John of Leiden

…Jan Mathijs (died 1534) and John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson; died 1536), and many persecuted Anabaptists settled in Münster, Westphalia. Hofmann’s disciples were attracted to the city by dramatic changes that occurred there in the early 1530s. Under the influence of the reformer Bernhard Rothman, Anabaptist sentiment was strong enough…

…in 1536 the Anabaptists’ “king,” John of Leiden (Jan Beuckelson), was executed with two of his accomplices; the iron cages in which their bodies were publicly exhibited still hang in the Gothic tower of St. Lambert’s Church. A neutralized Münster was the scene of the peace congress (1645–48) that resulted…

…the leadership of the millenarian John of Leiden, had taken control of the town of Münster and were under siege from the bishop and local nobles. On April 7, 1535, the Olde Klooster near Bolsward, which had been occupied by the Anabaptists as a staging area for aid to Münster,…