John of Leiden

John of Leiden (Dutch: Jan van Leiden; also Jan Beukelsz, Jan Beukelszoon, John Bockold, John Bockelson; February 2, 1509 – January 22, 1536), was an Anabaptist leader from Leiden, in the Holy Roman Empire's County of Holland. In 1533 he moved to Münster, the capital city of the Holy Roman Empire's Prince-Bishopric of Münster, where he became an influential prophet and a leader of the Münster Rebellion. He turned Münster, the city, into a millenarian Anabaptist theocracy, and proclaimed himself "King of Münster" in 1534. In 1535, the insurrection was suppressed after a siege of the fortified city, and John was captured, tortured and executed.

John was the illegitimate son of a Dutch mayor, and a tailor’s apprentice by trade. He was born in the village of Zevenhoven in the municipality of Nieuwkoop, located in the Dutch province of South Holland. Raised in poverty, young John became a charismatic leader who was widely revered by his followers. John was an Anabaptist, secretly at first but later he became a recognized prophet of a sect which would eventually take over the German town of Münster. According to his own testimony, he moved to Münster in 1533, because he had heard there were inspired preachers there. He sent for Jan Matthys, who had baptized him, to come. After his arrival Matthys – recognized as a prophet – became the principal leader of the city. Matthys expelled all of the Catholics from the city shortly after his arrival and set up a communist structure based on the Gospels. He outlawed money and forbade owning property. A Catholic supported army, led by Franz von Waldeck, Prince-Bishop of Münster, Osnabrück and Minden, laid siege to the town of Münster after the Anabaptist takeover. Matthys led an assault on the siege on Easter Sunday 1534, but died quickly. John of Leiden became self-proclaimed King of Münster until its fall in June 1535.

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