The Tailor-King by Anthony Arthur

Author:Anthony Arthur
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: 2011-04-06T04:00:00+00:00

Nothing was heard from or of the apostles for days after their departure. Rumors, however, abounded of successes near and far. The mighty King of England, Henry VIII, had been re-baptized into their faith and now recognized King Jan as his sovereign. An Anabaptist army was about to invade Rome, the citadel of Satan, and overthrow the Pope. In the Netherlands thousands of supporters were arming their ships for an expedition shortly after the new year to rescue the besieged city of Münster.

More prosaically, and a good deal closer to home—for none of the four cities to which the apostles had been sent was more than a day or two away—circumstances were less promising. In Soest the irrepressible Dusentschur and his men gathered some followers and approached the City Hall, where the council was in session. They forced their way in with swords drawn. The council stared at the intruders and demanded to know their business. “Here is our sign,” Dusentschur said, and tossed a golden coin at the feet of the council president. The coin, newly minted in the New Zion, bore the likeness of King Jan and was imprinted with the king’s vow: “In God’s Power Is My Strength.” Dusentschur demanded the right to preach openly in the city, on pain of death at the hands of King Jan if they denied him. All of the intruders were seized immediately, jailed, and executed within days at the city gate. In an eerie echo of the death of Hille Feyken, Johann Dusentschur, “the boldest and least abashed, told the executioner he did not believe that he could die, that his neck would be unharmed by the sword. The executioner answered that he had expected trouble, and swung his sword with such force that it would have separated three heads from their necks.”

In Coesfeld there were already many Anabaptists and the potential for an uprising, but the Bishop frightened the city fathers with dire punishment if they did not turn over the preachers; all eight were executed, after pitifully complaining that they had been misled by the prophet Dusentschur.

Warendorf, though much smaller than Münster, was a walled city barely fifteen miles from the heart of the insurrection and consequently a matter of great concern to the Bishop. Jan’s five apostles, led by a former soldier from Cologne, Johann Klopriss, were greeted enthusiastically by a sympathetic council, and more than fifty men and women were baptized. The Bishop sent a written directive to the council. They must not let themselves “be blinded by the juggling tricks” of the Anabaptists, or misled from the pure teachings of the Church by these disturbers of the peace, but hand them over to him for his mercy or his punishment.

When the Warendorf council staunchly replied that they supported Münster, the Bishop sent cavalry and foot soldiers to demand entry into the city. The intimidated citizens opened the gate, after receiving assurances that the city would not be plundered. When the troops entered the city, all

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