Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/502

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446

ANACLETXTS 446 ANACLETUS Aluhlhausen, had prepared the ground for the new gosix?l. Miinzer and Pfcifer became absolute mas- ters of the city, and crowds of peasants and burghers who, discontented with prevaiUng conditions, flocked around them, pillaged and devastated the surround- ing country. To quell the insurrectionary move- ment John,"the Elector of Saxony, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, and Henry, Duke of Brunswick, united their forces and attacked the peasants, led by Munzer at Frankenhausen (1525). The insurgents were utterly defeated, .fter the liattle Munzer was discoered at p>ankenhausen in a bed in which he had hidden, and was delivered up to the executioner. He re- ceived the sacraments of the Catholic Church before his death, while his associate Pfeifer, still impenitent, underwent the death penalty (1525). (6) The Su-iss Anabaplist Movement (1523-25). — Like Luther, Zwingli, the originator of the Reforma- tion in Switzerland, soon found more radical com- pel itore. In 1525 some of his associates separated from him and preaclied rebaptism and communism. The party found two capable leaders in John Denk and Balthasar Hubmaier. Its following, recruited especially from the working classes, became con- siaerable, not only in Switzerland, but also in south- ern Germany and Austria. Augsburg, Nuremberg, and, at a later date, Strasburg became the chief centres of the mo'ement. Resistance to its spread came from two sources. The Anabaptists' teaching added substantially to the causes of the Peasants' War which broke out (1524) in the very territory where the Anabaptists had carried on their propa- ganda. As a consequence the defeat of the peasants (1525) meant, to a great extent, the dispersion of the Anabaptists. On the other hand, some town coun- cils as that of Zurich (1526) decreed the severest pen- alties against their adherents. Still in spite of defeat and constant repression, the sect continued to live. (f) The Aruibaptists in MUnder (1533-35).— The spread of the Anabaptists in lower Germany and the Netherlands must largely be ascribed to the activity of Melchior Hofmann, a widely travelled furrier. The arrival of some of his disciples (Melchior- ites) at Munster in Westphalia (1533-34) marks the beginning of the most extraordinary period in the history of the Anabaptists and the city of Munster. In the latter, Bernard Rothmann a chaplain, and KnipperdoUinck a cloth-merchant, had already suc- ceeded in diffusing Lutheran ideas. They joined the Anabaptist movement, of which John Matthys or Matthiessen, a former baker, and John Bockelsohn or Bockold, a Dutch tailor (more generally known as John of Leyden), became two great local represen- tatives. KnipperdoUinck w-as elected burgomaster (February, 1534) and the city passed under the com- plete and unrestricted control of the partisans of rebaptism. Munster, instead of Strasburg, was to become the centre of the projected conquest of the world, the "New Jerusalem", the founding of which was signalized by a reign of terror and indescribable orgies. Treasures of literature and art were de- stroyed; communism, polygamy, and community of women were introduced, llothmann took unto him- self four wives and John of Leyden, sixteen. The latter was proclaimed King of the "New Sion", when Francis of Waldeck, Bishop and temporal lord of the city, had already begun its siege (1534). In June, L535, the defence became more and more hopeless, and John, as a last means of escape, deter- mined upon .setting fire to the city. His plan was frustrated by the unexpected capture of the town by the besiegers (24 June, 1.535). The King, his lieutenant KnipperdoUinck, and his chancellor Krechting were seized, and after .six months' im- prisonment and torture, expcutcd. As a terrible warning, (heir bodies were suspended in iron cages from the tower of St Lambert s church. III. Results. The Aruibaptists in England. — Along with the fanatic element, there was always in the Anabaptist party a more pacific current represented especially by its Swiss adherents. The effect of the fall of Munster and of the determined repression of Anabaptists by Catholics, Lutherans, and Zwing- lians alike, was the very pronounced and ultimately complete elimination of the violent features of the movement. Menno Simonis, formerly a Catholic Criest, who joined the party in 1536, exercised a eneficent influence in that direction. The verj- name Anabaptists was superseded by others, particu- larly that of Mennonites. It is under the latter designation that the Anabaptists e.xist to-day, principaUy in Holland, Germany, and the United States. Another result of the capture of Miinster seems to have been the appearance of Anabaptists in England, where they come into frequent notice shortly after this time and continue to be mentioned during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Their following there was in all probability largely composed of Dutch and German refugees. The penalties of death and banishment enforced against them prevented the sect from acquiring importance. The Anabaptists' teaching respecting infant baptism was adopted by the English and American Baptists (See B-VPTisTs). Kerssenbroch, Anabaptistiri iuroris monasterium inditam Westpkalue metropolim evertentis historica narratio. ed. Detmer (Miinster, 1899, 1900): Cornelius, Geschichte des miinsteri- schen Aufruhrs (Leipzig. 1855, I860): Janssen, Geachichte des deittschm Volkes (Freiburg and St. Louis, Mo.. 1897), 11, 231- 238, 394-410, 557-571, III, 109-121. 326-351, tr. Hist, of the German People (St. Louis, Mo., and London, 1900, 1903), in, 256-263, IV, 87-117, 217-222, 291-310, V, 150-165. 449- 485: Newman, A History of Anti-Pedobaptism from the Rise of Pedobapiism to A. D. 1609 (Philadelphia, 1897), with extensive bibliography, 395-406: Idem, A History of the Baptist Churches in the United Stales (New York, 1894), in Amer. Church Hist. Series, II, 1-56: Bax, Rise and Fall of the Anabaptists (London, 1903): BuHRAGE, A History of the Anabaptists in Switzerland (Philadelphia, 1905); Tumbclt, Die Wiedertaufer (Leipzig, 1899). N. A. Weber. Anacletus, Saint and Pope, was the second succes- sor of St. Peter. Whether he was the same as Cletus, who is also called Anencletus as well as Anacletus, has been the subject of endless discussion. Irenjeus, Euse- bius, Augustine, Optatus, use both names indifferently as of one person. TertuUian omits him altogether. To add to the confusion, the order is different. Thus Irena^us has Linus, Anacletus, Clement; whereas Augustine and Optatus put Clement before Anacletus. On the other hand, the "Catalogus Liberianus", the "Carmen contra Marcionem" and the "Liber Pontificalis ", all most respectable for their antiquity, make Cletus and Anacletus distinct from each other; while the "Catalogus Felicianus" even sets the latter down as a Greek, the former as a Roman. Among the moderns, Hergenrother (Hist, de I'dglise, I, 542, note) pronounces for their identity. So also the BoUandist De Smedt (Dissert., vii, 1). DoUinger (Christenth. u K., 315) declares that "they are, without doubt, the same person"; and that "the 'Catalogue of Liberius' merits little confidence before 230." Duchesne, " Origines clir6- tiennes", ranges himself on that side also; but Jung- mann (Dissert. Hist. Eed., I, 123) leaves the question in doubt. The chronology is, of course, in consetiuence of all this, very imdetermined, but Du- chesne, in his "Origines", says "we are far from the day when the years, months, and days of the Pontifi- cal C:italogue can be gion with any guarantee of exactness. But is it necessary to be exact about popes of whom wo know so little? We can accept the list of Irena>us, Linus, Anacletus, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Xystus, Telesphorus, Hygimis, Pius, and Anicetus. Anicetus reigned iort;iinly in 154. That is all we can .say with assurance about primitive pontifical chronology." That he ordained