Rise and fall of the Anabaptists

by Ernest Belfort Bax

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VII. THE NEW ISRAEL. In the midst of the consternation and depression among the Brethren of Miinster, caused by the death of their great prophet, the voice of Jan Bockelson of Leyden, his disciple, was heard in a public assembly which he had called, praying the brethren not to despair because their leader had fallen, "for," said he, "God shall raise up unto us another prophet, who shall be greater and higher than was even Jan Matthys. God willed that Matthys should die, his time was come, and God hath let him die, to the end that ye should not place all your faith in him and hold him for higher than God. For what Matthys did and prophesied was even done by God through him, and God is even mighty enough to give unto us a new prophet in his stead." The oration delivered on this occasion raised Bockelson to a position in the public mind greater than even that he had previously occupied, and secured for him without contradiction the reversion of the prophetic mantle of Matthys, for which he had long seemed destined. The doctrine that Miinster was the holy city, that God would have it, that all who dwelt therein should be a holy people, and that all those still in sin must be rooted out, was incessantly preached. After every exhortation of this kind, the disciples of the new prophet would once more dash through the streets and lanes of the town, brandishing their naked swords, dancing, and crying: "Father, father, give us light!" J The temporary depression caused by the fate of Jan Matthys was soon followed by the reaction in the shape of a fresh wave of fanaticism. Once more women and girls were to be seen with hair floating in the wind and their dress in disorder, dancing in the cathedral close, anon proceeding thence in wild capers...

407 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Ernest Belfort Bax (23 July 1854 – 26 November 1926) was an English socialist journalist and philosopher, associated with the Social Democratic Federation (SDF).

Born into a nonconformist religious family in Leamington, he was first introduced to Marxism while studying philosophy in Germany. He combined Karl Marx's ideas with those of Immanuel Kant, Arthur Schopenhauer and Karl Robert Eduard von Hartmann. Keen to explore possible metaphysical and ethical implications of socialism, he came to describe a "religion of socialism" as a means to overcome the dichotomy between the personal and the social, and also that between the cognitive and the emotional. He saw this as a replacement for organised religion, and was a fervent atheist, keen to free workers from what he saw as the moralism of the middle-class.

Bax moved to Berlin and worked as a journalist on the Evening Standard. On his return to England in 1882, he joined the SDF, but grew disillusioned and in 1885 left to form the Socialist League with William Morris. After anarchists gained control of the League, he rejoined the SDF, and became the chief theoretician, and editor of the party paper Justice. He opposed the party's participation in the Labour Representation Committee, and eventually persuaded them to leave.

Almost throughout his life, he saw economic conditions as ripe for socialism, but felt this progress was delayed by a lack of education of the working class. Bax supported Karl Kautsky over Eduard Bernstein, but Kautsky had little time for what he saw as Bax's utopianism, and supported Theodore Rothstein's efforts to spread a more orthodox Marxism in the SDF.

Initially very anti-nationalist, Bax came to support the British in World War I, but by this point he was concentrating on his career as a barrister and did little political work.

Bax was an ardent anti feminist since, according to Bax, feminism was a part of the "anti-man crusade". According to Bax, "anti-man crusades" were responsible for "anti-man laws" during the time of men-only voting in England. Bax wrote many articles in The New Age and elsewhere about English laws partial to women against men, and women's privileged position before the law, and expressed his view that women's suffrage would unfairly tip the balance of power to women. In 1908 he wrote The Legal Subjection of Men as a response to John Stuart Mill's 1869 essay "The Subjection of Women." In 1913 he published an essay, The Fraud of Feminism, detailing feminism's adverse effects. Section titles included "The Anti-Man Crusade", "The 'Chivalry' Fake", "Always The 'Injured Innocent'", and "Some Feminist Lies and Fallacies".

Bax died in London.

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Reviews

[Miltiadis Michalopoulos · Rating 5 out of 5]

During the 16th century Germany was shocked by successive waves of religious and social revolutions. Luther had turned against the Catholic Church but also the impoverished peasants, revolted against their masters. The peasants were finally crashed and their leaders were brutally massacred. However the revolutionary fervor did not die. A new movement, the Anabaptists, under the inspired leadership of Thomas Muntzer and Melchior Hoffman, was spread throughout the country and under John of Leiden managed to capture the city of Munster where they formed their Kingdom. The book describes in a vivid style the rise of the movement, its dogmatic differences with the Protestants and their social reforms at Munster. It also describes the everyday life in the city, its brave resistance, its fall and the massacres that followed. A great story.

[Steve Gordon · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...they maintain that true Christian love makes it inconsistent for any Christian to be rich, but that among the Brethren all things should be in common, or at least all available for the assistance of needy Brethren and the common Cause..." Is it any wonder why their fellow Christians (Catholic and Protestant) tried to wipe them off the face of the earth? An instructive piece of revolutionary history that you will not be taught in school.