1534–1535

The Münster Anabaptist Kingdom

After the first generation of Anabaptist leaders perished, part of the movement radicalized around the apocalyptic preaching of Melchior Hofmann in Strasbourg. Hofmann rejected the early Anabaptists' absolute pacifism.

In February 1534 his followers, led by Jan Matthys and John of Leiden, seized power in the city of Münster. They expelled the "godless" and proclaimed the city the "New Jerusalem". After Matthys's death, John of Leiden introduced polygamy and proclaimed himself king.

Catholic and Protestant forces jointly besieged the city and took it through betrayal in 1535. The leaders were tortured and executed. The fall of Münster long discredited Anabaptism as a whole and ended its revolutionary wing.