III. The Enthusiasts of Zwickau

The Hussite War was not without its influence upon the obscure and feeble beginning of the communistic movement of Germany which was comprised under the name of the “Beghard doctrine”. The ruling classes were stimulated by this war to a greater mistrust of, and severity towards, all the suspicious agitations among the lower orders, while, on the other hand, Bohemia became an asylum from which the German emigrants could exert their influence on their own country. Czech Taborites zealously supported the propaganda in foreign lands, and to them also the Hussite propaganda in Germany can almost always be traced back. The Hussite spirit in the armies of the “Brethren” grew so strong that they desired to spread its doctrine over the whole world; and the bold thought was more than once expressed that all Christendom should, either by force of arms or by the path of peaceful teaching, be brought to accept the Truth. The so-called letters of heretics, those popular manifestoes of the Taborites, wherein they summoned all Christians, without distinction of nation or rank, to free themselves from priestly domination and to confiscate Church property, were carried to England and Spain, while in Dauphiné the people sent contributions in money to Bohemia, and began in good Taborite fashion to murder their lords. In the south of Germany we find the Taborite emissaries more active than any others. Two facts in particular did great service to the propaganda – the existence of the numerous Waldenses congregations, and the strong socialistic tendency which made itself noticeable, especially among the lower strata of the town folk, and threatened the rich hierarchy quite as much as it did the Jews.

Of course the communistic sects could only exist in the form of secret societies. The Brethren, therefore, usually resided in out-of-the-way mills, hamlets, and farms, and assembled in small numbers when they held their services, thus avoiding every sort of notice.

After the futile attempt of the Pope and the Emperor to crush Luther, after the burning of the Papal Bull by the latter, and still more after the Imperial Diet at Worms, the cave-dwellers, like other rebellious spirits, plucked up courage to make an advance.

When social and political powers have lost their material foundation, their best support is their traditional credit and prestige. By means of these they can, under certain circumstances, maintain themselves for a long time against superior opponents. But the longer they do so the more terrible is the downfall when, in a trial of strength, this prestige proves to be merely a hollow show.

The Emperor and Pope experienced the truth of this during the years 1520 and 1521. Hitherto no one had ever defied them both at the same time with impunity. The less the lower strata of the people recognised that the princes and knights were in reality supporting Luther, the more isolated he appeared to be consequently the result of the Diet must have influenced the great masses most powerfully. If the truth were so strong that a single monk could defend it, undismayed and unpunished, before the greatest rulers of Christendom, then all who had a good cause to defend might unhesitatingly venture to step forward.

Saxony was the first to move. A few weeks after the declaration of the Diet against Luther and his friends (June, 1521) the people of Erfurt rose in a series of insurrections and put an end to the Catholic Church government. In Wittenberg also there were disturbances but the agitations in Zwickau, which began in the year 1520, are of the most importance to us. From very ancient times and until the Thirty Years’ War, cloth weaving was the chief trade. As early as 1348, when statutes were enacted respecting this industry, the clothmakers formed a guild, which was the most important, and apparently the oldest in the place and in the second half of the fifteenth century Zwickau, next to Oschatz, supplied the largest amount and the best quality of cloth in Meissen, although it did not always come up to the standard of the much admired material from London and the Netherlands. In 1540, two hundred and thirty clothmakers might be counted among the householders but an old and not unfounded tradition tells us that at that flourishing period their numbers amounted to six hundred.

It is with this “flourishing period” that we are now dealing. During the ten years of the Peasant War, from 15,000 to 20,000 stone of wool were used in manufacture, and from 10,000 to 20,000 pieces of cloth were produced annually.

The clothmakers had something more than an economic importance. From their numbers they formed a considerable portion of the population of the town, which at that time contained nearly 1,ooo houses; so that in the “flourishing period” from one-quarter to one-half of the houses belonged to the clothmaker masters in any case they possessed more than 230, and probably nearer 600.

The manufacture of cloth had become an important industry, and the trade was in the hands of great merchants. This was nothing unusual; but the proximity of the Zwickau weavers to the workers in the Saxon mines was a unique circumstance, and the rebellious, defiant spirit of the latter must have given courage to the journeymen clothmakers, while the communistic enthusiasm of the latter must in its turn have infected the miners. We cannot wonder therefore that the communists in and about Zwickau were the first during the Reformation in Germany to dare to assert themselves openly. As early as 1520 we find an organised community there with chiefs, called “Apostles”, as among the Waldenses. The long yearning for the millennium now appeared to them to be on the eve of gratification, through the medium of a frightful visitation from God – a violent revolution. Though their principal adherents were the clothmakers of the town, they gained followers from among the miners, and many persons of education also joined them, of whom we may mention Max Stübner, who had studied at Wittenberg with one of the “Apostles”. Their leader was the weaver Nicholas Storch.

They also acquired some influence beyond Zwickau, and even in Wittenberg itself, where, besides the lower classes, some idealists joined the agitation. At that time class antagonism in the Reformation had not shown themselves; it still bore the aspect, on the one hand, of a national movement without distinction of class, while, on the other hand, it appeared as a purely religious struggle for the purification of the Church and the re-establishment of evangelical Christianity.

We have pointed out how easy it was for the idealists (who were not directly interested in exploiting the lower classes) to show their sympathy with the communistic movement at this stage, supported as it was by early Christian tradition.

The enthusiasts of Zwickau made a deep impression even upon Melancthon, Luther’s friend and fellow-worker. “One sees by many signs,” said he, “that firm spirits dwell in them.” He wrote to the Elector Frederick about Nicholas Storch:– “I have observed about him thus much, that he has the true conception of the Scriptures, with the noblest and highest articles of the faith he has also a great gift of speaking.” Frederick himself, in consequence of the demeanour of the theologians, did not know rightly what to think of the enthusiasts. Melancthon was clever enough not to compromise himself, but to leave to Luther the decision upon the true character of these enthusiastic spirits. But he felt himself so drawn towards them that he took one of the “Apostles” (the Stübner mentioned above) into his house. Luther could not tell him much about the Zwickau sect at first; he lived on the Wartburg, where he was awaiting the results of the ban of the Empire which had been promulgated against him. What the Brethren were driving at however was made clear to him soon enough, and he came forward energetically against them.

Luther’s friend and colleague, Karlstadt, favoured these enthusiasts far more decidedly than did Melancthon. The Lutheran movement advanced much too slowly for Karlstadt’s revolutionary vehemence. He took up the contest against the celibacy of the priests and the Latin Mass much earlier than Luther, who only followed his lead with hesitation. He went further than merely denouncing sacred pictures and the keeping of Lent. Quite in the Beghard and Taborite manner, the learned Professor condemned every form of scholarship, declaring that it was not the learned, but the working classes, who should preach the gospel the former should learn from the latter, and the high-schools ought to be shut.

By far the most prominent among the adherents of the Apostle of Zwickau, however, was Thomas Münzer. From the year 1521 to 1525 he was the centre of the whole communistic movement in Germany. His figure rises so conspicuously in all its concerns, its history is so closely connected with him, and all contemporary evidence about it refers so exclusively to him, that we will follow the usual method and relate Münzer’s history, as the history of the communistic movement in the first years of the Reformation.