# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 10 24_S33
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Der Lutheraner.
Revelation of John, ch. 14, v. 6, 7.
"God's Word and Luther's doctrine shall pass away neither now nor evermore."
Published by the German Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Missouri, Ohio and other States.
Edited by C. F. W. Walther.
Volume 11.  St. Louis, Mo., October 24, 1854.  No. 5.
Terms: Der Lutheraner appears once every two weeks, at the yearly subscription price of One Dollar for out-of-town subscribers, who are to pay it in advance and bear the postage. - In St. Louis each single number is sold for 5 cents.
Only those letters which contain communications for the paper are to be sent to the editor; all others, which contain business matters, orders, cancellations, moneys, etc., are to be sent hither under the address Mr. F. W. Barthel, care of C. F. W. Walther, St. Louis, Mo.

The Anabaptists at Münster.

By Dithmar.

(Conclusion.)

Easter (1535) came and went, but the heavenly hosts did not come to deliver the besieged. And the stones were not turned into bread, as they had imagined they would be, as the elect of the heavenly Father. Thus the prophet's promises had proved to be lies. Then he devised a new deception. He lay six days in bed as if he were sick, then arose again, betook himself to the market place and said to the people that he had sat upon a blind ass, and that the Father had laid upon him the sins of them all, and therefore they were now all clean and, through his atonement, set free from all sins. This, he said, was the redemption which he had promised them, and with this they should be content.

Meanwhile the hunger grew greater day by day. Then eighty mercenaries conspired to seize the king, for they could not understand why the king should have so much money and provisions for his own use, when he had at first held that goods should be common. So they took from one man the key to the king's money chest, and out of it each took two thousand guilders, and also put three of the king's dukes in the tower. This was too much for the king; therefore he had the alarm sounded, seized the mercenaries, had forty-two beheaded, and thus brought great fear again among the people. He had it forbidden that anyone should henceforth speak any more of such matters, and although hunger is an unbearable guest and is satisfied neither with good nor with evil words, yet the thought and the fear of death overcame it, so that everyone kept silent and submitted to the situation, however unbearable the abominable king had become to them. Some ate grass, rats, mice, dogs, cats, horses and leather, so that such great misery and famine has scarcely been known since the siege of Jerusalem. Yes, it would have moved a heart of stone to pity, had it seen the people in such distress.

But what were the besiegers doing? Some of the imperial cities were not satisfied with the decision of the Circle. Some of them therefore held a diet at Esslingen and protested against the Coblenz resolution. Then the Roman king summoned an imperial diet to Worms. There the imperial cities once more protested against the contribution toward the war against Münster, and quarreled violently with the princes over it. Nevertheless it was finally resolved that every estate of the empire should pay in two installments to the cities of Cologne, Frankfurt, Nuremberg and Coblenz so much that in all 100,000 gold guilders would result. With this the troops before Münster were to be maintained; the Elector of Trier was to be general receiver, and Count Wirich of Oberstein, as colonel-in-chief, was to command the troops before Münster. Done at Worms on the 25th of April 1535.

But there was delay in the payment of the money which the estates at Worms had granted. If now the soldiers were to be kept together and maintained, the Landgrave of Hesse had to pay the share of the defaulters, especially that of the Franconian Circle. He did so, and had it not been done, the mercenaries would all have run away and Münster would have remained unconquered longer.

In Münster the hunger grew ever greater. Then they permitted old women and children to leave the city. When these, mocked by those who remained behind and almost starved, came among the enemy, many of them were, out of pity, kept alive by the captains of the besiegers.

Now when Count Wirich perceived the distress in the city, he had those in Münster warned and told them that if they would deliver up the king and a few others with him, all the rest should have mercy and suffer no harm. Although the poor citizens would gladly have done this, yet for fear of the watchful attention of the king and his dukes they were deterred and