An Anabaptist Utopia

Münster: An Anabaptist Utopia

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Munster: An Anabaptist Utopia

The city of Munster, located in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany is characteristically seen as only the location of the Anabaptist Rebellion of 1534 and crushed a year later in 1935. However, the important issue as well as goal of the rebellion gets overshadowed by armed conflict. Jan Matthys and Jan Bockelson had very strict as well as very utopian ideas for setting up the “New Jerusalem.” By examining documents written from the time of the Reformation in Europe as well as examining of the goals of Matthys and his Anabaptist followers, it is clear to see that, during the time of occupation and had the rebellion been fully successful, the city of Munster was a Reformation Utopia.

In order to fully understand the importance of Munster as a utopian society one must clearly understand what utopian means as well as what it means in the context of the Reformation. Utopia in itself is generally used to describe a perfect society where there is a harmonious coexistence between politics, society, economics and religion. In context of the Reformation in Germany, a utopian society was a focus on harmony surrounding religion instead of religion as part the harmony. Laws both legal and social, property, marriage, education, and even simple daily tasks would all be based around religion. For Jan Matthys, Munster was to be the “New Jerusalem” that is, the utopian society for all Anabaptist believers no matter what the price was. After the uprising, the price for both Matthys and Bockelson would be death.

The origin of the Anabaptist movement in Munster surrounds both Jan Matthys and Bernt Rothmann. The main preacher of the day in Munster, Rothmann was a Lutheran minister for much of the early Reformation until he decided to alter his views to a more Zwinglian form of preaching, named after its founder Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland. With his already more radical views of Christianity, Rothmann was beginning to turn more and more towards radical preaching. It was not until Jan Matthys came to Munster, that a major shift in power came to be. Assuming to be a prophet after his encounter with the Zwickau prophets, Nicholas Storch and Markus Stubner, Matthys began preaching towards a theocracy and a “holy community separated from the unbelieving godless.” Although the rising of Anabaptist utopian ideals were enforced through Matthys and Bockelson as well as Rothmann, a very important influence on the severity of the utopian society came from Melchior Hoffmann. Although originally against Matthys and the Anabaptist movement, his eventual split from Lutheran doctrine was primarily due to his immense focus on apocalyptic doctrine. Not only did his views concerning the end of the world make him radical but also his focus on the Sword. His major influence on Matthys and Bockelson can be summed up when he wrote, “The Sword and punishment of the perverse order is vitally necessary….[the believer should be] furthering and not hindering such a necessity.” The importance of this quote and the strive for a utopian society lies within the effects of the Sword. The removal of undesirable members of society would leave room for the true believers in the Anabaptist beliefs of Matthys and Bockelson. Essentially, the removal of these people would hopefully purge the society leaving only the perfect and therefore one step closer to a utopian society. Ideally, the use of the Sword for Munster, was in fact for violence against those either suspected of or even falsely accused of revolution in Munster. When the Twelve Elders were established as the governing body of Munster and later replaced by the King, much of the physical power to keep the “utopian peace” was given to Bernhard Knipperdolling. He was the executioner as well as Elders’ chief executive. For Munster and Anabaptist leaders, the Sword was used to determine the law, essentially the law of the Elders. The establishment of a theocracy in Munster was secure which was one step closer to their utopian dream of a New Jerusalem.

The rise of the Anabaptist city of Munster in 1534 and its eventual collapse in 1535 was relatively an overnight phenomenon. Already outlined was the reason for the removal of members of society as well as the “true” law of Munster. However, the other facets of an ideal utopia were still needed within Munster. Much of the historical information concerning the daily and social restrictions or rules from Munster are found in primary source materials. With the establishment of a physical law there was a strong need to establish doctrine and teachings. Like many Anabaptists all over Europe, the teachings of the bible were the guidelines for everyday life. According to many Anabaptists, the whole reason for a government was to maintain society through punishment of the wicked and protection of the innocent. Because governments were created by God then every Christian had to obey even if it was a tyrannical theocracy such as Munster. Thus having a good controlling government meant that the people of Munster had the closest establishment to God other than heaven. Their utopian government was established and the dream of a New Jerusalem was close to reality. The most commonly known aspect of Anabaptist society concerns the ownership of property. Because there was a drive to establish a New Jerusalem there is no surprise that a form of community of goods was practiced in the first Christian congregation at Jerusalem. Thomas More in his Utopia describes a utopian society as that of one which has communal property. He believed that the common good demanded equality in all respects, and further that equality could never be achieved as long as private property existed. In a random study of Anabaptist property-holders, according to Karl-Heinz Kirchoff, a historian of Anabaptist Munster, found an astonishingly normality in distribution of wealth among Munster Anabaptists. In the Reformation crisis of 1532-35 a random sample of property-owners believed that Munster had the best and most practical economic situation. The establishment of a community of goods was again, the closest to the kingdom of heaven that could be established on earth. The utopian desire of Munster to be a kingdom on earth or the New Jerusalem was a constant theme in every aspect during the establishment of power in 1534. Concerning the rules and establishment of radical societies within the German cities that even directly effected Munster were the “Forty-six Frankfurt Articles.” Written on April 13, 1525 they became one of the most influential programs of the urban movement in the Rhine-Main area, with an impact even as far north as Munster and Osnabruck. The forty-six articles were very widespread in their ideas however there is no doubt that Munster and its Anabaptists leaders, although ten years later, read these articles and adopted several of their principles. In terms of property as mentioned before, the fourteenth article is similar as it reads, “Fourteenth, from now on all bequests [that is property given by will] and alms should be placed in a community chest, ordained to the honor of God, in order to feed poor people.” This article is similar to the notion of communal property which as mentioned was a staple for the utopian society in Munster during 1534. Another two similar articles that were adopted by Munster Anabaptists are vague yet were the law throughout Germany. The first of these articles reads, “Thirty-third, it is our conviction that henceforth, everyone, no matter how many houses he has, should also personally guard and protect all of them.” The next article reads, “Thirty-fifth, all drunkards and blasphemers should be punished without mercy, as the occasion may require and according to the orderly counsel of these articles.” These two articles deal with the law as well as the community. The establishment of the government in Munster was based around the notion that its establishment was from God. Any decree from the government was essentially from God therefore anyone against these decrees is against God and needs to be punished fully. Guarding ones house as well as the houses of others, although ambiguous, is focused again on community living and equality. Besides the establishment of a community of believers with communal property, an essential aspect of a utopian society, within the city of Munster, the act of polygamy was instituted. Polygamy in essence is the act of marriage with one or more spouses. The importance of one or more spouses within the context of Munster is both speculative and criticized. Historian James Stayer comments on the nature of polygamy in Munster when he writes, “Although Munsterite polygamy reflected the broad interest among Reformation radicals in a regenerate sexuality,…it amounted in practice to nothing more than the regulating of the female majority according to the prescriptions of biblical misogyny. The importance of the act of polygamy is not related to the establishment of a New Jerusalem. The reason why it was established however, is important. With the establishment of a law by the sword, a community of believers, and a society built around the written word of God, it was deemed necessary to keep the community of believers strictly to those within Munster and essentially those deemed suitable. With polygamy, the men of Munster were able to have several wives and thus many children in which to influence with the teachings of Anabaptism. The utopian atmosphere designed for Munster would be secured for the future with the establishment of polygamy.

The society of Munster, Germany, was, although briefly, a utopia for Anabaptist believers. According to Stayor, “the Munster Anabaptists were genuine Anabaptists, not a corrupt sect misusing the Anabaptist name.” The institutions of government, the communal property, the law of the Sword deemed necessary by God, and even the art of polygamy were all ways that Jan Matthys and Jan Bockelson were able to establish their kingdom on earth or even their New Jerusalem. Although it lasted only a year and was crushed in June of 1535, for the time it existed, Munster was the place to be if you considered yourself a true Anabaptist a true utopia of the Reformation.

[edit] References

* Franklin Littell, The Origins of Sectarian Protestantism: a study of the Anabaptist view of the Church (New York: Macmillian Company, 1964), 30.
* Ibid.
* James Stayer, Anabaptists and the Sword, (Kansas: Coronado Press, 1972), 211
* Stayer, 214.
* Stayer, 255.
* Claus-Peter Clasen, Anabaptism: A Social History, 1525-1618, (New York: Cornell University Press, 1972), 173.
* Clasen, 183.
* Clasen, 184.
* James Stayer, The German Peasants’ War and Anabaptist Community of Goods, (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 1991), 130.
* Michael Baylor, The Radical Reformation, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991) 246.
* Baylor, 249.
* Baylor, 251.
* Stayer, Peasants’ War, 130.
* Stayer, 123.

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This page was last modified on 2008-03-24, at 17:34:23. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.)
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) tax-deductible nonprofit charity.