Zwickau prophets

The Zwickau prophets were three men from Zwickau of the Radical Reformation who were possibly involved in a disturbance in nearby Wittenberg and its reformation in early 1522.

The three men, Nicholas Storch, Thomas Dreschel and Markus Stübner, began their movement in Zwickau, Saxony. Though these three names are favored in recent scholarship, others have been suggested. Qualben used the name "Marx" for "Dreschel," and Vedder replaced Dreschel with Marcus Thomä (Estep gave Stübner the middle name "Thomas.")

The relationship of the Zwickau prophets to the Anabaptist movement has been variously interpreted. They have been viewed as a precursory foundation of Anabaptism before the rise of the Swiss Brethren in 1525, as unrelated to the movement except for the influence on Thomas Müntzer and as being a dual foundation with the Swiss Brethren to form a composite movement of Anabaptism. Regardless of the exact relationship to Anabaptism, the Zwickau Prophets present a radical alternative to Luther and mainstream Protestantism as demonstrated in their involvement in disturbances in Wittenberg.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Zwickau Prophets was their spiritualism, which was that direct revelations from the Holy Spirit, not Scripture, were their authority in theological matters. Another highly distinctive feature was their opposition to pedobaptism (Infant Baptism). Despite their rejection of pedobaptism, the Zwickau Prophets do not seem to have departed from theory to have taken the turn, which would mark Anabaptism, to practicing adult baptism of believers.

The Zwickau Prophets also held to imminent apocalypticism, which led them to believe that the end of days would come soon. They also possibly sought a believers church, which would be separate from the State churches of Protestantism and Catholicism.

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