curse the unbelievers'. Mtintzer,however, found no Taborite remnants; it did not help the prophet's popularitythat he knew no Czech, and had to preach with the aid of an interpreter. Andso he was duly expelled from Prague.After wandering around central Germany in poverty for several years,signing himself 'Christ's messenger', Mtintzer in 1523 gained a ministerialposition in the small Thuringian town ofAllstedt. There he established a widereputation as a preacher employing the vernacular, and began to attract alarge following of uneducated miners, whom he formed into a revolutionaryorganization called 'The League of the Elect' .A turning point in Mtintzer's stormy career came a year later, when DukeJohn, a prince of Saxony and a Lutheran, hearing alarming rumours abouthim, came to little Allstedt and asked Miintzer to preach him a sermon. Thiswas Mtintzer's opportunity, and he seized it. He laid it on the line: he called