Background
Also known as Jan Beuckels or Bockelszoon, John was born on February 2, 1509 in a village near Leiden.
Also known as Jan Beuckels or Bockelszoon, John was born on February 2, 1509 in a village near Leiden.
He practiced various occupations, including those of tailor, merchant, and innkeeper. In November 1533, having been baptized by John Matthys of Haarlem, John became a follower of Anabaptism. He grew quite active in this religious movement and was sent by John Matthys to various parts of the Netherlands as an apostle for this faith.
In January 1534 John of Leiden took up residence in the episcopal city of Münster in Westphalia, Germany, near the Dutch border. Although he was very active in the revolt that overthrew the bishop and city council, it was John Matthys, who had arrived in Münster in February 1534, who took over power and began the establishment of the kingdom of God. Under his direction, Münster was purged of the "godless, " or nonbelievers, and communism of goods, based on biblical texts, was introduced. Matthys, however, was killed in April 1534, and John then replaced him as the new Anabaptist leader in Münster, gaining supreme power by July 1534. Although he effectively coordinated the defense of the city against the army of the bishop of Münster, who had laid siege to the city, his ambition and fanaticism soon led him into more radical behavior. In July 1534 he introduced polygamy, a step that created much opposition. In order to maintain his position, he became increasingly ruthless in the exercise of his power. In September he had himself crowned king of the New Jerusalem. After this, John lived in an increasingly unreal world, parading around Münster in lavish regal costumes and promising his followers to lead them miraculously to the defeat of the besieging army. He managed, however, to keep the city from falling to the episcopal army until June 25, 1535.
John of Leiden was then arrested, sentenced to death, and executed with horrible tortures on Jan. 22, 1536.
His views at first were the conventional and generally peaceful Anabaptist ones of the need for the faithful to pray and await the coming of the kingdom of God. But he gradually abandoned those principles in favor of calling the faithful to use the sword against all unbelievers in order to establish the kingdom of God on earth.
His brief reign had tragic consequences for Anabaptism, since contemporaries identified all Anabaptists with the radical variety in Münster. Such an identification led to a constant persecution of Anabaptists by Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics.
The conventional view is that John of Leiden set up in Münster a polygamous theocracy, best known for a law John passed stating that any unmarried woman must accept the first proposal of marriage made to her, with the result that men competed to acquire the most wives. Some sources report that John himself took sixteen wives aside from his "Queen" Divara van Haarlem, and that he publicly beheaded one of his wives, Elisabeth Wandscherer, after she rebelled against his authority.