# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 10 24_S34
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

34

submitted to the hard lot. On the 1st of June Oberstein wrote to the city for the second time, admonished it to surrender, and commanded that henceforth no more women and children should be let out of the city. But because they nevertheless drove out some, some of these were chased into the water and drowned.

On the 2nd of June the Anabaptist preachers wrote out to the colonel-in-chief and complained that they would not be allowed to come to any proper hearing, that they were persecuted and outlawed without their fault. Wherever they could be convicted of an error, they said, they would let nothing be wanting on their part, etc.

The bishop together with Count Wirich now made all preparations for the assault. On the 22nd of June they sent out for the last time the summons to the citizens to surrender. But it was of no avail. Some expected help from heaven; others did not open their mouths, for the king exercised a harsh rule and cut off with his own sword, or had his executioner cut off, the head of anyone who dared to speak a crooked word.

Afterward it happened that about 39 Anabaptists made a sally from the city by night, among whom was Henning in the Long Street, a native of Friesland, who had been a watch-master in the city. And these were so exhausted that only three men could lead and guard them all 39 to the bishop. With this Henning, who was the wealthiest of them all, the bishop and the colonel inquired into every circumstance, and when it was proposed to put him to death as a commander, he offered, if his life were spared, to deliver the city to them. This offer was taken under consideration, and then on the 22nd of June the summons was once more sent out to those in the city to surrender and to preserve the great multitude, which must perish through famine. But Rottmann answered, with the consent of the king, that they would not desist from their purpose.

Now the end of these affairs draws near. Henning had to betake himself again into the city, had to pretend that he had made a sally to take some provisions from the enemy, and how he had been seized and afterward had wonderfully escaped. They gave Henning his former office of watch-master again, and had no suspicion against him. Thereupon, in the night of St. John the Baptist, he gave the enemy a signal where they should set up ladders and climb the walls. At this signal three hundred of them came over the moat, climbed the wall and came into the city. Some of the watchmen were killed, and thereupon a gate, called the Holy Cross Gate, was opened, so that thus the whole host might enter.

But one of the gatekeepers awoke at the knocking, sounded the alarm, whereupon the king and his officers came out under arms, and pressed the mercenaries who had climbed in so hard that they had to leave off hewing at the gate, and pressed them so sorely that many of the mercenaries were stabbed. But then some wives of the Anabaptists ran upon the rampart and called to those outside to come after, for their comrades were all being slain; whereupon those outside took heart to forsake their brethren in extreme need no longer, and came in crowds to the city unhindered, for the Anabaptists had enough to do with the comrades who had climbed in, so that they could guard neither the gates nor the ramparts. Therefore, when the skirmish had lasted an hour and a half in the city, an ensign named Wittekind ran upon the city moat and called to those outside to come to their help. But many of the mercenaries ran to the gate and hastened to hew it open, so that the great host from without could come to their help.

Now it was all over with the king and his companions. Those who had broken in drove the king and his people to the market place, pressed them ever harder, slew many, and when the men of Münster saw that they were overpowered, they begged for mercy; but Rottmann, when he saw that all was lost, betook himself into the midst of the mercenaries and was stabbed. The king, Knipperdolling and Krechting (the chancellor) were taken prisoner, but of the citizens many, who did not perish in the first onset, were kept alive.

The captive king, together with Knipperdolling and Krechting, was led about among various princes in the empire to be exhibited. The soldiers ignominiously put a double chain about the king's neck. His jesting had not wholly left this obdurate villain even then; for example, when at one place someone from the crowd asked whether he was the king who had taken so many wives, he answered: No, not wives, but maidens.

When the king and the other prisoners were delivered to the bishop at Telkenheim, he addressed the king sternly, asking what reasons he had had for bringing about such misfortune, and why he had withheld his city from him so long. Then the king answered the bishop: Who gave you the city? The bishop said: It was given me by the chapter and the whole province by regular election. Thereupon the king said further: The citizens had delivered the city to him, and before he would willingly have given it up, all the inhabitants should have starved to death in it. When the bishop also complained that Bockold had made him poor, the latter said: If you will follow my counsel, I hope to make you rich again. The bishop asked in what manner that should be done. The king answered that the bishop need only put him in a bird cage, have him carried about here and there in German lands, and whoever then wished to see him, each of them would have to give him a groschen, and so he would surely recover well again.

Now when the bishop kept the prisoners yet alive, and Landgrave Philip sent out preachers to apply diligence in turning the people from their error, John Bockold of Leiden, the ex-king, offered, if his life were spared, to convert all the Anabaptists. Knipperdolling and Krechting, however, would not be instructed.

But when in the following year 1536 an order had gone out to the bishop from the Roman king Ferdinand and the electors and other princes assembled at Worms, to punish the prisoners according to their deserts without longer delay, they were taken to Münster, and then dealing was had with them again concerning the faith, whereupon the king declared that he was sorry for what had been done, recanted his error, apparently turned to Christ, and called upon him to forgive him his sins graciously.

On the 23rd of January the three ringleaders, John Bockold, Knipperdolling and Krechting, were executed at Münster as follows: Three stakes were set up, to these they were bound, the king's stake stood in a somewhat elevated place. The executioner first did to John of Leiden three tongs-thrusts with glowing tongs, during which he kept silent. But afterward, when the torment grew worse and his body was torn and lacerated, he cried to God for mercy without ceasing, until the executioner, one of them, ran up and pierced his heart with a knife.

Afterward they dealt in like manner with the other two. Their bodies were put into three iron baskets or cages and hung up on high at St. Lambert's church, the king somewhat higher than the other two.

(Upon the end of the king a Hollander, v. Boß, made these verses.

De Wind en Lucht het Volck tot Troost der Zielen gaf,
Van d' aerd verstoten kryght de lucht hier tot sin Graf.
To the people wind and air gave comfort for their souls,
To him, instead of earth and dust, the air was afterward for a grave.)

(Submitted.)

What can we do for the preservation of the German language among our youth?

Whatever the various opinions and expectations concerning the future of the German language in America may be, this much is surely settled among us, that we German Lutherans ought to spare no diligence to preserve their mother tongue for our children and grandchildren. The fear of a gradual dying out of German may not be without ground, and the writer himself shares this fear; in this we are without doubt agreed, that we who now live must do all we can to put off this calamitous epoch to as distant a future as possible. Were there no other reason for it, this would be sufficient already, because the German language undeniably holds the greatest treasures of Christian wholesome literature