THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Osnabriick, had sharply suppressed the Evangelical movement in his territories, but his sudden death on May 14 frustrated all hopes of the Catholics and furnished the occasion for a new Evangelical advance. The newly elected Bishop Franz of Waldeck, at the same time bishop of Minden and Osnabriick, demanded the removal of the Evangelical preachers and the restoration of Roman Catholic worship (June 2S), but the citizens formed a league for the protection of Rothmann and elected a committee of thirty-six men for the purpose of obtaining not only permission to preach the Gospel freely, but also its sole recognition in the city. In a formal agreement the council pledged itself to protect the Gospel and requested the Roman clergy to refute Rothmann from Scripture. As these refused a disputation, the offices of all churches in the city, with the exception of the cathedral, were filled with Evangelical preachers (Aug. 10) while the populace destroyed pictures and altars. The Evangelicals had already sought the protection of Landgrave Philip of Hesse (q.v.), who, in the neighborhood of Miinster, had asserted his influence in favor of the Gospel. In two letters of July 30, addressed to the council and the bishop, Philip had endeavored to reconcile the opponents by permitting Evangelical preaching, at the same time continuing the revenues of the Roman clergy. At a request of Rothmann, dating from July 16, two Evangelical preachers, Gottfried Stralen and Peter Wertheim, had been sent to Miinster. Nevertheless, the bishop required the return of the city to Catholicism, appealing to the edict of Worms and the result of the Augsburg diet, while the Evangelicals relied upon the Interim of the Diet of Nuremberg (1532) and the imperial mandate of Regensburg (Aug. 3, 1532). An attempt of the city to induce the interference of the Schmalkald league failed. On Aug. 16 Rothmann and the other Evangelical preachers presented sixteen articles on the " abuses " of the Roman Church, and these showed an inclination toward Zwinglianism, especially in the conception of the Lord's Supper. In spite of the warnings of Luther and Melanchthon, Rothmann administered the Lord's Supper with wine and wheat bread which was to be broken by the communicants. There was nothing left to the council but to yield and to request Roman Catholics not to officiate in the cathedral at Christmas and not to administer baptism. A successful attack of the neighboring town Telgt in the night of the twenty-sixth of December delivered almost the entire episcopal aristocracy and some patricians of Miinster into the hands of the Evangelicals. Owing to the intervention of Landgrave Philip, a treaty of peace between the town and the bishop was obtained on Feb. 14, 1533. Until the decision of a general free Christian council the six churches of Miinster with their revenues and the right of filling vacancies were given over to the citizens for Evangelical church service while the bishop, the cathedral chapter, and the other colleges were allowed to adhere unconditionally to their religion. But at the very time when the Evangelicals had obtained sufficient concessions upon which to build up their work of reform on a solid basis, discord arose with-
in their own ranks. Radical elements, hitherto in the background, gained control and won over even the influential personality of Rothmann.
The beginnings of radicalism in Miinster are veiled in obscurity. Undoubtedly the movements of the enthusiasts in the neighborhood wielded some influence, but the decisive moment arrived at the end of 1532 when in consequence of measures taken
by the government of Jiilich the so-
3. Entrance called Wassenberg preachers went over
of Radical to Miinster, men who, like Heinrich
Elements. Roll, Dionysius Vinne, and others who
were influenced more or less by Melchior Hoffmann (q.v.), held a spiritualistic conception of the Lord's Supper and had a low estimate of infant baptism. [Far greater than that of Hoffmann was the influence of Erasmus, Carlstadt, and Gerhard Westerburg on the Wassenberg preachers. There is evidence that Hullmaier's writings were also known in these circles. There is no evidence that any of the Wassenberg preachers had adopted distinctively Hoffmannite views until after the arrival in Miinster of the emissaries of Matthys. The views and methods of Matthys should be distinguished from those of Hoffmann. While Hoffmann was chiliastic and predicted the setting up of the kingdom of Christ in Strasburg, he did not reach the point of declaring that the time had actually come for the forcible setting up of the kingdom and the slaughter of the ungodly. For much valuable information about the Wassenberg preachers cf. Karl Rembert's Die " Wiedertaufer " in Herzogtum Jiilich, Berlin, 1899. a. h. n.] They found support among the gilds, and Rothmann, although in the beginning an opponent of the enthusiasts, had met their views in the sixteen articles. Thus there was on the one side a conservative Lutheran party, relying upon the council as the Evangelical authority, led by Johann von der Wieck, and striving after a union with the Schmalkald league, on the other side the enthusiasts, relying upon the democracy and led by Rothmann. Philip of Hesse acted as mediator, at the same time being the go-between of town and bishop. Under the influence of Roll, Rothmann began to preach against the Lord's Supper and baptism, while Hermann Staprade, one of the Wassenberg preachers, became second preacher of the church of St. Lambert, and under their influence the people were carried away to iconoclasm. A disputation was held on Aug. 7 and 8, 1533, in order to settle the differences among the Evangelicals. The conservative side was represented by Professor Hermann von dem Busche of Marburg, while Rothmann, Vinne, Klopriss, and others represented the enthusiasts. The result was unfavorable to the conservatives; Rothmann defended his view that the baptism of children is unscriptural, Busch desisted from a reply, and the doctrine of the Lord's Supper was not discussed at all. Consequently the ordinance of the council against innovations remained without effect since Rothmann and his adherents openly defied it (Sept. 17). Thereupon the council closed the churches and deposed Rothmann from his ministerial office, but the gilds and commoners gained for him liberty to preach. In this distress the Lutherans united with the Roman