Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness: The Overthrow of Münster, the Famous Metropolis of Westphalia (set 2 volumes)
Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness: The Overthrow of Münster, the Famous Metropolis of Westphalia (set 2 volumes)

Author: Hermann von Kerssenbrock

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2007-07-30

Total Pages: 790

ISBN-13: 9047421159

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the only accurate translation of the main contemporary historical source for the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster (1534-35). Written by Hermann von Kerssenbrock, a young Catholic eyewitness who later became a schoolmaster, the monumental Latin original was never printed during the author’s life, and circulated only in manuscript format until the editio princeps of 1899/1900; the only previous translation was an unreliable German version written in 1771. This work contains a number of documents not otherwise available, and the author’s conceptions have had a profound influence on later interpretations of the lurid events surrounding one of the most unusual occurrences of the German Reformation. The extensive introduction and notes place the text in its historical context.

Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness
Narrative of the Anabaptist Madness

Author: Hermann von Kerssenbroch

Publisher: Studies in the History of Chri

Published: 2007

Total Pages: 772

ISBN-13: 9789004157217

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This is the only accurate translation of the main historical source for the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster (1534-35). The author's conceptions have had a profound influence on later interpretation of one of the most unusual events of the German Reformation.

Monsters of Munster
Monsters of Munster

Author: U S Military

Publisher: Independently Published

Published: 2018-07-13

Total Pages: 114

ISBN-13: 9781717750631

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This fascinating and richly detailed December 2017 study examines the role of apocalyptic narrative in shaping collective identity and collective action to help better understand groups that turn to violence. Because such narratives deal with the ultimate and supernatural, they can be effective in causing believers to disregard worldly consequences and forgo worldly benefits to support transcendent goals. In the Anabaptist Kingdom of Munster (1533-1535), a certain apocalyptic narrative developed that led to brutal acts of violence within the city, and a desire to spread the kingdom to the entire world. Several prominent elements in the kingdom's narrative developed over time to justify the Anabaptists' use of violence: (1) the arrival of the time of judgment, (2) a clear distinction between those who require judgment and those who do not, (3) a divinely sanctioned administration, and (4) a call for the group to administer justice on earth. These elements were not the inevitable result of starting with an apocalyptic narrative but were shaped by both internal dynamics and external conflict. By understanding how such elements develop, defense practitioners will be better able to exploit certain internal dynamics and anticipate (or even alter) how their confrontations with such groups affect the development of the narrative. With the rise of al-Qaeda and its attack on September 11, religiously motivated violence has been the subject of numerous recent academic studies. More recently, the Islamic State (IS) has brought attention to the role of apocalyptic beliefs in motivating violent acts. However, history demonstrates that both religious violence and apocalyptic beliefs are clearly not a new phenomenon, and not isolated to Islam. Thus, it is helpful to examine cases that fall outside our contemporary environment to better understand the causes of religious violence and avoid falsely attributing the violence to factors unique to our situation. The Munster Rebellion during the Radical Reformation in early sixteenth-century Europe provides a case in which an apocalyptic narrative motivated brutality and violence within the city of Munster. This thesis examines this particular apocalyptic narrative to increase our understanding of apocalyptic narratives in general

False Prophets and Preachers
False Prophets and Preachers

Author:

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 0271091266

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In February 1534, a radical group of Anabaptists, gripped with apocalyptic fervor, seized the city of Münster and established an idealistic communal government that quickly deteriorated into extreme inequality and theocratic totalitarianism. In response, troops hired by the city's prince-bishop laid siege to the city. Fifteen months later the besieged inhabitants were starving, and, in the dead of the night, five men slipped out. Separated from his fellow escapees, Henry Gresbeck gambled with his life by approaching enemy troops. Taken prisoner, he collaborated with the enemy to devise a plan to recapture Münster, and later recorded the only eyewitness account of the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster. Gresbeck's account, which attempts to explain his role in the bizarre events, disappeared into the archives and was largely ignored for centuries. Before now, Gresbeck's account was only available in a heavily edited German copy adapted from inferior manuscripts. Christopher S. Mackay, who previously produced the only modern translation of the main Latin account of these events, has adhered closely to Gresbeck’s own words to produce the first complete and accurate English translation of this important primary source.

False Prophets and Preachers
False Prophets and Preachers

Author:

Publisher: Penn State Press

Published: 2016-04-01

Total Pages: 348

ISBN-13: 0271091266

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In February 1534, a radical group of Anabaptists, gripped with apocalyptic fervor, seized the city of Münster and established an idealistic communal government that quickly deteriorated into extreme inequality and theocratic totalitarianism. In response, troops hired by the city's prince-bishop laid siege to the city. Fifteen months later the besieged inhabitants were starving, and, in the dead of the night, five men slipped out. Separated from his fellow escapees, Henry Gresbeck gambled with his life by approaching enemy troops. Taken prisoner, he collaborated with the enemy to devise a plan to recapture Münster, and later recorded the only eyewitness account of the Anabaptist kingdom of Münster. Gresbeck's account, which attempts to explain his role in the bizarre events, disappeared into the archives and was largely ignored for centuries. Before now, Gresbeck's account was only available in a heavily edited German copy adapted from inferior manuscripts. Christopher S. Mackay, who previously produced the only modern translation of the main Latin account of these events, has adhered closely to Gresbeck’s own words to produce the first complete and accurate English translation of this important primary source.

The Tailor-King
The Tailor-King

Author: Anthony Arthur

Publisher: Macmillan

Published: 2011-04-01

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9781429970433

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

He was only a Dutch tailor's apprentice, but from 1534 to 1535, Jan van Leyden led a radical sect of persecuted Anabaptists to repeated triumphs over the combined powers of church and state. Revered by his followers as the new David, the charismatic young leader pronounced the northern German city of Muenster a new Zion and crowned himself king. He expropriated all private property, took sixteen wives (supposedly emulating the biblical patriarchs), and in a deadly reign of terror, executed all who opposed him. As the long siege of Muenster resulted in starvation, thousands fled Jan's deadly kingdom while others waited behind the double walls and moats for the apocalyptic final attack by the Prince-Bishop's hired armies, supported by all the rulers of Europe. With the sudden rise to power of a compelling personality and the resulting violent threat to ordered society, Jan van Leyden's distant story strangely echoes the many tragedies of the twentieth century. More than just a fascinating human drama from the past, The Tailor-King also offers insight into our own troubled times.

The Delusions of Crowds
The Delusions of Crowds

Author: William J. Bernstein

Publisher: Grove Press

Published: 2021-02-23

Total Pages: 491

ISBN-13: 0802157114

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This “disturbing yet fascinating” exploration of mass mania through the ages explains the biological and psychological roots of irrationality (Kirkus Reviews). From time immemorial, contagious narratives have spread through susceptible groups—with enormous, often disastrous, consequences. Inspired by Charles Mackay’s nineteenth-century classic Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, neurologist and author William Bernstein examines mass delusion through the lens of current scientific research in The Delusions of Crowds. Bernstein tells the stories of dramatic religious and financial mania in western society over the last five hundred years—from the Anabaptist Madness of the 1530s to the dangerous End-Times beliefs that pervade today’s polarized America; and from the South Sea Bubble to the Enron scandal and dot com bubbles. Through Bernstein’s supple prose, the participants are as colorful as their “desire to improve one’s well-being in this life or the next.” Bernstein’s chronicles reveal the huge cost and alarming implications of mass mania. He observes that if we can absorb the history and biology of this all-too-human phenomenon, we can recognize it more readily in our own time, and avoid its frequently dire impact.

Chosen Nation
Chosen Nation

Author: Benjamin W. Goossen

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2019-05-28

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 069119274X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the global Mennonite church developed an uneasy relationship with Germany. Despite the religion's origins in the Swiss and Dutch Reformation, as well as its longstanding pacifism, tens of thousands of members embraced militarist German nationalism. Chosen Nation is a sweeping history of this encounter and the debates it sparked among parliaments, dictatorships, and congregations across Eurasia and the Americas. Offering a multifaceted perspective on nationalism's emergence in Europe and around the world, Benjamin Goossen demonstrates how Mennonites' nationalization reflected and reshaped their faith convictions. While some church leaders modified German identity along Mennonite lines, others appropriated nationalism wholesale, advocating a specifically Mennonite version of nationhood. Examining sources from Poland to Paraguay, Goossen shows how patriotic loyalties rose and fell with religious affiliation. Individuals might claim to be German at one moment but Mennonite the next. Some external parties encouraged separatism, as when the Weimar Republic helped establish an autonomous "Mennonite State" in Latin America. Still others treated Mennonites as quintessentially German; under Hitler's Third Reich, entire colonies benefited from racial warfare and genocide in Nazi-occupied Ukraine. Whether choosing Germany as a national homeland or identifying as a chosen people, called and elected by God, Mennonites committed to collective action in ways that were intricate, fluid, and always surprising. The first book to place Christianity and diaspora at the heart of nationality studies, Chosen Nation illuminates the rising religious nationalism of our own age.