was a man with no very strong religious zeal or moral courage.
He resigned his dignity in the sacristy of the church of Werne,
reserving to himself a yearly income of 2,000 florins. Duke Eric
of Brunswick, Prince of Grubenhagen, Bishop of Paderborn and
Osnabrück, was elected in his room. The nomination of Eric irritated
the Lutheran party. He was a man zealous for his religion, and
with powerful relations. Rottmann at once sent him his twenty-nine
articles, and the artisans of Münster, who had embraced the cause
of Rottmann, handed in a petition to the magistrates (April 16th,
1532) to request that compulsion might be used to force every one
to become Lutheran, "because it seems to us," said they, "that
this doctrine is in all points and entirely conformable to the
Gospel, whilst that which is taught by the rest of the clergy is
absurd, and ought to be rejected."[62] The bishop-elect wrote to the
magistrates, insisting on the dismissal of Rottmann, but in their
answer they not only declined to obey, but offered an apology for
his conduct.
[62] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 189-90.
The bishop wrote again, but received no answer. Wishing to use every
means of conciliation, before adopting forcible measures, he sent a
deputation to Münster to demand the expulsion of the preacher, but
without success.
The people, becoming more insubordinate, determined to take
possession of other churches. One of the most important is the
church of Unsere Lieb-frau, or Ueberwasser, a church whose
beautiful tower and choir attract the admiration of the traveller
visiting Münster. This church and parish depended on the convent of
Ueberwasser; the rector was a man of zeal and power, a Dr. Martin,
who was peculiarly obnoxious to the Lutheran party. A deputation
was sent to the abbess, Ida von Merfelt, to insist on the dismissal
of the rector and the substitution of an Evangelical preacher.[63]
The lady was a woman of courage; she recommended the deputation
to return to their shops and to attend to their own business, and
announced that Dr. Martin should stay at his post; and stay he did,
for a time.
[63] _Ibid._ p. 203.
The bishop was resolved to try force of arms, when suddenly he died,
May 9th, 1532, after having drunk a goblet of wine. Several writers
of the period state that it was poisoned. A modern historian says he
died of excess of drink--on what authority I do not know.[64] He had
brought down upon himself the dislike of the Lutherans for having
vigorously suppressed the reforming movement in Paderborn. The
history of that movement in this other Westphalian diocese is too
suggestive to be passed over. In 1527 the Elector John Frederick of
Saxony passed through Paderborn and ordered his Lutheran preachers
to address the people in the streets through the windows of the
house in which he lodged, as the clergy refused them the use of the
churches. Next year the agitation began by a quarrel between some
of the young citizens and the servants of the chapter, and ended in
the plundering and devastation of the cathedral and the residences
of the canons. The leader of the Evangelical party in Paderborn was
Johann Molner of Buren, a man who had been expelled from the city
in 1531 for murder and adultery; he left, taking with him as his
mistress the wife of the man he had murdered, and retired to Soest,
"where," says a contemporary writer, Daniel von Soest, "he did not
remain satisfied with this woman only." He returned to Paderborn as
a burning and shining gospel light, and led the iconoclastic riot.
Duke Philip of Grubenhagen supported his brother, and the town was
forced to pay 2,000 gulden for the damage done, and to promise to
pay damages if any further mischief took place, and this so cooled
the zeal of the citizens of Paderborn for the Gospel that it died
out.[65]
[64] Stürc, "Gerchichte v. Osnabrück." Osnab. 1826, pt. iii. p.
25.
[65] Vehse, "Geschichte der Deutschen Höfe." Hamburg, 1859, vol.
xlvii. p. 4-6. Bessen, "Geschichte v. Paderborn"; Paderb. 1820,
vol. ii. p. 33.
The chapter retired to Ludwigshausen for the purpose of electing
the successor to Bishop Eric, who had only occupied the see three
months; their choice fell on Francis von Waldeck, Bishop of Minden,
and then of Osnabrück. The choice was not fortunate; it was dictated
by the exigencies of the times, which required a man of rank and
power to occupy the vacant throne, so as to reduce the disorder by
force of arms. Francis of Waldeck was all this, but the canons were
not at that time aware that he had himself strong leanings towards
Lutheranism; and after he became Bishop of Münster he would have
readily changed the religion of the place, had it not been that such
a proceeding would, under the circumstances, have involved the loss
of his income as prince-bishop. Later, when the disturbances were at
an end, he proposed to the Estates the establishment of Lutheranism
and the suppression of Catholicism, as we shall see in the sequel.
He even joined the Smalkald union of the Protestant princes against
the Catholics in 1544.
With sentiments so favourable to the Reform, the new bishop would
have yielded everything to the agitators, had they not assumed a
threatening attitude, and menaced his temporal position and revenue,
which were the only things connected with the office for which he
cared.
The inferior clergy of Münster wrote energetically to him on his
appointment, complaining of the innovations which succeeded each
other with rapidity in the town. "The Lutheran party," said they in
this letter, "are growing daily more invasive and insolent," and
they implored the bishop to protect their rights and liberty of
conscience against the tyranny of the new party, who, not content
with worshipping God in their own way, refused toleration to others,
outraged their feelings by violating all they held most sacred, and
disturbed their services by unseemly interruptions.
Francis of Waldeck renewed the orders of his predecessor. The senate
acknowledged the receipt of his letter, and promised to answer it on
a future occasion.
However, the warmest partisans of Rottmann were resolved to carry
matters to a climax, and at once to overthrow both the episcopal and
the civil authority. Knipperdolling persuaded the butcher Modersohn
and the skinner Redekker that, as provosts of their guilds, they
were entitled to convene the members of their trades without the
intervention of the magistrates. These two men accordingly convoked
the people for the 1st July.[66] The assembly was numerously
attended, and opened tumultuously. When silence was obtained, a
certain Johann Windemuller rose and proclaimed the purpose of the
convention. "The affair is one of importance," said he; "we have to
maintain the glory of God, our eternal welfare, the happiness of all
our fellow-citizens, and the development of our franchises; all
these things depend on the sacred ecclesiastical liberty announced
to us by the worthy Rottmann. We must conclude an alliance against
the oppressors of the Gospel, that the doctrine of Rottmann, which
is incontestably the true one, may be protected." These words
produced such enthusiasm, that the audience shouted with one voice
that "they would defend Rottmann and his doctrine to their last
farthing, and the last drop of their blood." Some of those present,
by their silence, expressed their displeasure, but a draper named
Johann Mennemann had the courage to raise his voice against the
proposal. A furious band at once attacked him with their fists,
crying out that the enemies of the pure Gospel must be destroyed;
"already the bold draper was menaced with their daggers, when one
of his friends succeeded in effecting his escape from the popular
rage." However, he was obliged to appear before the heads of the
guilds and answer for his opposition. Mennemann replied, that
in weighty matters concerning the welfare of the commonwealth,
tumultuous proceedings were not likely to produce good resolutions,
and that he advised the separation of the corporations, that the
questions might be maturely considered and properly weighed.[67]
[66] Kerssenbroeck, p. 207; Dorpius, f. 391 b. 392.
[67] _Ibid._ p. 208.
The corporations of trades now appointed twenty-six individuals, in
addition to the provosts, to decide on measures adapted to carry
out the resolution. This committee decided "that one religion alone
should be taught in the town for the future and for ever after;"
and that "if any opposition was offered by the magistrates, the
whole body of the citizens should be appealed to."[68]
[68] Kerssenbroeck, p. 209.
These decisions were presented to the senate on the 11th July, which
replied that they were willing not to separate themselves from
evangelical truth, but that they were not yet satisfied on which
side it was to be found, and that they would ask the bishop to send
them learned theologians who should investigate the matter.
This reply irritated Rottmann, Knipperdolling, and their followers.
On the 12th July fresh messengers were sent to the Rath (senate) to
know whether it might be reckoned upon. The answer was equivocal.
A third deputation insisted on an answer of "Yes" or "No," and
threatened a general rising of the people unless their demands were
acceded to.[69] The magistrates, in alarm, promised their adhesion
to the wishes of the insurgents, who demanded at once that "sincere
preachers of the pure Gospel" should be installed in every church of
Münster. The councillors accordingly issued orders to all the clergy
of the city to adopt the articles of Bernard Rottmann, or to refute
them by scriptural arguments, or they must expect the Council to
proceed against them with the extremest rigour of the law.
[69] _Ibid._ pp. 210, 211.
Then, to place the seal on their cowardly conduct, they wrote to
the prince-bishop on the 25th, to excuse themselves of complicity
in the institution of Rottmann, but at the same time they undertook
the defence of the Reformer, and assured the bishop that his
doctrine was sound and irrefutable. At the same time they opened
a communication with the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, asking that
bulwark of the Reformation to protect them. Philip wrote back,
promising his intervention, but warning them not to make the Gospel
an excuse for revolt and disorder, and not to imagine that Christian
liberty allowed them to seize on all the property of the Church. At
the same time he wrote to the prince-bishop to urge upon him not to
deprive the good and simple people of Münster of their evangelical
preachers.[70]
[70] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 213-23.
In the meantime the seditious members of the town guilds grew
impatient; and on the 6th August they sent a deputation to the town
council reminding it of its promise, and insisting on the immediate
deprivation of all the Catholic clergy. The magistrates sought
to gain time, but the deputation threatened them with the people
taking the law into their own hands, rejecting the authority of the
council, and electing another set of magistrates.
"The Rath, on hearing this," says Kerssenbroeck, "were filled with
alarm, and they considered it expedient to yield, in part at least,
to the populace, and to deprive the clergy of their rights, rather
than to expose themselves rashly to the greatest dangers."[71]
[71] _Ibid._ p. 272.
They resolved therefore to forbid the Catholic clergy the use of
the pulpits of the churches, and to address the people in any form.
This was done at once, and all ceremonies "contrary to the pure word
of God" were abolished, and the faithful in the different parishes
were required to receive and maintain the new pastors commissioned
by the burgomaster and corporation to minister to them in things
divine.
On the 10th August, a crowd, headed by Rottmann, the preacher
Brixius, and Knipperdolling, fell upon the churches and completed
the work of devastation which had been begun in February. The
Cathedral and the Church of Ueberwasser alone escaped their
Vandalism, because the fanatics were afraid of arousing too strong
an opposition. The same day the celebration of mass and communion in
one kind were forbidden under the severest penalties; the priests
were driven out of their churches, and Rottmann, Brixius, Glandorp,
Rolle, Wertheim, and Gottfried Ninnhoven, Lutheran preachers, were
intruded in their room.[72]
[72] _Ibid._ pp. 228-34.
The peace among these new apostles of the true Gospel was, however,
subject to danger. Pastor Brixius had fallen in love with the sister
of Pastor Rottmann, and the appearance of the girl proved to every
one that the lovers had not waited for the ceremony of marriage.
Rottmann insisted on this brother pastor marrying the young woman to
repair the scandal. But no sooner was the bride introduced into the
parsonage of St. Martin, of which Brixius was in possession, than
the first wife of the evangelical minister arrived in Münster with
her two children. Brixius was obliged to send away the new wife, but
a coldness ensued between him and Rottmann; "however, fearing to
cause dissension amongst their adherents by an open quarrel, they
came to some arrangement, and Brixius retained his situation."[73]
[73] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 228, 229.
These acts of violence and scandals had inspired many of the
citizens with alarm. Those who were able sent their goods out of
the town; the nuns of Ueberwasser despatched their title-deeds
and sacred vessels to a place of safety. Several of the wealthy
citizens and senators, who would not give up their religion,
deserted Münster, and settled elsewhere. The two burgomasters,
Ebroin Drost and Willebrand Plonies, resigned their offices and
left the city never to return.[74] The provosts of the guilds next
insisted on the severe repression of all Catholic usages and the
performance of sacraments by the priests; they went further, and
insisted on belief in the sacrifice of the altar and adoration of
the Host being made penal. The clergy wrote to the bishop imploring
his aid, and assuring him that their position was daily becoming
more intolerable; but Francis of Waldeck recommended patience, and
promised his aid when it lay in his power to assist them.
[74] _Ibid._ p. 230.
On the 17th September, 1532, he convoked the nobles of the
principality at Wollbeck, gave them an account of the condition
of Münster, and conjured them to assist him in suppressing the
rebellion.[75] The nobles replied, that before adopting violent
measures, it would be advisable to attempt a reconciliation. Eight
commissioners were chosen from amongst the barons, who wrote to the
magistrates, and requested them to send their deputies to Wollbeck
on Monday, September 23rd, "so as to come to some decision on what
is necessary for the welfare of the republic." The envoys of the
city appeared, and after the opening of the assembly, the grand
marshal of the diocese described the condition of the city, and
declared that if it pursued its course of disobedience, the nobility
were prepared to assist their prince in re-establishing order. The
delegates were given eight days to frame an answer. The agitation
in Münster during these days was great. The evangelical preachers
lost no time in exciting the people. The deputies returned to the
conference with a vague answer that the best way to settle the
differences would be to submit them to competent and enlightened
judges; and so the matter dropped.
[75] _Ibid._ p. 248 _et seq._
The bishop's officers now captured a herd of fat cattle belonging to
some citizens of Münster, which were on their way to Cologne, and
refused to surrender them till the preachers of disaffection were
sent away.[76]
[76] Kerssenbroeck, pp. 268-9.
The party of Rottmann and Knipperdolling now required the town
council to raise 500 soldiers for the defence of the town, should
it be attacked by the prince-bishop--to strike 2000 ducats in
copper for the payment of the mercenaries, such money to circulate
in Münster alone--to order the sentinels to forbid egress to the
Catholic clergy, should they attempt to fly--and to impose on the
Catholic clergy a tax of 4000 florins a month for the support of
the troops. As the clergy had been deprived of their benefices,
forbidden to preach and minister the sacraments, this additional
act of persecution was intolerable in its injustice. The senate
accepted these requisitions with some abatement--the number of
soldiers was reduced to 300.[77]
[77] _Ibid._ p. 279 _et seq._
The bishop, finding that the confiscation of the oxen had not
produced the required results, adopted another expedient which
proved equally ineffectual. He closed all the roads by his cavalry,
declared the city in a state of blockade, and forbade the peasantry
taking provisions into Münster. The artizans then marched out and
took the necessary food; they paid for it, but threatened the
peasants with spoliation without repayment, unless they frequented
the market with their goods as usual. This menace produced its
effect; Münster continued to be provisioned as before.[78]
[78] _Ibid._ p. 283 _et seq._
Proud of their success, the innovators attacked Ueberwasser Church,
and ordered the abbess to dismiss the Catholic clergy who ministered
there, and to replace them by Gospel preachers. She declined
peremptorily, and the mob then drove the priests out of the church
and presbytery, and instituted Lutherans in their place.[79]
[79] _Ibid._ pp. 284, 285.
Notwithstanding the decrees of the senate, the priests continued
their exhortations and their ministrations in such churches as the
Evangelicals were unable to supply with pastors, of whom there was
a lack. Brixius, the bigamist minister of St. Martin's, having
found in one of them a monk preaching to a crowd of women, rushed
up into the pulpit, crying out that the man was telling them
lies; "but," says Kerssenbroeck, "the devotees surrounded the
unfortunate orator, beat him with their fists, slippers, wooden
shoes and staves, so that he fled the church, his face and body
black and blue." Probably these women bore him a grudge also for his
treatment of Rottmann's sister, which was no secret. "Furious at
this, he went next day to exhibit the traces of the combat to the
senate, entreating them to revenge the outrage he had received--he
a minister of the Holy Gospel; but, for the first time, the
magistrates showed some sense, and declared that they would not
meddle in the matter, because the guilty persons were too numerous,
and that some indulgence ought to be shown to the fair sex."[80]
[80] Kerssenbroeck, p. 330.
The town council now sent deputies to the Protestant princes, Dukes
Ernest and Francis of Lüneburg, the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and
Count Philip of Waldeck, brother of the prince-bishop, to promise
the adhesion of the city to the Smalkald union, and to request
their assistance against their bishop. The situation was singular.
The city sought assistance of the Protestant union against their
prince, desiring to overthrow his power, under the plea that he
was a Catholic bishop. And the bishop, at heart a Lutheran, and
utterly indifferent to his religious position and responsibilities,
was determined to coerce his subjects into obedience, that he
might retain his rank and revenue as prince, intending, when the
city returned to its obedience, to shake off his episcopal office,
to Lutheranize his subjects, and remain their sovereign prince,
and possibly transform the ecclesiastical into a hereditary
principality, the appanage of a family of which he would be the
founder. He had already provided himself with a concubine, Anna
Pölmann, by whom he had children.
Whilst the senate was engaged in treating with the Protestant
princes, negotiations continued with the bishop, at the diets
convoked successively at Dulmen and Wollbeck, but they were as
fruitless as before. The deputies separated on the 9th December,
agreeing to meet again on the 21st of the same month.
At this time there arrived in Münster a formal refutation of
the theses of Rottmann, by John of Deventer, provincial of the
Franciscans at Cologne.[81] The magistrates had repeatedly
complained that "the refusal of the Catholics to reply to Bernard
Rottmann was the sole cause of all the evil." At the same time they
had forbidden the Catholic clergy to preach or to make use of the
press in Münster. This answer came like a surprise upon them. It was
carried by the foes of the clergy to the magistrates. The news of
the appearance of this counterblast created the wildest excitement.
"The citizens, assembled in great crowds, ran about the streets to
hear what was being said. Some announced that the victory would
remain with Rottmann, others declared that he would never recover
the blow."
[81] Kerssenbroeck, p. 332.
The provosts of the guilds hastily drew up a petition to the senate
to expel the clergy from the town, and to confiscate their goods;
but the magistrates refused to comply with this requisition, which
would have at once stirred up civil war.[82]
[82] _Ibid._ pp. 335-7.
Rottmann mounted the pulpit on St. Andrew's day, and declared that
on the following Sunday he would refute the arguments of John of
Deventer. Accordingly, on the day appointed, he preached to an
immense crowd, taking for his text the words of St. Paul (Rom. xiii.
12), "The night is far spent, the day is at hand." The sermon was
not an answer to the arguments of John of Deventer, but a furious
attack upon the Pope and Catholicism. Knipperdolling also informed
the people that he would rather have his children killed and cooked
and served up for dinner than surrender his evangelical principles
and return to the errors of the past.[83]
[83] _Ibid._ p. 338.
On the 21st December, 1532, Francis of Waldeck assembled the diet
of the principality, and asked its advice as to the advisability
of proclaiming war against Münster, should the city persist in its
obstinacy.[84] The clergy and nobles replied that, according to
immemorial custom, the prince must engage in war at his own cost,
and that they were too heavily burdened with taxes for the Turkish
war to enable them to undertake fresh charges. Francis of Waldeck
reminded them that he was obliged to pay a pension of 2000 florins
to his predecessor, Frederick von Wied, and he affirmed that he also
was not in a condition to have recourse to arms.
[84] _Ibid._ p. 340 _et seq._
Whilst the prince, his barons and canons were deliberating, Rottmann
had assumed the ecclesiastical dictatorship in the cathedral city,
and had ordered, on his sole authority, the suppression of the
observance of fast-days.
The spirit of opposition and protestation that had been evoked
already manifested itself in strange excesses. "Some of the
Evangelicals refused to have the bread put into their mouths at
Communion," says Kerssenbroeck, "but insisted on helping themselves
from the table, or they stained themselves in taking long draughts
at the large chalices. It is even said that some placed the bread
in large soup tureens, and poured the wine upon it, and took it out
with spoons and forks, so that they might communicate in both kinds
at one and the same moment."[85]
[85] Kerssenbroeck, p. 347.
The Reformer of Münster began to entertain and to express doubts as
to the validity of the baptism of infants, which he considered had
not the warrant of Holy Scripture. Melancthon wrote urgently to him,
imploring him not to create dissensions in the Evangelical Church by
disturbing the arrangement many wise men had agreed upon. "We have
enemies enough," added Melancthon; "they will be rejoiced to see us
tearing each other and destroying one another.... I speak with good
intention, and I take the liberty of giving my advice, because I am
devoted to you and to the Church."[86]
[86] _Ibid._ p. 348.
Luther wrote as well, not to Rottmann, but to the magistrates
of Münster, praising their love of the Gospel, and urging them
to beware of being drawn away by the damnable errors of the
Sacramentarians, Zwinglians, _aliorumque schwermerorum_.[87] The
senators received this apostolic epistle with the utmost respect
and reverence imaginable; they communicated it to Rottmann and
his colleagues, and ordered them to obey it. But the senate had
long lost its authority; and this injunction was disregarded.[88]
"Disorder and infidelity made progress; the idle, rogues,
spendthrifts, thieves, and ruined persons swelled the crowd of
Evangelists."[89]
[87] _Ibid._ p. 349.
[88] Kerssenbroeck, p. 351.
[89] _Ibid._ p. 351.