Customer Reviews

The Tailor-King: The Rise and Fall of the Anabaptist Kingdom of Muenster

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While the threat posed to modern society by religious fundamentalism has been underscored by the events of September 11, "The Tailor-King" reminds us that suicidal craziness is not limited to some extreme readers of the Koran. This book is about the Anabaptist Kingdom that appeared in the prosperous North German city of Muenster in 1534-35, with disastrous results for everyone involved. A century later, from 1618-48, the Thirty Years' War would be the ultimate expression of European Christian religious and political madness and it is ironic that the treaty that ended it, the Peace of Westphalia, was signed in the City Hall in Muenster, ushering in an era of peace and prosperity on the continent.

Muenster is a solid, bourgeois kind of place and in the 16th Century it seemed equally so. An important trading centre, it showed its considerable wealth in its merchants'mansions and warehouses, its churches and impressive cathedral. The beginning of the Reformation saw the city split into Catholic and Lutheran interests, but it continued to function until a group of Anabaptists, regarded as heretics for their insistence on adult baptism, gradually seized control of the town. Eventually they drove out the majority of other believers and the ranks of Muenster swelled with Anabaptists from other areas, particularly Holland. A charismatic leader, a former baker named Jan Matthias, was one of these. He had been called to Muenster by Jan van Leyden, another Dutch Anabaptist, and a group led by a wealthy local merchant. Together they declared war on the local Prince-Bishop and were rewarded with a siege of their fortified town. Deemed heretics by pretty well everyone, Catholic and Lutheran, the Anabaptists were determined to hold out, seize the countryside and establish a New Kingdom of Zion.

Anthony Arthur describes the Company of Christ as starting off as a well-disciplined, effective organization and he gives us some background on the Anabaptist movement, which was divided into pacificists (Mennonites and similar groups) and the militants. As the siege wears on, the Company of Christ takes some strange directions. From a city council, it moves to a Council of Elders and then to essentially a religious dictatorship.. Property is to be held only in common, criticism is rewarded with summary death. All the church towers are destroyed. Jan Matthias challenges the Bishop's army to single combat, with foreseeable results, and Jan van Leyden takes over. He now makes polygamy obligatory and arranges to crown himself King. The people starve, when their leaders are not personally murdering them, and those who try to leave are killed by the Bishop's soldiers outside. The whole thing comes crashing down when the Anabaptists are betrayed and the city taken. Jan van Leyden and the other most senior leaders are tortured to death and their corpses put on display in cages that are still to be seen on St. Lambert's Church in Muenster. Interestingly, the cages are original, but the church itself is not.

This book is only 244 pages, but although Mr. Arthur has looked at many sources it is clear that he has had to make an effort to flesh the book out. There are some diversions into Freud and theories that the Company of Christ was a sort of proto-Nazi organization and a long digression into the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes. I doubt that the Anabaptists were particularly Nazi-like, but exhibited many of the characteristics of a totalitarian system, more similar to Chinese Communism in its most irrational phases. And irrational it truly was-reading this book, one cannot reconcile the good burghers of Northern Germany, with their dull but solid reputation, with this lot of passionate crazies. It is a fascinating story even though one senses the whole time that it can only end one way. Of particular note is the enthusiasm with which people are put to death, often in very imaginative and quite unpleasant ways, and by both sides. The Anabaptists, as they roll onwards into madness and calamity, are treated by the author with more sympathy than the Establishment figures opposing them. Receiving particular scorn is the Prince-Bishop, Franz von Waldeck, who is portrayed as incompetent, venal and luckless.

It may seem strange to us today that adult baptism, with its element of free will, could be the subject of such rage between Christians but one need only look at the fine points argued by religious fanatics today with deadly passion to understand that the more things change, the less they do.

The Tailor King is a masterful account of what happened both inside and outside the ancient walls of sixteenth-century Munster when Protestant religious fervor transformed otherwise intelligent and rational men into irrational creatures capable of unbelievable brutality. Readers beware - the graphic descriptions and concrete imagery bring the sixteenth-century fully alive. The characters in this book could easily populate a wide-screen, action-filled film. The author's meticulous research and gift for storytelling combine to create a rare pairing of erudition and page-turning readability. Like the narrator who seizes the wedding guest in Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner," the author seizes the reader's attention and does not let go. His calm journalistic voice only heightens the "you are there" quality of the book. And his occasional strokes of subtle dry wit surprise and delight. This is living history at its engrossing best. The carefully annotated illustrations, culled from archives and museums in Germany, highlight events in the story and are a unique bonus. A well told story from first page to last!

This is a good, original story of radicals in the Reformation movement taking a town over and transforming it into a theocracy.
Munster had a uneasy alliance of Catholics and Lutherians who tolerated each other. The radical Anabaptists took over the town
and forced Catholics and moderate elements to leave the city. The Prince Bishop which ruled Munster opposed them. Two Jans
transformed the city into a Nazi like state. I agree with the review that the final chapter was a stretch in how it related to modern movements. Arthur wanted to say that history repeats itself. The final chapter could have been cut down. Also in the beginning, more focus could have been given the Anabaptist beliefs. A good short read.

This book by Anthony Arthur proves to be one of the more unusual book on the Anabapist kingdom of Munster that existed from 1534-35. Considered as a heretical kingdom by both Catholic and Protestant movements, the city went through a year and a half siege before finally falling to their enemies. During that time, this Dutch tailor became a self-proclaim king who ruled the city with an iron hand. From the author's writing, its pretty clear that this fellow was pretty psychotic and the entire situtation reminded me of what happened in Waco, Texas back in the 1990s. An interesting reading material all the way....

This book is not a scholarly account of the Munsterite rebellion and theocracy. For example, there was very little discussion of the mileu from which the Munster rebellion grew( eg.Melchior Hoffman, the unwitting progenitor of the rebellion or the wider anabaptist movement).

However, the book is written well and gives a good narrative history of key moments in the development of the Munsterite rebellion. I am not well versed on the history so cannot comment on the specifics of detail. However, the book does seem to have a honest feel and Arthur manages to portray some of the leaders both in the horrid light their acts derserve as well as moments of apparent integrity.

Another interesting discussion would have been to examine how the Munster uprising which was used as an excuse to punish many a peace-loving anabaptist has been viewed by contemporary anabaptist thinkers.

Overall though while not anything exceptional, Arthur's The Tailor-King (which refers to the final leader of the Munster theocracy Jan van Leyden) is a well-written introductory history to an infamous period in Christian History.

The book is well written. It is focused on the Anabaptists in Munster, and only covers a little of other events of the region and time. If, however, you are interested in this period and its religious turmoil, I highly recommend the book. The story is interesting for both the history, and the study of how people can be manipulated by charismatic leaders.

This well-researched and entertaining book will not disappoint. I recommend it to all Mennonite/Anabaptist researchers and scholars - and laypersons.