Book Burning in the New Jerusalem

Rotting remains of rebellion leaders hung from steeple of St. Lambert's Church.

Portrait of the Anabaptist leader Jan van Leiden as King of Munster, by Heinrich Aldegrever

When Anabaptists secured control of the German town of Münster (1534-35), declaring it the New Jerusalem¹ they burned the relics of the Antichrist — religious icons and books— in the square in front of the cathedral.² The possession and reading of all books was banned except the Old and New Testaments and thousands of manuscripts loaded onto large bonfires.³

Money and property were outlawed.⁴ The leaders, John of Leiden (king), Bernard Knipperdolling and Bernard Krechting (overcome by Count Franz von Waldeck) were tortured and executed in the marketplace of Münster. Their bodies were put in cages about the size of coffins, and hung from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church, where they remained for fifty years. The cages still hang from the church’s steeple.⁵

Still there today—cages in which rotting remains of rebellion leaders were hung from the steeple of St. Lambert's Church

(It wasn’t the book burning for which they were executed..more likely taking property, starving the residents, use of force against non-believers and polygamy).

1. Kerssenbroch, Hermann von, and Christopher S. Mackay. 2007. Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness : The Overthrow of Münster, the Famous Metropolis of Westphalia. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions. Leiden: Brill.

2. Hillerbrand, Hans J. "On Book Burnings and Book Burners: Reflections on the Power (And Powerlessness) of Ideas." Journal of the American Academy of Religion 74, no. 3 (2006): 600.

3. Kyle Orton’s blog has a very good summary: The Munster Millenarians: Anabaptism and the Radical Reformation.

4. Cohn, Norman. The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages. New York: Oxford University Press, 1957.

5. Gresbeck, Heinrich, and Christopher S. Mackay. 2016. False Prophets and Preachers : Henry Gresbeck’s Account of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Münster. Early Modern Studies. Kirksville, Missouri: Truman State University Press.