Title:                 Epilogus corum quae acta sunt Monasterii per Catabaptistas

Author:             Eberhardus of Cologne (1^st half of 16^th century)

Publisher:         

Origin:              [Cologne]

Date:                c. 1536

Description:      Pamphlet

Unknown and undescribed fugitive pamphlet of the Anabaptist movement at Münster, 1534-35. It is a Catholic polemic against the Anabaptists, in the form of a miniature history of the struggle at Münster, with special censure of their leader, Jan of Leyden. It is signed at the end by “Eberhardus, Carmelita Agrippinen (sis)” (Eberhard, Carmelite of Cologne). It may be a Latin version of the Warhafftiger bericht der underbarlichenn handlung, der Deuffer zu Münster…, three impressions of which are recorded by P. Bahlmann in his bibliography of “Die Wiedertäufer zu Münster” (Zeitschrift für Vaterländische Geschichte und Altertumskunde, 1893, vol. 51), as Nos. 20a-b-c. But the present volume is known neither to Bahlmann nor to the continuer of his bibliography, Kl. Loeffler (“Z. Bibl. D. Münsterischen Wiedertäufer,” Zentralbl. für Bibliotheksween, Vol. 24).

            The first leaf of the pamphlet contains a woodcut portrait of Jan of Leyden (Johann Buckholdt, Beukelsz, or Bockeszoon, 1508-1536), “King of the Anabaptists” at Münster, with the following heading: “Ad vinam Effigim. Regis Anabaptistarum Monasterien. Etatis 26.” He is shown with the miter, scepters, and other paraphernalia of his office. This cut is described by Max Geisberg, Die Münsterischen Wiedertäufer und Aldegrever (in Studien zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 76. heft, Strassburg, 1907), as No. 51, being the title cut of the Warhafftiger Bericht listed by Bahlmann. But Geisberg’s reproduction (p. 39) shows the cut in reverse.

            “Anabaptists” is a name given by their enemies to various sects which on the occasion of Luther’s revolt from Romanism denied the validity of infant baptism, and so “re-baptized.” The movement began in 1521 at Wittenberg. Driven from this city and from Zürich, they swarmed over the German country-side. In the Peasants’ War of South Germany, 1525, their leader, Thomas Munzer, was executed. A second and more determined attempt to establish a theocracy was made at Münster, 1532-1535. Jan of Leyden and his aide, Jan Matthiessen of Haarlem, obtained possession of the town. In April 1534, they were besieged by the expelled bishop, Francis of Waldeck, Matthiessen was lost in the first sally, and Buckholdt reigned supreme. He ruled licentiously for 12 months; the town was then again besieged and re-taken, and Buckholdt and some of his followers were executed in the market-place. After this crisis, the Anabaptist movement had little further political importance, but remained a considerable religious sect.

            Such fugitive pieces are excessively rare, since many were destroyed in the troubled times of their publication. The present is perhaps the unique surviving copy of this document.

                                    Developed from document provenance.