THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
verts was inconsiderable, the sectarians could neither break the siege nor avoid a famine, while the bishop continually received reinforcements on terms agreed upon in Coblenz on Dec. 13, 1534, to the effect that after the capture of the city a new government should be instituted only with the consent of the princes. Prophecies of the king, awakened by repeated expectations of reinforcement from Holland, did not confirm the wavering trust of the citizens in their ruler. Increasingly the citizens responded to the promises of the bishop by deserting, and attempts at mediation failed. Rothmann's publication, Von Yerborgenheit der Schrift des Reiches Christi und dem Tage des Herrn, could not conceal the fact that the " day of the Lord " was not imminent. At a diet in Worms (Apr. 4, 1535) the bishop succeeded in winning the imperial cities to the aid of the besieging army so that now almost the entire empire was represented before Miinster, while John of Leyden was compelled to dismiss the old men, women, and children from the city on account of the famine; about 1,600 armed men were left.
By the aid of treason, about 400 of the besiegers succeeded in entering the city on the night of June 24-25, 1535, and on the following day it was captured. The soldiers were merciless. The king and queen, Knipperdolling and Krechting 6. Capture of were captured, while Rothmann seems
the City ; to have sought and met death. On
Punishment June 29, the bishop himself entered
of the the town and the dream of the " New
Leaders. Jerusalem " was at an end. The possessions of the Anabaptists were offered for sale; half the spoil and all munitions were left to the bishop. On July 13 a solemn service of thanksgiving was held in the cathedral. But the most difficult problem now arose of regulating religious affairs in Miinster, because of the opposition between Roman Catholics and Protestants. The Protestant party under the leadership of Philip of Hesse demanded the restoration of the treaty of Feb. 14, 1533, while the Roman Catholics with the cathedral chapter, the nobility, and the cities of the bishopric agreed upon the form of religion "which was approved by the emperor and the empire," with the removal of some abuses (July 19). A diet of Worms on Nov. 1 decreed the restoration of Catholicism and of the old municipal constitution. The bishop, however, resented these decrees as forced upon him against his will, and set up a new "order" which brought the rule of the city almost entirely under his influence, thus depriving the Protestants of all opportunity to regain their former privileges. John of Leyden, Knipperdolling, and Krechting were imprisoned. A final offer of the king to give him his life on condition that the Anabaptists keep silence was refused. The captives were led to Miinster, tried, and cruelly tortured to death at the early dawn of Jan. 22, 1536; their corpses were hung up in iron baskets on the tower of the church of St. Lambert. The fall of Miinster was catastrophic for the entire Anabaptist movement. Theologians like Luther, Melanchthon, Menius, Corvinus, and Cochlaeus vied with each other in attacking the writings of Rothmann and
of Anabaptists in general. Hand in hand with the fall of Anabaptism went the destruction of democratic tendencies, and the fall of Miinster confirmed the power of the sovereign. Even in Moravia and Hesse toleration of Anabaptism ceased. On the other hand, the doctrine itself underwent a process of purification, in so far as Menno Simons (see Simons, Menno), its regenerator, began with combating the idea of the earthly kingdom of John of Leyden. [It should be borne in mind that only a fraction of the so-called " Anabaptists " were involved in this effort to set up the kingdom of Christ by force, acting under the influence of chiliastic and theocratic ideas induced largely by terrible persecution and despair, a. h. n.] For the general background of the movement, see Anabaptists, II.
(W. Kohler.)
Bibliography: Sources are: U. Rhegius, Widderlegung der miinsterischen newen V alentinianer und Donatisten Bekentnus, Wittenberg, 1535; G. Erhard, Griindlich Historia der miinsterischen Wiedertaufer, Munich, 1589; H. Dorpius, Warhafflige Historia wie das Evangelium zu Miinster angefangen, und darnach durch die Widertduffer verstort, wider auffgehort, ed. Merschmann, Magdeburg, 1847; H. von Kerssenbroch, Geschichte der Wiedertaufer zu Miinster, ed. H. Detmer, 2 vols., Miinster, 1899-1900 (Kessenbroch's Leben und Schriften, critically edited with indexes, containing much important information concerning religious, social, and literary conditions in Miinster). For the English reader two discussions from different points of view are accessible in A. H. Newman, Hist, of Anti- Pedobaptism, chaps, xxi., xxii., Philadelphia, 1897; and J. Janssen, Hist, of the German People, vol. v., chap, vii., St. Louis, 1903. Consult further: C. A. Cornelius, Die miinsterische Humanisten, Minister, 1851; idem, Berichte der Augenzeugen iiher das miinsterische Wiedertduferreich, n.p., 1853; idem, Geschichte des miinsterischen Aufruhrs, Leipsic, 1855-60; idem, Die nederldndischen Wiedertaufer wahrend der Belagerung Miinsters, Miinster, 1869; H. W. Erbkam, Geschichte der protestantischen Sekten, Gotha, 1848; T. de Bussiere, Des Anabaptistes . . etdu regne de Jean Bockelsohn a Miinster, Paris, 1853; K. Hase, Das Reich der Wiedertaufer, Leipsic, 1860; idem, Neue Propheten, 3d ed., ib. 1893; K. W. Bouterwek, Zur Literatur und Geschichte der Wiedertaufer, Bonn, 1864; L. Keller, Geschichte der Wiedertaufer und ihres Reichs zu Miinster, Minister, 1880; K. Pearson, in the Modern Review, Jan.-Apr., 1884; T. Kielstra, Doopsgezinde Bijdragen, Leyden, 1888; L. Schauenberg, Die Tauferbewegung in . Oldenberg-Delmenhorst, Oldenberg, 1888; K. Kautsky, Communism in Central Europe in the Time of the Reformation, London, 1897 (pp. 216-293 contain the most favorable account yet given of the Miinster kingdom) ; E. Tumbiilt, Die Wiedertaufer, Bielefeld, 1899; B. Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists, London, 1903; H. Detmer, Bilder aus den religiosen und socialen Unruhen in Miinster, i.-iii., Miinster, 1903-04; idem and R. Krumbholtz, B. Rothmann, Die miinsterschen Wiedertdufers, 2 Schriften, Dortmund, 1904. On the individual leaders so far as not treated in this work, consult ADB under their names.
MUENSTER, BISHOPRIC OF: An ancient bishopric in Westphalia, originally comprising the Saxon territory between the Lippe and the Ems, bounded on the south by the diocese of Cologne and on the west by that of Utrecht. It is probable that the first missionary work here was done by clerics from the latter diocese, for when it was organized as a separate bishopric Charlemagne appointed a Frisian priest, Liudger (q.v.), as its first bishop. The exact date can not be determined; Liudger (q.v.) was still an abbot on Jan. 13, 802, and is designated as a bishop on Apr. 23, 805. The fact of his Frisian origin brought about the inclusion in his jurisdiction of five Frisian districts