Polygamy
The Anabaptists of Münster evoked the strongest aversion
by their introduction of polygamy in the summer of 1534. Undoubtedly abuses
occurred then. After a few days the leaders felt obliged to adjust the situation.
Women that had been forced to marry against their will had their freedom
reinstated. Later, after his arrest, Jan of Leiden himself admitted in a conversation
with two ministers that the introduction, although not sinful, was untimely and
therefore incorrect. In the meantime he had become aware that one cannot stray
too far from the general moral code without being punished.
Therefore, however, understandable it is that this
ethics of marriage gave offence (and piqued curiosity), the judgement on this
issue should be given more nuance than is usually the case. More factors play a
role than, as Klemens Löffler states, only the giving in to sensual lusts by
Jan of Leiden. In this matter, too, the report of Berssenbroch in particular
needs to be regarded critically. He related that one night a deserted solider caught
Jan of Leiden in the act of adultery in Knipperdolling’s house. In order to
avoid exposure, polygamy was quickly introduced. This, of course, is too
simplistic a representation of the facts. Jan of Leiden was man enough to deal
with a situation like this in another way, for example, by executing the
solider in question. There is more to be said.
First, one needs to realize that from the very
start the besiegers spread the wildest rumours about the moral life of the
Anabaptists. Some of them were probably motivated by fear. They had left wives
and children in the city, expecting that the Anabaptist rule would last only a
few days, several weeks at most. It was unthinkable that a relatively small group
of people with no military experience could defend a city like Münster against
well-trained soldiers for a longer period. Therefore, months before the
introduction of polygamy, the Anabaptists had to defend themselves against
rumours which reveal more about the fear of the inhabits who had fled and about
the imagination of the besiegers than about the moral life within the town
itself. In pamphlets the Anabaptists called on their critics to come and investigate
the alleged adultery themselves. ‘Our life has been arranged before God in such
a way that no one among us who is guilty of shameful conduct is left unpunished’
(Löffler, Die Wiedertäufer zu Münster, p. 87. In another pamphlet is
stated explicitly that the accusations about the moral conduct within Münster
stem from the refugees. ‘This kind of lie has been made up impudently by the
refugees:’ Ibid., p. 99). ‘We do not share our wives with one another,’ Rothmann
wrote in a confession of faith which also stems from the first phase of the
siege, ‘Neither do we abrogate the rules concerning blood ties’ (Stupperich, Die
Schriften Bernhard Rothmanns, p. 205).
IT is even possible that the accusation that the
Anabaptists would have appropriated women with the infamous words ‘My spirit
desires your flesh’, was already uttered before polygamy was introduced. IT
cannot be ascertained with certainty when this association was first made. The
origin of the words, however, is known. They are to be found in late medieval
monastic literature, for example in Thomas a Kempis’s volume of tracts De
Imitatione Christi, ‘Anima mea corpus tuum concupiscit’, but here it refers
to the soul’s desire to receive the body of Christ during the Eucharistic celebration
(Thomas a Kempis, De Imitatione Christi, ed. J. M. Horstius [Tournai,
1828], vol. IV, 3, 1, p. 191). Anabaptist radicals did not shrink from unmannerly
ridicule of Catholic practices. Even during the final stage of the siege Jan of
Leiden could organize a mocking mass, at which a jester who in earlier times
had served as prebendary, was dressed in Catholic vestments. Rat’s heads, bats
and bones were sacrificed. All other masses you ever attended were no more
valuable than this one, Rothmann told the people afterwards (The story has been
transmitted to us by Gresbeck; see Cornelius, Berichte der Augenzeugen,
pp. 150 ff.). So it is quite conceivable that the Münsterites mockingly applied
the pious words of people like Thomas a Kempis to relations other than those
that can exist between the believing soul and Christ. Their mockery now turned
against them, but this does not necessarily mean that their moral decline was
really this great.
Polygamy is likely to have been introduced to
prevent worse. The situation was very complicated. As was mentioned, rich
citizens had left their wives, expecting a speedy return. The number of nuns
that had chosen the new covenant was considerable. Kerssenbroch writes with
clear disdain about the eagerness with which they had left the convents. From
elsewhere cam men such as Jan of Leiden who had left their families at home.
The men formed a minority. Their number has been estimated as 2,000. There were
about three times as many women (The numbers given in the confessions of
Anabaptists vary a great deal, but always the number of women appears to be
considerably higher than the number of men. Gresbeck gives the following
estimates: 2000 men, 8000 to 9000 women, 1000to 1200 children, in Cornelius
Berichte der Augenzeugen, p. 107. See Ramstedt, Sekte und soziale
Bewegung, p. 103). (Auke Jelsma, Frontiers of the Reformation:
Dissidence and Orthodoxy in Sixteenth-Century Europe [Aldershot, U.K.:
Ashgate, 1998], 66-68)
