Thomas Muentzer - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thomas Müntzer was an early Reformation

Protestant Reformation

The Protestant Reformation was a 16th-century split within Western Christianity initiated by Martin Luther, John Calvin and other early Protestants. The efforts of the self-described "reformers", who objected to the doctrines, rituals and ecclesiastical structure of the Roman Catholic Church, led...

-era German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

theologian, who became a rebel leader during the Peasants' War

German Peasants' War

The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

. He turned against Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

with several anti-Lutheran writings, and supported the Anabaptist

Anabaptist

Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....

s. In the Battle of Frankenhausen

Battle of Frankenhausen

The Battle of Frankenhausen was fought on 15 May 1525. It was the final act of the German Peasants' War: joint troops of Landgrave Philip I of Hesse and Duke George of Saxony defeated the peasants under their Anabaptist leader Thomas Müntzer near Frankenhausen in the County of Schwarzburg .On April...

, Müntzer and his followers were defeated. He was captured, tortured and decapitated.

From the 19th century, he has been lionized by socialists (especially Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels was a German industrialist, social scientist, author, political theorist, philosopher, and father of Marxist theory, alongside Karl Marx. In 1845 he published The Condition of the Working Class in England, based on personal observations and research...

) as an early symbol of class struggle

Class struggle

Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....

Early life

Müntzer was born in the small village of Stolberg in the Harz Mountains

Harz

The Harz is the highest mountain range in northern Germany and its rugged terrain extends across parts of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt and Thuringia. The name Harz derives from the Middle High German word Hardt or Hart , latinized as Hercynia. The legendary Brocken is the highest summit in the Harz...

(what is now Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt

Saxony-Anhalt is a landlocked state of Germany. Its capital is Magdeburg and it is surrounded by the German states of Lower Saxony, Brandenburg, Saxony, and Thuringia.Saxony-Anhalt covers an area of...

), in about 1489. Thomas Müntzer initially studied at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

and later the University of Frankfurt, though it is unknown what academic degree he ultimately attained. He became versed in the Greek

Ancient Greek

Ancient Greek is the stage of the Greek language in the periods spanning the times c. 9th–6th centuries BC, , c. 5th–4th centuries BC , and the c. 3rd century BC – 6th century AD of ancient Greece and the ancient world; being predated in the 2nd millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek...

, Hebrew

Hebrew language

Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...

and Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

languages.

From the summer of 1516 to the fall of 1518, Müntzer stayed in a monastery at Frohse, though publication of Martin Luther's 95 theses on 31 October 1517, most likely motivated Müntzer to leave the monastery and travel to Wittenberg

Wittenberg

Wittenberg, officially Lutherstadt Wittenberg, is a city in Germany in the Bundesland Saxony-Anhalt, on the river Elbe. It has a population of about 50,000....

. There he reputedly had a confrontation with Luther, who despised Müntzer for his politicization of Luther's reformation. After brief stints at Orlamünde

Orlamünde

Orlamünde is a town in the Saale-Holzland district, in Thuringia, Germany. It is situated at the confluence of the rivers Saale and Orla, 17 km south of Jena. It was the centre of a county, often united to Weimar, in the Early Middle Ages....

and Jüterbog

Jüterbog

Jüterbog is a historic town in north-eastern Germany, located in the Teltow-Fläming district of Brandenburg. It is located on the Nuthe river at the northern slope of the Fläming hill range, about southwest of Berlin.-History:...

in 1519, Müntzer may have traveled to Leipzig to witness the famous debates between John Eck and Andreas Karlstadt

Andreas Karlstadt

Andreas Rudolph Bodenstein von Karlstadt , better known as Andreas Karlstadt or Andreas Carlstadt or Karolostadt, was a German Christian theologian during the Protestant Reformation. He was born in Karlstadt, Franconia.-Education:Karlstadt received his doctorate of theology in 1510 from the...

(27 June to 3 July), and between Luther and Eck (4 July to 14 July). Müntzer continued to move frequently, accepting the position of father confessor at a nunnery in Beuditz in December of 1519 before heading to Zwickau

Zwickau

Zwickau in Germany, former seat of the government of the south-western region of the Free State of Saxony, belongs to an industrial and economical core region. Nowadays it is the capital city of the district of Zwickau...

in 1520.

Increasing radicalism

In May 1520, Müntzer became a pastor in Zwickau in Thuringia

Thuringia

The Free State of Thuringia is a state of Germany, located in the central part of the country.It has an area of and 2.29 million inhabitants, making it the sixth smallest by area and the fifth smallest by population of Germany's sixteen states....

and it was in there that Müntzer had his first significant confrontation with church authorities. In 1521 and 1522, however, the growing divide between Luther and Müntzer’s beliefs became apparent, as Müntzer developed his theology further and rejected infant baptism.

When the Zwickau authorities expelled Müntzer in April 1521, he fled to Prague

Prague

Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...

. He was initially feted in the town when he arrived in June, welcomed as a follower of Luther, with accommodation provided for him and invitations to preach in Latin and German in the University chapels. For unknown reasons, however, by November he was far less welcome. That month he wrote the Prague Manifesto. This survives in four different versions in German and Latin, and is an angry, anticlerical, apocalyptic work.

In December 1521, Müntzer left Prague. He spent 1522 moving about, not staying in many places. In March 1523, he became pastor at Allstedt

Allstedt

Allstedt is a town the district of Mansfeld-Südharz, in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. It is situated approximatively 10 km southeast of Sangerhausen.- References :...

, a town of around 900 people in an enclave of Electoral Saxony in Thuringia. In June 1523, he married a former nun, Ottilie von Gerson. In November, he was interrogated by George Spalatin

George Spalatin

Georg Spalatin was the pseudonym taken by Georg Burkhardt , an important German figure in the history of the Reformation....

and Frederick the Wise. Luther pressed for a private confrontation in Wittenberg, but Müntzer wanted a more public disputation, and nothing happened. In December 1523, Müntzer produced the first completely German liturgy

Liturgy

Liturgy is either the customary public worship done by a specific religious group, according to its particular traditions or a more precise term that distinguishes between those religious groups who believe their ritual requires the "people" to do the "work" of responding to the priest, and those...

, the Order of German Church Service, for use in Allstedt.

On 13 July 1524, Müntzer apparently delivered his Sermon to the Princes

Sermon to the Princes

The Sermon to the Princes is a sermon apparently delivered by Thomas Müntzer on 13 July 1524, allegedly given to Duke John of Saxony and his advisors in Allstedt, though the circumstances surrounding this event are unclear. The sermon focuses on Daniel 2, a chapter in which Daniel, hostage in...

, a sermon allegedly given to Duke John of Saxony and his advisors in Allstedt, though the circumstances surrounding this event are unclear. The sermon focuses on Daniel 2, a chapter in which Daniel

Daniel

Daniel is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways...

, hostage in Babylon

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

, becomes an adviser to the king because of his ability to interpret dreams

Dream interpretation

Dream interpretation is the process of assigning meaning to dreams. In many ancient societies, such as those of Egypt and Greece, dreaming was considered a supernatural communication or a means of divine intervention, whose message could be unravelled by people with certain powers...

. In the sermon, Müntzer presents himself as a new Daniel to interpret the dreams of the princes to them. He interpreted as speaking of the kingdom of God

Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God or Kingdom of Heaven is a foundational concept in the Abrahamic religions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.The term "Kingdom of God" is found in all four canonical gospels and in the Pauline epistles...

that would consume all earthly kingdoms.

Probably as a result of this event, combined with Luther's Letter to the Princes of early July 1524, which attacked Müntzer and Andreas Karlstadt

Andreas Karlstadt

, Müntzer and others from Allstedt were called to a hearing at Weimar

Weimar

Weimar is a city in Germany famous for its cultural heritage. It is located in the federal state of Thuringia , north of the Thüringer Wald, east of Erfurt, and southwest of Halle and Leipzig. Its current population is approximately 65,000. The oldest record of the city dates from the year 899...

before Duke John of Saxony on 31 July or 1 August. He decided that the printing press at Allstedt was to be shut down. Müntzer fled Allstedt soon after.

Peasants' War

In August 1524, Müntzer became one of the leaders of the uprising later known as the German Peasants' War

German Peasants' War

. After fleeing Allstedt, he arrived in the imperial city

Free Imperial City

In the Holy Roman Empire, a free imperial city was a city formally ruled by the emperor only — as opposed to the majority of cities in the Empire, which were governed by one of the many princes of the Empire, such as dukes or prince-bishops...

of Mühlhausen

Mühlhausen

Mühlhausen is a city in the federal state of Thuringia, Germany. It is the capital of the Unstrut-Hainich district, and lies along the river Unstrut. Mühlhausen had c. 37,000 inhabitants in 2006.-History:...

in Thuringia

Thuringia

. In mid-September, he and his associate, the radical former priest Heinrich Pfeiffer, took advantage of long-standing tensions between the middling craftsmen and city council to produce the Eleven Mühlhausen Articles, which called for the dissolution of the existing town council

Town council

A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch....

and the formation of an "eternal council" based on divine justice and the Word of God

Word of God

Word of God or God's Word may refer to:*Divine revelation**certain Religious texts**Prophecy**Biblical literalism*Logos as "divine word"** in biblical creation, see Genesis creation narrative**in trinitarianism, see Jesus Christ the Logos...

. Copies of this were sent to the peasantry in the surrounding villages, but support did not materialise, apparently because the article expressed predominantly urban grievances which did not address peasant needs. On 27 September 1524, Müntzer and Pfeiffer were expelled from Mühlhausen.

Müntzer spent late 1524 in Nuremberg, but in mid-February 1525 was able to return to Mühlhausen. The following month, the citizenry voted out the old council and a new "Eternal League of God" was formed, composed of a cross-section of the male population and some former councillors. Müntzer and Pfeiffer succeeded in taking over the Mühlhausen town council and set up a communistic

Communism

Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...

theocracy in its place.

Müntzer led a group of about 8000 peasants at the battle of Frankenhausen

Battle of Frankenhausen

(15 May 1525) against political and spiritual oppression, convinced that God would intervene on their side. Utterly defeated, captured, imprisoned and tortured, Müntzer recanted and accepted the Roman Catholic mass prior to his beheading in Mühlhausen

Mühlhausen

in Thuringia

Thuringia

on 27 May 1525. Under torture he confessed that he believed that omnia sunt communia, all things are in common. His head and body were displayed as a warning to all those who might again preach treason

Treason

In law, treason is the crime that covers some of the more extreme acts against one's sovereign or nation. Historically, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife. Treason against the king was known as high treason and treason against a...

ous doctrines.

Theology and Marian views

Luther and Müntzer disagreed theologically on several doctrine

Doctrine

Doctrine is a codification of beliefs or a body of teachings or instructions, taught principles or positions, as the body of teachings in a branch of knowledge or belief system...

s. Müntzer believed and taught of the "living word of God" (i.e., continued revelation and prophecy), the banning of infant baptism, and that the wine and bread of the Eucharist

Eucharist

The Eucharist , also called Holy Communion, the Sacrament of the Altar, the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord's Supper, and other names, is a Christian sacrament or ordinance...

were only emblems of Jesus Christ's

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

sacrifice. Luther disagreed with all of these doctrines. Because of his position on infant baptism, Müntzer ranks as one of the founders of the Anabaptist

Anabaptist

Anabaptists are Protestant Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th-century Europe, and their direct descendants, particularly the Amish, Brethren, Hutterites, and Mennonites....

movement, yet doubt exists as to whether he ever received adult "rebaptism".

Luther was also not as radical as Müntzer. In criticizing the Roman Catholic clergy who did not believe in continued revelation from heaven, Müntzer stated, "These villainous and treacherous parsons are of no use to the church in even the slightest manner, for they deny the voice of the bridegroom, which is a truly certain sign that they are a pack of devils. How could they then be God's servants, bearers of his word, which they shamelessly deny with their whore's brazenness? For all true parsons must have revelations, so that they are certain of their cause." In distinction to Luther, Müntzer believed good works were required in addition to faith to become righteous. Müntzer wrote, "It is the diligent waiting for the Word that makes a beginning Christian. During this waiting one must first suffer the Word, and there must not be any consolation in the fact that our works are delayed. Then one thinks one has no faith at all; indeed, one feels that no faith will come. There is a meager desire for true faith, but it is so weak that one is hardly aware of it. Finally, one must break down and lament, 'Oh what a miserable man I am! What drives me in my heart? My conscience eats up all my strength and everything I am. What shall I do? I have lost confidence in God.' " Müntzer, while renewing theology, kept many of its old doctrines.

This applies to his Marian views as well. In a 1520 sermon in Zwickau

Zwickau

on the feast of Mary’s birth, he described her as “Patriarch” “High Priest” and “Queen”. The Virgin Mary is a mediatrix

Mediatrix

Mediatrix in Roman Catholic Mariology refers to the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a mediator in the salvation process. It is a separate concept from Co-Redemptrix....

, mediator between day and night, between God and man, mediatrix inter deum et hominem. She won her fight with the devil by her humility. Her person shows the power of God, because her greatness was not result of her own doing but of his grace. The birth of Mary gave angels and humans new hope for the restoration of the old order. Müntzer defends the virginity

Virginity

Virginity refers to the state of a person who has never engaged in sexual intercourse. There are cultural and religious traditions which place special value and significance on this state, especially in the case of unmarried females, associated with notions of personal purity, honor and worth...

of Mary before, during and after the birth of Jesus. He quotes Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux

Bernard of Clairvaux, O.Cist was a French abbot and the primary builder of the reforming Cistercian order.After the death of his mother, Bernard sought admission into the Cistercian order. Three years later, he was sent to found a new abbey at an isolated clearing in a glen known as the Val...

, specifically his Marian arguments. Müntzer insisted that neither Mary nor the apostles were baptized with water. From this, given Mary’s high rank, he argues that baptism

Baptism

In Christianity, baptism is for the majority the rite of admission , almost invariably with the use of water, into the Christian Church generally and also membership of a particular church tradition...

by water is inferior to the spiritual act of baptism. Müntzer can be viewed as a father of liberation theology

Liberation theology

Liberation theology is a Christian movement in political theology which interprets the teachings of Jesus Christ in terms of a liberation from unjust economic, political, or social conditions...

, in that he interpreted the Magnificat

Magnificat

The Magnificat — also known as the Song of Mary or the Canticle of Mary — is a canticle frequently sung liturgically in Christian church services. It is one of the eight most ancient Christian hymns and perhaps the earliest Marian hymn...

– “he raised the lowly” – as Mary’s critique of the existing social order. Müntzer did not develop a systematic mariology, but his Marian views elevate Mary to the pedestal of a supreme model in scripture. Mary represents faith, fides non ficta. In the heavy and often polemical disputes with Luther, Müntzer uses the model life of Mary to prove his views. In all his Marian interpretation, Müntzer quotes scriptures as his basis.

Legacy

Müntzer was adopted by socialists as a symbol of early class struggle due to his promotion of a new egalitarian society which would practice the sharing of goods. Müntzer's movement and the peasants' revolt formed an important topic in Friedrich Engels

Friedrich Engels

’s book The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany
The Peasant War in Germany by Friedrich Engels, 1850, is an account of 16th century uprisings.This book was written by Friedrich Engels in London, during the summer of 1850, following the revolutionary uprisings of 1848-1849. The book draws a parallel between the uprisings of 1848-1849 and the...

, a classic defense of historical materialism

Historical materialism

Historical materialism is a methodological approach to the study of society, economics, and history, first articulated by Karl Marx as "the materialist conception of history". Historical materialism looks for the causes of developments and changes in human society in the means by which humans...

. Engels describes Müntzer as a revolutionary leader who chose to use biblical language – the language the peasants would best understand.

At 1956, the East German studio DEFA produced Thomas Müntzer
Thomas Müntzer (film)
Thomas Muentzer is a 1956 East German film about the life of the 16th-Century Protestant theologian and peasant leader Thomas Muentzer, directed by Martin Hellberg.-Plot:At 1519, the teachings of Martin Luther sweep through the German principalities...

, a biographical film about the priest's life, directed by Martin Hellberg and starring Wolfgang Stumpf in the title role. Müntzer is immortalized in the Peasant's War Panorama in Bad Frankenhausen

Bad Frankenhausen

Bad Frankenhausen is a spa town in the German state of Thuringia. It is located at the southern slope of the Kyffhäuser mountain range, on an artificial arm of the Wipper river, a tributary of the Saale. Because of the nearby Kyffhäuser monument dedicated to Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, it is...

, whose 1,722 square meters of painted surface make it the largest oil painting in the world. The panorama was inaugurated on September 14, 1989, eight weeks before the fall of the Berlin Wall

Rudolf Dulon

Rudolf Dulon

Christoph Joseph Rudolf Dulon was a pastor of the Reformed Church and a socialist agitator in Bremen; later he was an educator in the United States.-Life in Germany:Dulon was descended from a Huguenot family...

's career in the Revolutions of 1848

Revolutions of 1848

The European Revolutions of 1848, known in some countries as the Spring of Nations, Springtime of the Peoples or the Year of Revolution, were a series of political upheavals throughout Europe in 1848. It was the first Europe-wide collapse of traditional authority, but within a year reactionary...

has been compared to that of Müntzer.

External links

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Early life

Increasing radicalism

Peasants' War

Theology and Marian views

Legacy

See also

Further reading

External links