THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the Reformation and had become involved in disputes with the monks. During a temporary absence of Egranus, Miinzer became his substitute as first preacher of the principal church 2. Activities in Zwickau. His first sermons beat Zwickau, trayed his radical tendencies through his vehement attacks on the pastoral activity of the monks, whom he accused of avarice and deceitfulness, securing thereby the favor of the citizens who disliked the mendicant friars because of their wealth. The town council did not listen to the complaints of the Roman Catholics, but requested Duke John to prohibit any molestation of the preachers of the Gospel. Miinzer became more and more aggressive especially after his removal to the church of St. Catharine, on the return of Egranus. He re^ed all who contradicted him, and caused them to be suspected as opponents of the Gospel. Two principles from this time directed his actions; first, the appeal to the immediate inspiration of the Spirit as guiding speech and action; secondly, the tendency to organize a communion of saints filled with the spirit. He aroused the laymen against his spiritual colleagues, gathered the elect into conventicles, and asked them to appoint twelve apostles and seventy-two disciples out of their number. " The laymen must become our prelates and pastors," he announced, and it was especially Nikolaus Storch, a cloth-weaver, whom he praised as one versed in the Bible, to whom he gave the testimony of possessing the spirit. In this way he naturally came into difficulties with his colleagues in the city, especially with Egranus, and he incited the people to their removal by force. On Apr. 16 he was deposed, and with Marcus Thomae turned to Prague in order to establish his spiritual church among the Utraquists.
Here he preached in different churches in German and Latin and found adherents among the nobility, but his wild invectives against the clergy made it impossible for him to stay. 3. In He wandered from place to place, al- Bohemia. ways announcing his spiritual gospel Works upon by pointing to the near advent of the the Liturgy. Antichrist. In spite of his later denial, he must have had in 1522 a conversation with Luther in which vehement words were exchanged. From Nordhausen, where he sojourned at least at the end of that year, he came immediately before Easter, 1523, to Alstedt and was accepted by the council on trial as preacher of the Church of St. John. Here he began immediately those reforms of the church service known chiefly from his three liturgical works: Deutsch kirchen ampt. Vorordnet, aufzuheben den hinterlistigen Deckel, unter welchem das liecht der Welt vorhalten war (Alstedt, n.d.); Deutsch evan-
gelisch Messe, etwann durch die bepstischen pfaffen im latein zu grossem nachteil des christenglaubens vor ein opfer gehandelt (Alstedt, 1524); Ordnung und berechnunge des teutschen ampts zu Alstadt durch Tomam Miintzer, seelwarters in vorgangen osteren aufgericht (Alstedt, 1524). Although in comparison with other utterances these works show a certain moderation, they nevertheless betray his characteristic tendency. In the first two works
he laid especial stress upon the song service; the whole liturgy, with the exception of the collects and lessons, according to him, should be sung. His third work gives an account of the arrangement of the church service as it still existed in 1523 and explains in an interesting and original manner the individual parts of the church service. All three works reveal his artistic sense, ecclesiastical taste, high endowments, and comprehensive knowledge, and they possess a high degree of originality; they reveal also the purpose to build up and not to tear down. Nevertheless the increasing disfavor of Luther may be easily explained. He was offended by the strong emphasis laid upon the Spirit, still more by the low estimate placed on the sermon and by the polemical attitude against the Wittenberg circle and the formality of the church service. Miinzer's inflammatory speeches induced Count Ernst of Mansfeld to prohibit attendance upon Miinzer's services. Miinzer violently attacked and reviled the count, and in a letter addressed to the elector on Oct. 4, 1523, he offered himself to be tried according to divine right, but the elector was satisfied with the promise of Miinzer to desist in the future from utterances in the pulpit which were not profitable for the instruction of the people. Thus Miinzer had gained bis point, and without hindrance continued his insurrectionary sermons. In the beginning of 1524 he issued Protestation oder empictung Tome Miintzer s von Stolberg am Hartzs seelwarters zu Alstedt seine leren betreffende vnnd tzum anfang von dem rechten Christen glawben, vnnd der Tawffe, which was soon followed by Von dem getichten glawben auff nechst 4. Revolu- Protestation aussgangen Tome Munttionary zers Selwerters zu Alstedt. The former Teaching publication, in which he assumed the in Alstedt. manner of an apostle or prophet, was an attack on the doctrine of the Wittenberg theologians, although Luther himself is not mentioned. It aims to refute the doctrine of infant baptism on the ground that Christ did not baptize children, and that there is no evidence of the baptism of Mary or of the disciples. He concludes that baptism is not properly understood, and that its use in Christianity has become a " bestial apish play." The principal point, according to him, centers in immediate inspiration by the Spirit of God. He declares also against the authority of the Scripture. The doctors of the Bible, he says, have no other faith or spirit than that which they have stolen from Scripture; but that is not the right kind of faith; this must be taught immediately by God, man must wait until he attains it by the work of God, otherwise it is worth nothing. In spite of its obscurity, Miinzer's doctrine found great acclamation. From all sides people flocked to hear the sermons of the great prophet. He gathered his " elect " into leagues, appealing to II Chron. xxiii. 16; strangers were also welcomed, and in one day he received about 300 converts. His evident purpose was the violent suppression of everything that according to his opinion contradicted the Gospel. In the spring of 1524 citizens of Alstedt stormed the near-by chapel of Mallerbach to which pilgrims used to resort, and