1534–1535 · event
Münster and the rejection of armed religion
Also searchable as: Münster · Munster
In 1534–1535, leaders at Münster proclaimed the city a new Jerusalem and organized an armed religious community. The supplied overview names Jan Matthijs and Jan van Leyden and follows the siege, the fall of the city, and the punishment of its leaders.
Martyrs’ Mirror expressly rejects the claim that the defenseless Anabaptists took their beginning from the Münster movement. Its introduction says their churches rejected rebellion and would have no part in those proceedings. This explanation is essential to the book’s own account of the faith and its witnesses.
The supplied history then follows Menno Simons’s scriptural searching and public commitment. Reading these events together shows why Münster mattered to the surrounding history while preserving the convictions of the nonresistant congregations.
Sources for this history: [1] [2]
