a man's clothing
should be put to death according to scripture, so should you, unless you
repent, be put to death. The judge, our brother Johan, then reasoned thus:
having a blasphemous surname is a crime, yes, but since you do not know
the true doctrine of the Kingdom and have not vowed to obey that truth
through baptism as an adult, you should be asked to repent, and do not
merit death unless you persist now that you know the truth regarding this
matter.
Since I was asked to be present, Johan turned to me regarding your
presuming to be a leader over men. I assured him that there were three
persons leading this so called "section," two women and a man, and, no
doubt, the women were acting under the express dictate and direction of
the man. Upon hearing this, Johan dismissed these charges, and urged me
to ask you to repent.
Bernard added that some of the city council members had reported to
him that Jacob and I had to translate our words into a blasphemous
language that did not allow persons to be addressed in accordance with
their lofty stations in life. Even God was addressed in the same vulgar
language used to address a commoner. Bernard explained, however, that
he had decided not to bring this matter up as a charge because this
language was actually a good way of implementing the Lord's command to
say "yea" or "nay" and no more. Earthly titles and distinctions had no place
in the true Kingdom. Addressing God, he assured us, could make use of
special pronouns such as Thee and Thou even in your language. Thus, you
are not judged guilty of blasphemy.
I shall discuss the remainder of these proceedings in another note.
--Matilde--

Continuation of Account of Special Proceedings of Muenster City
Council:

(2) A second group of charges claims that you referred to Jacob and I
as a couple of DOUR PROTESTANTS of the time of the
REFORMATION. My dear lady! You are wrong on every count! We are
not DOUR: we are the only people on Earth at present to be part of the
true society and Kingdom of God. We alone have cause to be truly happy.
We have lived through tribulations that have stripped us of all worldly title,
property and station. We are truly free and unencumbered and live daily
expending our every energy in the service of God. Dour? Not hardly!
We are not PROTESTANTS: Protestants took a baby step away
from popery and set up their new puppet leaders and priestcrafts that
continue to deceive and to allow evil to remain in their midst. As long as
evil is tolerated, the Kingdom of God is not present.
The REFORMATION was before our time: we recognize the initial
heroism and Divine inspiration of those who first cracked open the fortress
of the evil one called the Roman Church (and Empire). But they created
Protestantism and failed to reestablish the true society and order of God as
outlined plainly in scripture. Some on the city council thought these words
were designed to call the Kingdom into disrepute, holding it up to ridicule.
They suggested that you should be judged worthy of death as were those
within our city who, when outside the city, sought to make a spectacle of
the Kingdom so they could be all things to all men. Johan, however,
judged that you were perhaps more misinformed than malevolent in your
choice of language.
Bernard observed that there seemed to be a pattern here: you judged us
dour because we were obedient to the word of God; with your choice of
last name you openly blaspheme against the true Order of Nature,
separating the male and the female; and there was at least the appearance
of your usurping leadership over a congregation of men and women, also
against the order established by God. This, Bernard offered, was
suggestive of the Free Spirit heresy that once reigned in these parts, but
that had supposedly been stamped out many generations ago. Free Spirits,
Bernard explained, felt that because they had received a special spiritual
manifestation from God, they were now above the law of God and could
do what they pleased ans be assured they would be saved nonetheless.
Bernard asked me to ask: "are you a heretic of Free Spirit persuasion?"
Divara, Johan's first wife and the leader of the city's women, asked
Johan how she might counter the whisperings of some women that Johan
had failed to pass sentence and carry out justice because he was afraid to
turn away your (Xxxxxx's) offer to allow us to tell our story in your
congregation. Johan, who always melted with love in Divara's presence,
took her tenderly by the hand and said: "Remind such as may speak thus
that it is I who have, after thorough inquiry of the facts and of the Spirit,
passed judgement of 29 persons in the last 18 months. Nineteen of these
were unrepentant or their crimes were serious enough to warrant
execution. I personally hacked off almost all of their heads. I feel this
onerous duty should be the obligation of the one who passes judgement. I
am neither afraid to pass judgement nor to carry out that judgement."
Divara then suggested, and I heartily applauded the notion, that you be
invited to come to this city, the New Jerusalem, and see for yourself how
we live in peace and in the joy of the Lord amongst ourselves. You would
be placed under the protection of Johan himself, so offered Divara. As
such you would be recognized as a leader among the women of this city. If
after one year you feel this is not truly the Kingdom of God, and would not
during this time accept baptism, you would be released to return to your
previous abode and life. Be assured, however, that we have assurances
that you will want to stay with us and be here for the coming of our Lord
in His glory. That time is soon. Hurry! --Matilde--
___________________________________________________________

The correspondence following these notes was voluminous to say the least,
and Xxxxxx did not miss the point that she had come from being considered
an evil person to being considered as a wife of a prophet! I replied to her
astonished note:

Xxxxxx: Yes, you have been almost miraculously elevated in stature.
Perhaps it is because I/we see so few kind faces when we look out into the
world that when one presents itself we are moved to embrace the bearer of
said face. But it is also because you display such fine Christian qualities,
uncommon among the Christians so called who are daily exercising their
imaginations in designing ever more clever ways to separate our souls from
our bodies and send them to their eternal home.
You rightly ask me to exercise compassion toward the English
aristocrat who calls me to repent of the Kingdom of God. I shall attempt
same if the occasion arises to correspond with her again. Perhaps there is
benefit in penance?
You also ask what was wrong with the Free Spirit heretics. These
were persons whom God had favored with a taste of His love, and rather
than being most attentive to the obedience of the Holy Law, having been
thus favored, they instead thought themselves superior to those who were
still struggling to come to know God and flaunted the Law in all its
aspects: they were not above partaking of the darkest sinfulness thinking
they had been placed above the Law. They were highly favored and then
hungrily and purposely plunged themselves headlong into hell for eternity.
The Catholic church, corrupt as it is and was, rightly saw to their
extermination.
Ah, about Johan's Kingship: I did not explain to you as I have to
others. In preparation for the Kingdom's return to Earth, the Lord has
inspired His prophets to organize its government. Christ, be assured, will
be at the head, but as his Earthly administrator He has inspired our leaders
to crown Johan as King over all the world in preparation for the glorious
day when we are avenged and placed to rule under Christ's direction.
And yes, you may become part of the first family of this eternal,
everlasting Kingdom! You say you have work to do where you are, but
surely you must agree that your present work is not very significant in
comparison to the position that awaits you here?
About my being unable to have a child, preferably a son who shall be a
leader in establishing the eternal Kingdom on Earth: Yes, we will try again,
with prayer and determination, to assure that I shall conceive. Thank you
for your interest and good wishes.
However, even if I am pregnant you may still wish to become part of
my family. You see, my hus was to come as a thief in the night, not as
an army conquering, and asked what we did with the civilians, mostly women, left in the city when we took it in God's name:

As to your first observation that there have in past times been
some who said "lo here is Christ," and some who said "lo there is Christ,"
but were in error, we are aware that this was prophesied to be so in Holy
Writ. The Lord coming as a thief in the night and finding people
unprepared is also suggested in Holy Writ, as you point out. Do you
remember the parable of the wise virgins? We are prepared, as they are,
and have observed the buds on the trees and know, therefore, that summer
is nigh.
All these hints are given in scripture to urge us to remain vigilant,
aware, and ready. But in addition we have the more sure word of
prophecy, and we trust in the inspiration of those whom God has placed
over us.
You asked about those many women who were left in our city by their
cowardly husbands to fend for themselves. When our life story is posted in
your library you may read for yourself how we have worked with them and
convinced the most part of them to become one with us. Once they realize
the truth of our claims and begin to look forward with us to the Day of the
Lord, they also realize the necessity of living in a society described by
scripture: no woman is unprovided for, and there are no poor among us.
Most feel that having a man appointed as their guardian and provider is just
and right. And a rather large number have let it be known that, should it be
necessary, they will do their duty and bear children to the men who provide
for them. The sure knowledge that your child will learn to walk in the
presence of God rather than under the sword of the Devil is a powerful
inducement to bear joyfully.
There are some few who are recalcitrant, however, and we attempt to
reason with them until they see the error of their way and repent. As long
as they do not withhold foodstuffs and clothing from the common
stockpiles, we leave them alone if they are determined not to believe. We
are not barbarians like those pretend-Christians outside our gates, who are
becoming ever more cruel and imaginative in the way that they dispatch
our people who may fall into their hands into God's presence. --Matilde--

________________________________________________________
A sister in Christ wrote for information:

Sister: You ask excellent questions that allow us to explain to you the
wonderful news that indeed true Christianity is once again amongst us.
True believers are they who, as adults, believe, amend their lives to live in
conformity with holy writ, and are baptized as a sign that they are willing
to live in obedience to Christ from this time forth. This sign of adult
baptism is taken to be an act of treason by the servants of Satan who
continue to spill our blood at every opportunity. They have labeled us as
Anabaptist because we are the twice-baptized. The truth is, however, that
the sprinkling of infants who can neither understand nor consent is not a
baptism at all. It is a travesty and a sin against God.
How do we know the Devil's servants? They hunt down and torture
and kill the true believers, or rather, the believers in the truth. You suggest
that we use the rule: they who are not with us are against us, and are
therefore servants of Satan. This is very astute on your part. Jesus used
this very imagery in explaining to his chosen messengers that one is either
for Him or against Him. Neutrality may apply with respect to quarreling
nations or neighbors, but when it comes to the plain and simple teachings
of Jesus and our obligation to obey them, one is either for or against, either
a servant of God or of the Devil.
Finally, we knew not, like you, that there was to be a real place, the
New Jerusalem, in our time. We knew not, that is, until revelation again
poured from the heavens and were received and taught to us by our brother
Melchior Hoffman, who is near death in chains in a dark and damp cell in
the city of Strassburg. Because that city did this great evil and persecuted
the prophets, the venue was changed to the city of Muenster, where
prophets were welcomed and the true Christian life is again taught and
obeyed.
We are a society based on the teachings of all the prophets, culminating
with the source of prophetic inspiration, even Jesus our Lord. Please come
and see for yourself! --Matilde--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
March 1534. Message from Matilde to All: SHE RIGHTLY LOST HER
HEAD!

Else Dreier was tried for treason, duly found guilty. and publicly
executed in the Principal Market. Our enemies, however, are telling a tall
tale about this act of justice. Because Else was an embittered wife of our
friend and Mayor Berndt Knipperdollinck, and because Berndt felt inspired
to carry out the sentence himself, they are making up and telling the wildest
of tales.
They say that Else and Berndt were happily married and obviously in
love until Berndt did his duty and took a young woman under his
protection. They say Berndt moved in with his new wife and ignored poor
Else who was until that moment the love of his life. They say that Else's
complaining about how vilely she was treated, made Berndt angry, and he
had her tried and found guilty of a trumped up charge. Then they say that
this crazed fiend took pleasure in spilling the blood that used to warm him
on cold nights, that he enjoyed removing the head that used to direct those
arms that now lie still around him to comfort him when he came home in
the evenings. It is so sad it almost makes ME cry.
But I know better. Else was a demanding, ungrateful and wilful
person. She protested so loudly and persistently against the Mayor's living
up to his God appointed obligation that she made life for Berndt
impossible. Thus it was that she forced him to move in with his new wife.
He needed some peace. But was this why she was placed in irons, tried,
and punished? No.
She offered money, a capital offense in itself, to a man to help her
escape from the city, also a capital offense. She spoke in extremely
derogatory terms about the Kingdom of God and its inspired leadership. It
is these things that were rightly judgedize=+0>points of the compass and told to gather those who would be gathered
before the great and dreadful day of the Lord is upon us.
The response has been phenomenal. It is such a massive movement
that the officials of Holland know not what to do. Just a week ago 3,000
pilgrims were set upon at once place by the devil's soldiery. This betrayal
took place at Hasselt, so near to our safe harbor! Their leaders were killed,
their belongings stolen, and most were sent back to their places of origin
with naught but their clothes on their backs, to be abused more by their
local authorities.
God will avenge these cowardly, violent and evil doings. Some among
us, crying to God over these tragic events, have received a witness in their
hearts: the sword of Justice will be unleashed by Easter of this very year.
God and His disciples will wield that sword and avenge the blood of all
those who have been so cowardly dealt with for the sake of their belief in
the Kingdom.
True believers, make haste and come to the New Jerusalem before the
glorious return of our Lord! And if you should be martyred because of
your faith in God, as you attempt to make your way to us here in
Muenster, be assured that your soul will be among the Heavenly Host as
Christ descends into our midst. --Jacob and Matilde--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

PART TWO From End March, 1534, through May 1534
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
March 1534. Message from Matilde to All: THE FAITHFUL ARE
MARTYRED FOR TRUTH!

The heroic Jacob van Ossenbrug and 36 companions converted through
the preaching of this humble blacksmith were arrested in Dusseldorf some
weeks ago, we have learned. They were on their way to the New
Jerusalem. Jacob's heroic confession, made both with and without the
infliction of severe pain, as is the legal procedure among the ungodly, was
fearless: he testified that soon there would be no peace except in the city
of Muenster, that the prophesied Enoch and Elijah had already come, and
next was the second coming of the Lord. He told his captors and torturers
to their faces that soon they will be severely punished by God Himself. Not
a tenth of the Earth's population will survive, he told them. And so it shall
be. Although Jacob and his followers will never see the New Jerusalem in
the flesh, yet shall they see with their heavenly eyes the Second Coming,
and the salvation of the Lord's faithful in the appointed place of peace.
They are martyrs for truth! --Matilde--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
April 1534. Message from Matilde to All: MUENSTER SILVER COINS
ISSUED!

It is unlawful for us to possess or use money amongst ourselves here in
the New Jerusalem, where we have all in common as in the time of the
early faith. To obtain supplies from those willing to risk selling to us,
however, we must pay in silver. Our conscientious prophet Johan did not
like the idea of using the coin of the ungodly, so he had the brilliant idea
not only to make a Muenster coin, but to make one that told our story in a
very compact way! The coin has a central message on the front side,
followed by a message that surrounds it in a circle and that continues on
the back side's outer circle. Then there are two inner circles on the back
side.
You will appreciate the genius of our prophet and King when you
read the inscriptions in order: 1. "The Word is become Flesh and Dwells
Among Us." This is taken from John 1: 14 and is to remind us of our
knowledge, lost to the world of pseudo-Christians, that Jesus became flesh
in Mary's womb through exercising his own will, he did not obtain human
flesh in the way our bodies obtained it from their mothers. 2. "He Who is
Not Born of the Water and the Spirit May Not" ... 3. "Enter the Kingdom
of God." This is from John 3: 5 and confirms our belief in the necessity for
a person to chose to believe, to be baptized, and to thus obtain the Spirit as
a prerequisite to entering the Kingdom. 4. "One God, One Faith, One
Baptism." This from Ephesians 4:5 dramatizes that there is only one
Kingdom of God and one way to enter it. 5. "1534 at Muenster" which
shows where and when the coin was minted, but also shows that the
Kingdom of God spoken of in the other portions of the coin is here and is
now! This is just one of many physical proofs of our rightness and
sincerity. Please come and visit us and see for yourself that the true and
living God has in actually placed His Kingdom again upon the Earth, and it
is here, and it is now! Come, save yourselves! The end of time is near!
--Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
April 1534. Message from Matilde to Xxxxxx: A SUICIDE IN THE
KINGDOM

Xxxxxx, I must take you into my confidence. Something terrible has
happened and I am shaken by it. As you know, I was charged with talking
to a few (four to be exact) of my woman friends about the death of Johan
Matthijsz being a sign unto us that the will of God reigns supreme among
us. I called my four friends together and told them how Jacob had
explained Johan Matthijsz' death. Three acted contrite and said they should
never have doubted. The fourth, however, used profanity and said I had
been forced to say these inane things that she knows I am too smart to
really believe. I got up and told her I was duty bound to reveal her attitude
to my husband, and she got very angry. She yelled "run home and tell
Daddy everything, hurry!" and raised a bottle as if to hit me with it. The
four of us ran away from her as fast as we could, and we probably each
told our husbands within minutes because it seems only an instant later that
the guard marched past our house toward her house.
Neighbors said there was a terrible commotion, and she finally came out
looking bruised and bloody with her arms and feet chained. With a guard
carrying her little bag of personal belongings they disappeared from view,
headed toward the Rosental cloister.
Late that night my husband came home again and said there had been a
suicide right outside the Rosental cloister. My former friend had drowned
herself, he said. Her body had been found by her husband, who was
surprised to find her outside the cloister where she was supposedly being
kept. Her husband was headed to see her, to reason with her, and to plead
with her to accept his other wives. It was the latter issue that had caused
her to doubt and then to rebel. I asked my husband how she could escape
when she was in irons, and he said her irons were removed. I asked how
she could scale the wall or breach the gate? He said the gate had been left
unlocked by mistake, and a guard is being punished for his malfeasance. I
asked how she made it to the river to drown herself, and how her husband
could possibly have run into her if she were floating in the river. He said
she found a pool of water about a block west from the gate and threw
herself into it face down. She was so wilful that she held her head under
water until she was dead. Her husband found her too late.
I asked how it was that so near the center of this crowded city the
person who found her was her husband, who lived east of the cloister. My
husband, for the first time in his life, stood up and rebuked me of my
insolence and unbelief, he then slapped my face as a father would do a
daughter that spoke disrespectfully to him. I was so amazed I just sat there
with water streaming from my eyes and my mouth partly open. He then
tersely commanded me to shut my mouth and not open it again until he
gave his permission for me to speak. Furthermore, he told me to cease this
correspondence with outsiders, because it seemed to be contributing to my
increasing insolence. Needless to say, we did not face each other in the bed
that night.
The next day I went out and walked west of the Rosental cloister.
Recent rains had left several puddles, but I found no pool of water deep
enough to drown in. One of the puddles looked like the scene of a scuffle,
with deep heel and foot marks around its edge. I asked a passerby if this is
where a woman drowned herself last night, and he looked fearfully at me
and sped away.
I went into the cloister and found my husband there. I told him what I
had found out outside and said even if he beat me for asking, I wanted the
truth about my former fiend and I wanted it now. He took me aside and
said a tribunal had been called, hurriedly, and my friend had been found
guilty of blasphemy and treason for spreading her lies to create doubt and
disrespect. Her husband, part of the city council but barred from this
tribunal, asked if he could walk and talk with his wife in private, as they
had always loved to do, and perhaps he could reason with her.
Apparently, his was a ruse. She having been condemned and he having
wanted to get her and her mouth out of his life for some time took her and
held her face in a nearby puddle until dead. Then he brought her back and
said she had carried on so terribly that he saw there was no hope and
carried out the sentence himself.
The matter was brought to Johan, the prophet King, and he judged that
we could not afford to have it made known that a woman was killed by her
husband for making his life a living hell just because he was obedient and
took more wives as commanded. So he concocted the story Jacob told,
and said that if we punished her husband it would make a lie of the suicide
story. It was for the good of the Kingdom, and God would judge this man
in due time. He also said that, had she remained obstinate, she would have
met her Maker the very next day anyway, so we should put this behind us
as quickly as we could.
Jacob apologized for the way he treated me last night. He said I had
forced him into an impossible situation by pressing him for a truth that he
was not allowed to acknowledge. I asked why he had told me now, and
with tears in his eyes he said: "Because my love for you is so important to
me that from now on if I must again choose between my love for you and
my love for God, my love for you will win." He also said it was fine for me
to continue my correspondence for the sake of the Kingdom.
I feel good about my Jacob again, and I forgave him for treating me so
harshly. But his words, soothing as they were, were treasonous:
relationships between persons never should be more important than the
relationship with God! But what I cannot cope with is the knowledge that
it was my zeal and high-mindedness in calling my friends to repentance that
resulted in this friend's death. And I also cannot cope with a murderer
being protected by a lie, and remaining in his office in the Kingdom,
supposedly for the sake of the Kingdom. For the first time in a year, I feel
doubt gnawing within me as a serpent worming inside, causing my flesh to
rot deep within. I have to relieve myself of my freshly eaten supper now, I
am terribly sick and upset. --Til--

Xxxxx replied:

My dear Til: How sad your words make me. Things seem to be pulling
your good soul in so many different directions. If you want my advice it
is this: I suggest that you pray directly and privately to God for the strength
to do good. And do nothing that is not in accordance with God's
commandments. Even though you are a "mere" woman and a small player
in the drama around you, you can do much, much good work for the
people around you. Help the sick and the poor. Take good care of yourself,
your husband, your sister-wives and friends. Have compassion for all those
around you, leaving judgement to God. Evil springs up in the most
unexpected places, but it can be defeated -- not by grand schemes and
ideas, but by small and simple acts of kindness. These are well within your
power and certainly are very much in accordance with your sweet and
compassionate nature. My second piece of advice coincides perfectly with
Jacob's: keep silence on these matters. You put yourself and your family in
great danger by discussing your doubts. Be observant, and learn from what
you see, but be silent. You live in dangerous times and as you have seen, in
such times the most well-intentioned words can lead to terrible things.
Better to say nothing at all. I am so sorry to hear of the tension between
you and Jacob. It is obvious you love one another. Can I offer one more
piece of advice? Never forget your love for one another, no matter what
happens. You are good people. Xxxxxx

I replied:

Xxxxxx, my dear dear friend: your words are a balm to my soul and I feel
your wisdom in my bones as a warm morning sun after a chill night! Yes, I
shall focus on praying, and doing what good lies in my power. And as to
Jacob and I, I was so moved that I confessed to him what I had written
you, in few words, and showed me what you sent me in return. He read it
and was very, very quiet. Then he turned to me and said: "Til, this Franca
is a wise woman. This is advice that I also will take. I have been troubled
much by the affairs of the last two days, and I shall also focus on prayer
and doing good, and keep my newfound doubts to myself." I had no idea
he also had doubts as a result of this nasty affair. Needless to say, that
night we cried together, prayed together, and were face to face in our bed
together (see me blush as I write!). Thank you, Franca, for being our
friend! --Til--

Another gave good advice and kind words, to whom I replied:

Xxxx: thank you for your kind words and good advice. Had you
suggested "safe haven in Montefalcone" two days ago, I would have
lectured you sharply on there being no safety outside this city. But the
heart shaking events of the last two days have has such an effect that I cry
at the thought of having someone offer me sanctuary. Thank you, and
please relay my love and respect to the Ducessa if she is indeed of a mind
to give us sanctuary should we need it!
I do not think for a moment that we will need it, however. We are still
leading citizens in this, the New Jerusalem. We are still awaiting the
imminent coming of our Lord. But something did happen to both my
husband and I in response to seeing some among our leadership act in ways
that do not meet the standard of Godliness we assumed was to be followed
in the Kingdom. We can see the King's reaction was forced upon him by
circumstances, but we would have felt a lot better had the councilman who
murdered his wife so coldly and cruelly at least been severely reprimanded
by the prophet-King, even if only in private.
Instead we hear from his friends that he boasts that he can finally live in
peace and set to keeping the commandment to multiply and replenish the
earth "in earnest, and every night of the week in a different wife," he now
boasts. He seems to have completely missed the vision of our new order of
marriage. I can see now that had I been married to that man I would also
have doubted and rebelled! After all, he is a leader in God's Kingdom, and
if he were my appointed spiritual leader I would have to come to the
conclusion, as my friend did, that this Kingdom was run by evil men! I
shall pray for her soul because if I can feel she was terribly wronged, surely
God can also and fully pardon her.
But we shall follow Xxxxxx's advice to the letter and we shall quietly
trust, as the prophet wisely said, that God upon his return will deal with the
wicked, beginning in the Kingdom itself. We still love and trust our God,
and also our King whom we feel was selected and appointed by God.
--Til--

The reply was agin urging flight from the Kingdom, the reply was:

Xxxx, is it not marvelous that just as doubt encircles my heart and fear
strikes my bosom, God delivers us in a spectacular way and shows us not
to doubt, not to fear, for He is still in charge. Our mood has so drastically
changed for the better since our last few notes were exchanged that I have
difficulty seeing what upset me so. Oh, yes, my friend's death at the hands
of a husband who seems to go unpunished, but what is that in comparison
to the marvelous sign of God's approval given us today. It is such a marvel
that we are even now celebrating deep into the night, with our gates open
and people streaming in from far and wide to hear us preach to eat our
food and to share their wares with us. It is a great time, a temporary
respite, but definitely the Hand of Almighty God revealed just as dark
despair was setting upon our hearts. God be praised!
Thank you and the Contessa for your kindness, but I must ask her in all
candor: when you know the truth, God's saving truth, and you see all
around you the errors of the arch fiend masquerading as truth, how can one
possibly, in good conscience, keep one's knowledge of truth to one's self?
If you believe truly, it is truly impossible to keep quiet. --Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Early May 1534. Message from Jacob to All: JACOB EXPLAINS A
DEATH

Hallo, ik ben Jacob, en mijn goede vrouw heeft .... oh, zij zegt ... she says
I have to write in your tongue so as to be understood. Very well, here, Til,
take the quill and write for me in their tongue as I explain this matter you
have asked of me in our tongue.
You, dear wife, asked me a question that you have been asked on more
than one occasion, and for which you have no good answer. First, let me
lovingly reprove you, dear wife, for not coming to me in the very first
instance. But I suppose you thought me much too busy with affairs of the
Kingdom to have the time to address a frivolous observation by a woman
that lacks understanding. I applaud you for that considerateness, of course,
but when it came up a second time, and then a third, it became your duty to
tell me the observation and the names of those who made that observation.
Even now you wish me to give you the answer to this observation
without telling me their names. This is because you say you wish to reason
with them and avoid any official action toward them stemming from their
having taken you into their confidence. I am not at one with your
approach. However, since I do respect you, I shall give you the answer and
allow you to discuss it with your friends. You do solemnly promise,
however, to reveal their names to me if they persist in obstinacy and
unbelief? Good! Let us begin.
A few of your women friends have asked: "How can we trust our
prophet, Johan van Leiden, is leading us aright when our previous prophet,
Johan Matthijsz, was misled by a vision and is dead as a consequence?" Oh
ye of little faith and less understanding! Listen: Jan Matthijsz died
according to the will of God, to assure that we would have faith in the man
chosen to lead us until the coming of our God in glory!
Matthijsz had a vision showing him in the saddle of a mighty steed
wielding a sword, mowing down God's enemies with the Heavenly Host
descending behind him. Clearly this vision is still in the future, and meant
that Jan will return after his death as a leader of the Heavenly Host when
the great day comes. Thus, when Jan went out on his horse, with a sword
in hand, to face the horde of the ungodly it was in the full knowledge of
what would happen to him. He did it in obedience to the will of God,
clearly revealed to him in his vision.
We know that now because of the vision that Johan van Leiden
received, of Jan Matthijsz being thrust through with a lance, well before
that day actually happened. This proves beyond a doubt that it was the will
of God that events happened as they did. Much as we, his friends and
co-laborers in the Kingdom, miss him and mourn him still, we know with
surety that: since this was seen in vision by his successor, Johan M. died
because it was God's will, and that Johan van Leiden leads us now because
it is God's will.
And who are we, and who are your shallow-minded and faithless
friends, to question the methods and doings of God?
I shall be looking forward to your report. If your friends accept the
truth and repent of their doubts, blessed be you and they. If they repent
not of their doubts, we have excellent teachers available, as you well know
from your work there, in the Rosental cloister that know how to convince
the confused and the rebellious. You may accompany them there and help
our teachers reason with them as you have done in the past with those who
do not see God's hand in our new vision of the marriage relation.
Should your friends here, or those far away like the recipients of this
message, need more solid food to feed their faith, I am always ready and at
your disposal, good wife! --Jacob--

A reply to jacob was:

Jacob: I have read your explanations with interest and respect. One
thing strikes me: you seem to be supporting your faith on explanations after
the fact of unprovable and rather bizarre events. Do you not agree,
respected sir, that one's faith must really rest on more ordinary, day-to-day
things that you yourself can perceive and investigate rather than other
people's visions? Basing such things on other people's visions, no matter
how wonderful and godly they are, interposes someone else's mind between
you and God, does it not? And they can lead to mistakes, can it not?
Franca Franca, I am glad you read my explanation with interest and
respect, because as I listened to Til read the rest of your message I thought
there was a definite lack of respect.
You are questioning the wisdom and ways of God. He has told us that
His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts. Therefore,
your argument for using your own mind to pass judgement on the doings
of God is a pretentious and misguided one. I was going to stop here, and
be done with this conversation, but Til reminded me that you are our
friend, and that you do make an excellent point regarding the role of
prophets and prophecy. OK, you do.
We should definitely take serious Moses' lament in the desert, when an
accusation was brought before him that a man was prophesying. Instead of
bringing the man to justice for usurping Moses' role, as was expected, he
simply said "I wish that all men were prophets!" In our city, as in ancient
Israel, we encourage all men to be prophets. So, you are right, our
obligation is to know God's will for ourselves.
However, in Moses' day there was that little affair of a disagreement
between Moses and Miriam and Aaron (who was foolish enough to listen
to Miriam). The latter two said to themselves something to the effect of:
"hey, aren't we prophets too, why is Moses lording it over us?" The Lord
Himself took them aside and explained that Moses was their leader, he was
in a class by himself, he conversed with God face to face and his word was
God's word, while their word was but the strained interpretation of hazy
dreams. To drive the lesson home, they were struck white with leprosy for
some time to come.
So there is the second object lesson, tied to the first. Yes, we are all
prophets, but no, that does not mean you can question the prophetic
leaders that God has set over you.
Salvation is at stake here, why quibble over intellectual concepts that
just confuse? Why not enter this designated holy place and obey and
thereby assure yourself of everlasting life at the right hand of God? Be
sure, be here, be obedient. --Jacob-- (as translated by Til, who apologizes
for Jacob's being a bit grumpy today, but admonishes you, Xxxxx, to take
serious the invitation to save yourself and join us here in the company of
prophets! Angels, and then God Himself, will join us shortly! Be here
soon!)

_______________________________________________________

A disrespectful reply was received that i hid from my husband, to which I replied:

Xxxxx! I lied to my husband for you and said no note came from you
today. If I had showed him your disrespectful note, he would probably
have forbad me having further discourse with you. He is a very loving
husband, but he does not take questioning of his beliefs well, especially
when that questioning is by a woman that is trying to suggest he is misled
and thus a fool. And the two heads story, well, I'm sure it would lead to
some useless retort like that you still have one head too many since you are
obviously (for a woman) arrogant, wilful, disobedient and rebellious. I
admire your spunk, and I admire you, and I need your correspondence to
remind me that there is a world out there that is not at war.
You did ask good questions, although Jacob would not think so. I am
afraid you may be driving a wedge between me and my husband, because
he angered me in his replies to you, and I am never otherwise angry with
him. But you are important to me and but a nuisance to him. I have to
understand his perspective.
I can not be saved except I live under the protection and spiritual
direction of a man of God, and Jacob does protect me and provide for me
and teach me and direct me in my understanding of the things of the Spirit
and the Kingdom. As you saw in his replies to you, he has a scriptural
basis for almost everything he says and does, and for almost everything that
happens officially in the Kingdom. He is a marvelous, brilliant, strong, and
good looking man. I am lucky to have him.
Your questions regarding how we knew that God is leading us through
prophetic leaders is a fair one. It is hard to answer because it is like asking
"how can you be sure this is really Spring?" One day it is balmy and the
sun warms you deeply, the next day you wake up to snow. But in order to
know it is Spring you have to experience this climate in the context of
having just come out of a dreary, relentlessly cold Winter (of unbelief).
And since we now experience the inspirations of a Spiritual Spring, we are
assured that Summer is not far off! All of this experience is fortified by
holy writ. We are fulfilling prophecy at a dizzying rate, and fully expect
--in answer to your last question-- to see the God of the whole world
returning in glory with the Heavenly Host in full and terrible battle array
come to wipe out the evil and unbelieving so that the promised 1,000 year
Kingdom of God can be fully established.
We are here as forerunners, to prepare a place where God will be
welcomed by people who obey every commandment and are thus worthy
of His Holy Presence. These people will be set up as regents and rulers in
the new Kingdom, with Johan appointed King of the Whole World, the
Second David prophesied of in scripture.
Being here will give you all the proof you need, dear sister. --Matilda--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
May 1534. Message from Matilde to All: A MUENSTERITE LOVE
STORY

Elisabeth Wantscherer was an unhappy and unlucky woman. Her
husband died. She returned to her father's house and he arranged a
marriage for her. She protested, but her father laid down the law and she
married the man. She knew right away she did not like the man and asked
for a divorce. She was denied, and was told to obey her husband and the
Lord, or else. She made a fuss and said there was no man in the city that
was fit to be her husband. She was thrown into the Rosental cloister to be
ly. --Til--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
Late May 1534. Message from Matilde to Xxxxxx: TROUBLED OVER
ELISABETH

Xxxxxx: my heart is in my throat as I write this secretly, away from the
windows where I can be seen. I hope my husband does not return soon.
He just left so angry he could hardly contain himself. Elisabeth, my best
friend, also left angry, and in tears, sobbing so deeply that she could not
possibly be deriving any benefit from her breathing.
You see, as Elisabeth and I were composing a faith-promoting letter to
send out beyond the city wall by courier, Jacob came home. He had had a
bad day at the Rosental cloister where he often preaches repentence to
rebellious women. One in particular he fears will forfeit her life if she does
not begin to be somewhat humble and obedient to her husband and elders.
Apparently she again attacked him verbally today and she will have to be
sentenced to die. Jacob is severely troubled when people refuse to repent
and reject salvation. He is a good man in that respect, he cares for people.
So he comes home to find Elisabeth and I giggling and bursting out
laughing at times over some lighthearted remark one of us had made, and
Jacob cites to us the scripture that suggests we should put light
mindedness, loud laughter and evil speaking far from us.
I know when he is in such a mood to keep quiet and wait for the real
Jacob to reappear. But Elisabeth said: "Jacob, were you born without a
sense of humor or did you have to work at killing it?" She roared with
merriment and Jacob turned so red I thought he was going to explode.
He ignored her and turned to me and said: "These messages of yours
have not brought one new believer to the city. You have not had one reply
indicating a conversion. I want them to stop. Now. And I want you to
work with real people rather than imaginary ones. I want you to work with
me in the cloister, as you used to do, so I can keep an eye on you." He
knocked my parchment and writing instruments to the floor.
Elisabeth sobered up instantly and calmly said: "Jacob, where are your
brains?" Jacob was speechless. She continued: "Who can afford to return
a message to us by courier other than the well to do who have the most to
lose in admitting sympathy for our cause?" Jacob remained speechless.
She added in a commanding voice: "I want you to have men interview
every person stealing through our Bishop's forces and entering our gates
over a number of days. Ask them if they have seen or heard of the
messages your wife has written, that have been distributed far and wide.
When you have thus determined their impact, let us talk again."
Jacob's fury ran over at that point and he said some terrible things with
a very serious expression and in a very mean voice. First he said he could
see why she had been in the Rosental cloister to learn obedience, and that
he could see she would soon be there again. She began to speak in her
defense, she was visibly unimpressed with Jacob's threats and temper.
But Jacob then said: "Don't think I fear you because you are the King's
wife. I have heard him say your coming into his household has brought
him nothing but trouble with most of his wives. 'And for what,' he then
laughed aloud, 'to be poked by a bony body in bed?' He observed that you
are a selfish child demanding more from his wardrobes than any other two
wives. He has said: 'If it weren't for Divara's considering the spoiled brat
her little sister, I would send her back to the cloister from whence I
whisked her in a weak moment, bewitched by a bit of play acting and what
appeared to be a womanly body in that thick prisoners' garb.' Believe me,
you disobedient sow, all I'd need to do to have you assigned to my care in
the Rosental cloister is to tell Johan, my King and best friend, what trouble
and discontent you have been creating among the women of the Kingdom,
including my wife."
Elisabeth was sobbing as she ran out the door. Her countenance fell as
she listened, it was as if she had been stabbed through the heart by her own
husband, whom she thought loved her as dearly and totally as she loved
him.
I felt like killing my own husband and running after and embracing my
newfound little sister to protect her from this monster seeking to rip her
very liver out with rough-hewn words. It was grotesquely gruesome and
cruel of Jacob to speak so. He stomped out shortly after Elisabeth, leaving
me to record my desperate feelings onto paper before they strangle me
inside.
My husband may have exaggerated some, perhaps, but he could not
have made up what the King had said about his newest wife. To have
made that up in the face of the King surely hearing about it was tantamount
to pronouncing a death sentence upon himself. Jacob did not wish to die,
hence it must be true, or very nearly so.
I would love to go out and find Elisabeth, and Divara, and discuss this
entire affair with them. But I am afraid to leave lest Jacob find me
unfaithful to his wishes. I am truly confused and feel very much trapped
between two conflicting loyalties that are both very compelling and very
strong. I can not see what is right and what is wrong in this affair,
although my mind knows that I am to obey my husband first as stated in
God's commands.
I inwardly pray to God, even as I write this, that there is a happy
resolution of what now seems so desperate and so dark. I shall spend all
night, no doubt, on my knees imploring God to fix this terrible breach
inside my heart, and to somehow make all things well again between my
husband and myself, and Elisabeth's husband and herself.
Have you any counsel, good sister from far away? Almost I wish to
deliver this message in the place of my courier, and not return. But I know
this is desperation speaking, not the real me, and that on reflection I will be
able to put all this tragic and mean spirited affair in its place and rise above
it. --Til--

Xxxxxx: I now feel troubled that I have sent you that last dreadful note a
few days past. It ended with me saying things I sorely regret having said.
Let me explain how all has again been made well in my world:
My friend Elisabeth did what I would never have dared. That eve it was
Queen Divara's turn to visit i/font>
you daily."
Elisabeth meekly told Jacob and myself she was sorry to have spoken so
sharply and upset us and our marriage so. Jacob then told his friend and
King that he vowed never to cause such a problem again. Then the King
blessed us all, and took his leave.
Elisabeth and I embraced, and she and Divara embraced, in silence.
Jacob and I walked home in silence. When we arrived inside he turned to
me and said, simply, "please forgive me." I said, as simply, "I do." Then
we embraced also. So you see my petitions to my God were answered.
All is again well, and except that I sorely miss the bright chatter of a
visiting Elisabeth, I am counting the days until the moon is again full as it
was a few days ago. --Til--

_________________________________________________________

The following distressing and disrespectful reply was received:

Mistress Matilde --
>> I know when he is in such a mood to keep quiet and wait for the real
Jacob to reappear. <<
I fear, goodwife, that your true Jacob shall never reappear so long as he
permits himself to remain in thrall to those who so falsely have called
themselves the prophets of God.
>> But Jacob then said: "Don't think I fear you because you are the
King's wife. I have heard him say your coming into his household has
brought him nothing but trouble with most of his wives. 'And for what,' he
then laughed aloud, 'to be poked by a bony body in bed?' <<
By God's blood, woman, see you not what manner of man this King of
yours has shown himself to be? For you confess that you think these were
indeed his words, or near unto them.
>> I am truly confused and feel very much trapped between two
conflicting loyalties that are both very compelling and very strong. <<
Painful is this strife within you; I can offer no other counsel for now but
that you pray to God, alone and in silence, for he is ever present, and needs
only to be sought out. >> Almost I wish to deliver this message in the
place of my courier, and not return. But I know this is desperation
speaking, not the real me <<
Is it desperation, goodwife, or is it the truth being opened unto you. By
their fruits shall you know them, and the fruit of this King stinketh foully!
How much I pray that you shall heed the counsel of your true heart, and
have yourself away from the darkness of that place, which otherwise shall
surely envelope you.
I beg you, if your husband will not take good counsel, think at least of
yourself! -- Contessa C

I replied politely, seeing this noblewoman may actually be amenable
to conversion to the Truth!

Contessa. I sense that you are trying to be helpful in this time of crisis, but
what you are asking me to do is to compound the foolishness and cruelty
and leave all that I hold dear. No, your judgements about my husband and
about my King are not accurate. Something happened in the time that has
transpired since I sent my anxious letter to Xxxxxx. Before she herself
answers in like fashion to your answer, I shall send her another message.
As I have already explained to Xxxxxx ( a copy of my letter to her is
attached here), Elisabeth did what I would never have dared and we have
had a resolution of this most painful difficulty. All is again well, and except
that I sorely miss the visits of Elisabeth, I am counting the days until the
moon is again full as it was a few days ago.
Thank you for your concern, but out of consideration for my station
please do not continue to write messages that I must burn as soon as I have
read them. To keep them would be sedition! You are, simply, wrong
about our prophet and King Johan. He is a wonderful man, yet sometimes
he is but a man. --Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
End May 1534. Message from Matilde to All: DEATH TO THE
UNGODLY!

We are continually accused of the most heinous crimes. We recently saw
a flyer that suggested that by us the father and daughter, the mother and
son, and the brother and sister could legally lie with each other.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and our challenge to all has
ever been, come see the truth for yourselves. You shall see that we live in
accord with Holy Writ, and seek naught but the Kingdom of God and its
spread to all the world. We are the only people in the world who live by
God's directives regarding the punishment of ungodliness.
In fact, in strict accord with Holy Writ, we end the lives of any who are
found guilty of the following offenses:
1. Blasphemy.
2. Fleeing the government of the Kingdom.
3. Complaining or making accusations against your elders and other
authorities set over you: A woman disobeying her man.
4. A household member disobeying the man of the house; the man of the
house not meeting his obligations to his household.
5. Adultery.
6. Whoring and indecency of every type.
7. Thievery.
8. Fraud and cheating.
9. Stinginess and hoarding.
10. Lying and slandering.
11. Disgraceful words and idle discourse.
12. Fighting, anger and ill will.
13. Defamation, murmuring and rebellion.
Without a doubt we are the most peaceful and moral society in the
world. We have all things in common. Every night in each of our
neighborhoods we celebrate the Lord's Supper under the direction of one
of the Twelve Elders set over the city, and Johan our King visits each table
in turn. We are one family in Christ, and call each other "brother" and
"sister" in recognition of that fact. Come see for yourself what God has
wrought again among men, as in the days of Abraham, God's friend!
--Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

PART THREE From June 1534 through July 1534
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
June 1534. Message from Matilde and Jacob to All: GOOD NEWS IN
MUENSTER!

To all humble followers of Christ in all the Earth:
A marvelous thing has happened in the city appointed by God to be the
place of His return. Our King and prophet prophesied that if our guard
would run out and surprise the bishop's superior forces, today, they would
prevail. So they did, and they did! After we saw that a general rout was in
progress, our gallant heroes pulled back. We did not want to slaughter
fleeing troops. Our men captured and questioned some of the mercenaries,
who said the timing of our attack was perfect: the bishop had been unable
to pay full wages today, for the third month, and so when the banners of
the Kingdom swooped down, most men took flight because they felt they
had not been paid sufficient to fight. If these men promised not to return to
this battlefield we let them go. Others who were obstinate we beheaded,
and a few officers we brought back in captivity for further questioning and
perhaps trading for our own men captured in future battles.
A celebration is in full progress, and farmers and craftsmen from
surrounding villages are everywhere replenishing our supplies and walking
away with cloth and silver. It is a miracle! Who but a prophet would have
known exactly when, even if not why, it was time to attack numerically
superior forces? God commanded, he obeyed, our men obeyed, and we are
celebrating!
The other good news is that the prophet King has let it be known that it
is God's will that all capable adults be married. However, it is not God's
will that anyone become, or remain, married against their will. Hence, in
cases where it is warranted, a divorce can be granted. This is the will of
God. Jacob and I agree that the death of my friend at the hands of her
husband had something to do with it. If they could have parted company,
none of that tragic affair would have happened. Johan must have agonized
over what led up to this terrible event and God must have given him peace
through suggesting this solution. We expect no rush to have marriages
undone, but we do see that several particularly bitter situations that have
developed over the multiple wife practice can now be calmed through a
separation of the warring parties.
So it is plain to see that this is the true Kingdom of God, ruled in accord
with the will of God as expressed through his prophet-King. When the
enemy had a weak moment, our prophet knew to attack; when there was
irreparable domestic unrest, our prophet repealed the man-made Roman
law saying there could be no divorce. Jesus said ideally there should be
none, but given the hardness of some hearts, acknowledged it as an
occasional necessity.
Come one, come all who sincerely wish to obey God, into the New
Jerusalem! Our gates are now open, again, and will not close until the end
time destruction is upon us. Hurry, this respite from the arch fiend, whose
economy is based on money, will not last. But join us now, while it is safe.
Soon Christ will come and there will be no safety except here in the place
appointed to receive Him! --Matilde--

________________________________________________________

A correspondent suggested our victories may be short lived, to which
Jacob felt compelled to reply:

Xxxx: my wife is translating this for me so that I can tell you exactly what
my reaction is to this missive you sent some weeks ago.
In it you say that sorties of the type that gave us freedom last month
were typically temporary. We thank you for your insight. A week later,
the bishop's fortunes turned and mercenaries are trickling back. But they
are not yet strong enough to completely encircle us, so our commerce is
only slightly abated.
The Turk is successful because he is fighting a people that have become
rotted with evil. God has spewed these so called Christians out of his
mouth like so much rotten meat, and the Turks devour them at will. We
applaud their efforts!
As to your childish suggestion that, had our prophets been prophets,
they would have foreseen some event or other, it only shows the true depth
of your abysmal and abominable ignorance. You are confusing, as did Saul
in the Old Testament, sont>
The new insignia worn by all officials, like myself, in the Kingdom of
God, is a world globe pierced by the swords of truth and justice, the sword
of the Word of God, and the sword of justice. Our charge from God is to
teach the Word, and to cleanse the earth of all wickedness. When our
emissaries come to your country, I suggest you listen to and obey the
Word. The other sword is much less pleasant, if you get my drift. But do
not worry yet, our couriers are not outfitted with the second sword.
You say you hope that we have learned from the things lately revealed
to us. Yes we have. Much has been revealed of late, and the Kingdom is
being reshaped in major ways to carry out the charge of cleansing the
world of iniquity prior to the second coming of our Lord. We had thought
that God would rescue us and avenge us of the wrongs done us by our
enemies, but now new word has come: we are to be His cleansing
instruments!
We are so busy with new immigrants flooding our city that I must get
back to my official duties. My wife will fill you in on the details of our
progress.
--Jacob--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
June 1534. Message from Matilde to All: RETURN OF THE LORD IN
1534?

Dear friends;
Vile rumors are circulating that our leader, King, and prophet, Johan
van Leiden, is a fallen prophet. Supposedly, he predicted that at Easter,
1534, the Lord Jesus Christ would come to His people in this, the New
Jerusalem, the New Zion. That time being some time in the past, with no
sign of the Lord's having returned, is apparently the cause of merriment
outside the city and some murmuring within our city walls.
Let me explain. Our King Johan did ask everyone to prepare to meet
their God on Easter this year. He prophesied that this event would surely
come to pass. People prepared and waited anxiously, and the day passed
like any other. Johan explained during the day, to anyone willing to listen,
that this was but a test of faith. He wanted people to realize the coming of
the Lord was imminent, so he had them practice their preparations in this
manner.
He meant that through these preparations the city would be brought
into spiritual harmony with God, and thus be ready to receive Him. He
admonished them to be thus prepared every day of their lives, and they
would then be ready when the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord did
come.
Thus, in a special sort of way, the city spiritually received God that day
through having a sufficiently strong belief and acting on that belief. The
actual time of the Lord's coming to deliver us from our enemies is
described in Holy Writ as being that time when the enemy is upon us, there
is no hope of rescue whatsoever, and the saints are reduced to a small
fraction of their previous total. Then and only then will the mighty arm of
God be stretched out to smite those who seek to do us harm, and we shall
be saved. Johan knew this all along, but tried the faith of his people in this
way. If this seems strange to you, read how the prophet Moses was caused
to march Israel in a small portion of desert for 40 years to prepare a more
faithful people to take into the promised land that lay just to the north a
few days' march. The prophet Johan is similarly trying his people, and thus
making them more prepared and stronger in their faith.
Perhaps the city actually would have been visited by the Holy Presence
this last Easter, if we had spiritually been of one heart and one mind. But
we found that a significant portion of our people did not take the
preparation exercise serious. It is perhaps that degree of unbelief that kept
us from enjoying the Presence of God that day. Efforts will be redoubled
to teach those who are lukewarm in the faith or lacking faith.
I fully expect that the day will soon come that we have waited for. You
will not need to have my message delivered to you for you to know that
day, for the stars will disappear, the moon shall be turned to blood, and the
sun will be darkened as the Earth is burnt from top to bottom to cleanse it
by fire even as it was once cleansed by water.
The New Zion, Muenster, is the new ark provided by God for those
who believe and wish to live through this fiery flood. Come, be with us, be
saved from the coming trouble that will result in only one of ten persons
seeing the next day in the flesh. --Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
July 1534. Message from Matilde to All: NO MORE DOUBT!

It has been a month since I last sent word to you. When we prevailed and
the gates were opened, such a flood of immigrants came in that there was
no room in the city for them! So our prophet and King consulted God and
we acted on the instructions given us from on high:
We invited all who were not yet baptized to either be baptized now or
leave the city. We administered baptisms around the clock for days, and
expelled a great many who were reluctant to take upon them the Sign.
Some, in defiance of law, sought to take out of the city things that they
should not have had in their possession in the first place: money, caches of
foods, fine materials and precious metal objects. These were swiftly
dispossessed, and those who resisted did not go out of the gate embodied.
We recognized that not only were food, clothing and money to be had
in common, but shelter was also a commodity that needed to be shared so
that there would be no poor among us. Now our doors are always open,
or at least unlocked, and all who need shelter can walk into a house and
ask for it, and receive it! There are no starving, ill dressed for the weather,
or unsheltered among us, just as in the time of the early apostles!
We have one of the better armies in the country, our drill masters and
sharp shooters are passing along their knowledge, and our morale and
discipline are the best there humanly can be, because all our soldiers know
they march in the army of God! The excitement is palpable and
contagious!
We are transforming the downtrodden and dispossessed of the world
streaming through our gates into the very force that will create the 1,000

they were last year before we came and established the Kingdom of God?
The problem is those men and women who stayed, accepted baptism, and
pretended to be believers because they did not want to be far from their
property. As time goes on and it becomes more and more important to
share all we have, including our living spaces within the walls of our
homes, the true nature of these selfish persons comes to the fore and we
deal with them according to the laws of God.
Same with women who pretend to be believers and feign obedience to
the Order established by God, but who then make their husbands miserable
when they attempt to live the law of God and take additional wives. We
attempt to teach them the truth. But if they reject that truth we do as the
law decrees.
The King tried the faith of those who chose baptism at the time we
cleansed the city of unbelievers. He locked the newly baptized in a
dungeon, and proclaimed it was God's judgement they should all die,
because he discerned many among them who were feigning belief for
selfish purposes. After their fear had risen sufficiently to make an
impression upon them, he explained he had interceded with God on their
behalf and could now allow them out. Most crawled up to him and kissed
his feet in gratitude. But he told us afterward that even that test of faith
had failed to identify the many who were still wolves in sheep's clothing.
It is these remaining wolves that we are removing so that the flock can
strive. In every case these people are not only guilty of the crimes they
have been charged with, but they are very guilty and resistant to correction.
As I keep saying: come see for yourself! This is the Kingdom of the
God who can look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. I fear we
still have too much allowance for sin among us. Until we meet God's
requirements for a sinless and just society, heads will continue to be
separated from their owners. I do not mean to make light of a serious
matter, but if you could only see how humane we are in comparison with
the hellish fiends outside our gates, who compete in trying to keep their
captured victims alive as long as possible under severe pain. From our
ramparts we can watch them daily, ecstatic in their Devilish delight as they
cut living flesh, break living bones, and obscenely burn the most sensitive
body parts with flaming tongues of iron.
If you could see their Satanic society at work, and then see ours, your
heart would leap within your breast as it recognizes that this kind and pure
place, where there is peace and genuine, helpful love between believers, is
indeed God's own community. --Matilde--
 

This reply led to a reply challenging our interpretation of God's laws,
to which I replied:

Xxxx. Surely you know that in the days of the Old Testament prophets
there was an effort to continually cleanse that society through the
application of the sword or the stone. When the promised land was found
to be occupied by the ungodly, an effort was made to communicate with
them. When instead of converting these pagans, the Israelites almost
became converted, the Lord smote all that had partaken of the religion of
Baal, and also ordered the land to be cleansed by the sword. All
unbelievers were to be killed.
Thereafter, laws were given and enforced that prescribed death for
every one of the crimes that we have listed in our laws. We have done
nothing for which there is not an example in the Bible, and our laws and
penalties reflect an exact and uncompromising reading of that holy
document. I believe that answers your question concerning whether these
were the laws of men or of God? --Matilde--

________________________________________________________

Another person suggested Israel's laws might not apply to us, to which I replied:

Peter, you have the name of our Lord's chief apostle and friend, but the
resemblance stops there. Yes, of course "the laws of the Israelites were
given to the Israelites by God." And of course "it can be presumed that
God gave the Israelites laws appropriate for their circumstances and
conditions at the time."
What follows in your message shows abysmal ignorance, however, of
how God works in the world. You say we are not Israelites, but we are
more like town-dwelling property-owning Canaanites. First I remind you
that we may live in a city but we do not individually own property. We
have all things in common as in the says of the apostles.
Second, after Israel crossed the river into the promised land they built
cities, including the Holy City, Jerusalem. Was the law changed by God at
that point in time? Did God say now that you live in cities it is OK to
commit adultery or covet your neighbor's ass? To suggest so, as you did,
is absurd!
We have enough intelligence and discernment to tell temporary camp
regulations from God's laws for human society. Even the bishop, heathen
that he is, has his men dig places for their elimination of body waste some
distance from their sleeping quarters. If anyone has ever been to a military
camp where this rule is not enforced, his nose will quickly convince him of
that fact. In the city we eliminate waste through the streets which all drain
into the Aa river. As a favor to the bishop's forces, however, we donate to
them all the waste that is convenient to carry to the city walls every
morning. We always have a few buckets on hand to rain on the hapless
soldier who steps too close to the wall. We see this as a favor to the
bishop's forces because they use our skills at accurately dropping our loads
as a convenient punishment for soldiers who have broken camp rules.
They are sent to the wall, and we happily mark them with a sign that stays
with them until they soak in the cold waters of the Aa.
You, Peter, have obviously a shallow knowledge of Holy Writ. Come
to our beautiful city and drink in the whole of scripture: see it lived out
before you eyes in the New Jerusalem where, as was supposed to have
been done in the Old Jerusalem, Israel lives its God given law. You think
God went to the trouble of preserving His law in this Holy Book right up
to our time, the end of time, knowing that it was no longer valid? Give
God some credit!
Finally, as in the days of yore when Abraham walked and talked with
God, we have among us prophets who receive the word and will of God
afresh. And God is the same yesterday, today and forever. It is God's will
that we live His law. It is that simple. We do not try to quibble with God
saying this provision or that was given to people in different circumstances.
So what? You have a brain and our prophets have inspiration, and these
two things together with the written law assure that we know what to do
and how to order ourselves to be prepared to meet God.
Come and see for yourself what God hath wrought anew among men!
If you will believe and be baptized, you will be saved from the certain
destruction your current state of unbelief so richly deserves. --Matilde--

This same person replied he would never argue religion again. My reply was:

Arguments and disputations are
warned against in Holy Writ, so we agree that religion should not be
argued. However, I sense that your meaning was that you would not
calmly discuss religion again, as we were peacefully doing through our
exchange of messages. Here you fail to see that unless we, the elect,
exhort others to believe, we are under condemnation fro failing to do as we
are explicitly commanded by God. And you especially fail to see that
unless you hearken unto our exhortations and at least accept baptism as a
sign of your readiness to obey God, you will be visited by the destroying
angels that accompany the Lord's return. Repent or be destroyed, is your
choice, and I hope that your decision is to become one of us.
Our Kingdom's official coin has, among other things, the words "One
Lord, One Faith, One Baptism" struck on it. This also tells us that
religious disputation is of the devil. There is only one faith recognized as
God's own by God: ours. If you argue with us regarding our faith, you are
arguing against God, which does not place you in an enviable situation a
few months hence when the sky darkens in daylight and brightens again
from the presence of our Lord in our midst. Then it will be too late.
So, tell my messenger you want to be visited by one of our evangelist
teams, and we will work with you and attempt to baptize and thus save
you. --Matilde--

__________________________________________________________

This led to some religious disputation, and some critical observations from
those who were supportive of us personally but not of our movement to holiness:

So, Xxxxx, first you chide us for attempting to live up to all that God has
appointed for humanity to order their lives, and then you pick, pick, pick,
like a hen in a harvested grain field, at every little thing we may not be
doing completely and perfectly. Methinks you are being unfair.
For example, in the case of adultery you realize that Moses' people were
instructed to kill adulterers. Plain and simple. In case of the rape of an
unmarried woman, a marriage was to result, a special marriage from which
their could be no divorce, an indissoluble plural marriage if the rapist was
already married. Plain and simple. We can live up to those laws.
Then Jesus came ans suggested that men who lusted after women were
already adulterers in their hearts. This was a statement of how your
individual interior life should be ordered. Society, on the other hand, was
ordered by controlling the outward manifestation of inward adultery. It
was never meant, by Jesus, that we set up a court of enquiry to ask each
man each day if they lusted. What Jesus meant was that just controlling the
outward manifestations on a societal level was not good enough, but
ideally each man would control himself even in his thoughts.
We recognize that as being the reality of it, but in order to move toward
the ideal from the practical, we are noticing flagrant instances of lusting
and dealing with them as best we can. Having one man lose his head over
this has served the community well, in fact, in that watchers on the wall are
extremely diligent to watch in the direction away from the city, which
serves us well.
Almost weekly we have an attempt at scaling the walls at night when
our sentries are not clearly visible. Every time we have a little something
prepared for them. Human waste is our favorite, although we throw that
readily at anyone even getting close to the walls. But we have night fires
ready to boil oil, hear reports of vast
numbers of believers rising up against their brutal masters and coming to us
armed, defending themselves along the way and ready to defend us when
they arrive. As they gain in faith, they lose their fear. The formerly lowly
and fearful servant, bent in service, never raising his voice in the presence
of his "betters," and living for a kind word or pat on the head from a
so-called "noble" master are now walking upright wearing the full armor of
God. They stride boldly across the landscape and testify boldly of their
knowledge of Christ's imminent return even through torture unto death.
And now they have also strapped on the full armor of the world's powerful,
and are as it were an advance party of God's destroying angels!
We are heartened by these reports. Are you part of such a militant
believer group?
Our unbelieving Peter is no Thomas, as you noted. Thomas had already
proved himself a capable and dedicated fisher of men. And when he asked
to see and feel the Lord's wounds for himself it was still his decision to
come to where the Lord would be, and to then extend his hand, and to then
declare his belief and act positively upon it to the point that his exemplary
life is memorialized in scripture.
Do we see Peter here in our midst, where the Lord will soon be? Do
we see Peter teaching others to have faith and be baptized so as to be
saved? No, his likening himself to Thomas, as you note, is self flattery.
You on the other hand believe without seeing, blessed are you indeed!
May we expect you in our midst shortly? Your sister in belief --Til--

The reply was rather negative, the man admitting he was a believing Catholic.

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

PART FOUR: From August, 1534, through September When Our Life
Story was Published and Sent to All the World, to the End of April, 1535.
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
August 1534. Message from Matilde to All: THE BISHOP BEGS!

The summer has been relatively quiet, with many newly baptized
believers entering the city from neighboring towns as well as from farther
away. Our people are being killed everywhere once they are found out, so
the choice is to stay and await the inevitable, or risk traveling to Muenster
and safety.
Discovery means torture and then death by fire or drowning. The
torture is a requirement of the law. Confessions obtained with and without
pain need to be compared to assure that all salient facts have been
obtained.
We have had a number of mercenaries come into the city. Some are
baptized and become part of us. Others do not like what they see,
especially since there is no public drunkenness allowed and there are no
single adult females in the city. These we allow to return to the bishop's
camp. We make sure they see little of our internal fortifications until we
get to know them and feel we can trust them.
Our forays into the countryside, especially into Friesland, for supplies
have been so frequent and so successful that we are taking fresh provisions
for granted. Some commodities we have in sufficient quantities to last this
coming winter. But the end is beginning, we feel, largely because the
bishop is getting tired of living in his field camp. He is trying to rouse his
allies into supplying more money, soldiers and supplies so that the city can
be more effectively choked off.
We entertained a fact finding emissary in our city named Fabricius. This
was last spring. He pretended to be finding out about our social practices
and regulations and all, but we could tell he was eyeing our fortifications
the whole while he moved about the city to be shown things. We heard
that when he reported to the bishop he told him that the only way to make
this city fall was to dig serious earthwork fortifications and actually seal the
city. These recommendations were accompanied by drawings and specific
bunker placement recommendations. The funny part is that none of the
recommendations were acted on, because the bishop wasn't about to spend
the money for the labor required to create them and then to man them. If
you are ever to be besieged in your city, I would hope for your sake that
the besieger is as miserly as our bishop. As long as he won't raid his own
treasury we are relatively safe!
But he is getting tired of it. He wrote a long letter to a long list of
current and potential new allies, asking for their aid. He is attempting to
whip them into a frenzy by telling them how evil a people we are. If this
plea results in money, soldiers and supplies being sent, it could well signal
the beginning of the end. Our end? No, theirs, since the Lord will rescue
us from their grasp and will destroy them utterly!
The bishop said in his letter that we are deceivers, who reject all
governments, reject the Christian sacrament and all ceremonies. We do not
practice any sort of devotion, do not pray, do not observe the Sabbath. We
destroy church buildings, We do not allow money to be used or lent and do
not collect or pay taxes. We practice polygamy and have all things in
common. We are a revolutionary sect, and are actively exporting our
revolution to the surrounding villages and provinces. We are ever
receiving reinforcement, he says, but luckily, over a thousand of us have
been killed and thus kept from entering the city. He says we are a damned
and terrible sect that has to be driven from the city.
He says he is spending 700,000 gold guilders to build blockhouses at
strategic points and seal the city. (Finally!) With the help of God and his
allies, he can bring this foul smelling business to a rapid end, he asserts.
If he gets a positive response, then he is correct and the end has indeed
begun. We shall be watching with great interest.
But we fear not: God's promises are sure. We shall soon rule the world
under Christ's leadership, and the bishop and his henchmen shall soon be
leaving their bodies and their souls shall soon be entering the eternal
torments of hell. Please hurry! The doors to the city may soon be sealed,
closing off your opportunity to be saved in the New Jerusalem. Of course,
even if you stay where you are, as long as you believe and accept the sign
of baptism, you shall be spared when the destroying angels are sent to the
four corners of the Earth to cleanse it of all iniquity. --Matilde--
 

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
August 1534. Message from Matilde to Mistress Xxxx: MIRACLE OF
LOAVES AND FISHES!

Dear sister, you asked about our daily fare. Let me reply by saying that
this gives me a wonderful opportunity to share a daily miracle with you,
one as miraculous as the manna that fell into the camp of Israel daily in the
days of yore.
Our archenemy the bishop has instructed that when they encounter a
person leaving this city, for whatever reason, they are to kill them in such a
way as to make sure he is punished. Often our men are taken out to the
field area where human refuse is disposed, and their face may be held down
in the putrid mess until they stop kicking. Then they may be let up to
revive some and their faces again pushed in until dead. The bodies are left
until bloated with rot and smelling terribly. Then they are tied to a rope,
thrown into the river Aa, and staked to a post. We can see the corpses
from our battlements.
This is done to cast fear into us, and to make our water supply stink.
But, just the opposite is true. It instead makes us fiercer in our resistance,
and it gives us almost daily evidence of God's being with us. Let me
explain. Ever since the bishop has been attempting to make our waters
stink, which he often accomplishes, the bottom feeding fish we catch for
food have been both fatter and more plentiful. This is the miracle of the
fishes that we thank God for daily. At the same time, we have plentiful
clean and clear water in our wells, and plentiful grain of many sorts, so that
our bread supply and even variety is good.
This is made possible in large part by the bishop's suffering from a
miserly spirit that keeps him from fully surrounding our city at all times.
So, this is another gift of God to us, and we call it the miracle of loaves. In
addition, although the bishop's shoveling refuse and floating bodies into the
river does make it stink, flies and other insects seem to more plentiful than
ever before, and birds of all varieties are equally plentiful in response.
Whenever we wish, we sprinkle some grain under a trap door and catch a
wild bird or even two at a time. This is another benefit given us of God in
direct response to the bishop's evil efforts.
The supplies that come from afar include sacks of flour. From nearby
we purchase cabbages and other greens, some beans, and chickens. We
have a few pigs and goats and cows, and our supply of salted bacon is
sufficient for the coming winter.
Our babies are weaned on cows' and goats' milk. We pay local
poachers to bring us rabbit and pheasant, occasionally. And in addition,
every arable piece of ground in the city is growing something for immediate
consumption or for drying, pickling and storage.
We are rather confident these good conditions will continue, but if they
do not we know that the Lord has promised His deliverance at the very
time when no human arm can any longer rescue us from destruction. So
the prospect of starvation, should it come upon us, is only a further sign
that God's promises will be kept.
As to cooking, each city ward has set up a communal table where the
whole neighborhood eats. The food is obtained from the neighborhood
storehouse, and the cooking duties are a rotating assignment among the
neighborhood women so no one is overly burdened all the time. We have
no servants among us except in the sense that we are all God's servants and
by His example always stand ready to serve each other.
Please ask more questions, and if you agree to this I would like to send
some of our traveling preachers to see you and convince you that your
salvation lies at the nearest creek or pond deep enough for you to be
baptized in. Or, you are also invited to come here and see for yourself that
we are indeed the New Jerusalem foretold by the Prophetic men of yore.
--Matilde--
______________________________________________________________

To a replying message observing that crises bring out strange effects in people I replied:

available throughout the Dutch-speaking world. It is being distributed
by fearless couriers from Muenster. It is a message from Jacob and Matilde,
penned in your language by Matilde. I admonish you to read it and take its
plea seriously. Read their life story, and learn of the path that has been laid
out to lead you from condemnation to salvation. They know the Kingdom
of God is now once again among men, and I implore you to join us, as do Jacob and
Matilde.

(The Life Story here referred to is found in the introduction linked to the Home Page.)

Jacob and Matilde, Muenster, September 1534

We are Jacob, son of Hendrik, and Matilde, daughter of Gees. Because my
husband Jacob is such a busy man, I will take it upon myself to
communicate with you. Jacob will lay aside his important duties in the city
to answer questions directed to him, however, as well as I.
We have had printed our life story, up to the present time, which is the end
of time, and this courier is bringing it to you with our prayers. We recommend
that you survey our wondrous and eventful lives. We believe that after you
read our story with an open mind and heart, you will desire to sacrifice all that you
are and have in the world to join us here in the besieged city of Muenster, the New
Jerusalem.
As the arch-fiends' soldiers invade this city, which could be any day
now, and no arm of flesh can any longer save us, the Lord has assured our
prophets that then he will come in His glory and save us. He will smite our
enemies, the legions of Heaven will rout them and a fearful slaughter will
commence that will not end until all those who serve Satan are destroyed
from the Earth. We will then live with Him in peace, walking and talking
with Him daily as in the days of Abraham, and will be appointed to rule the
world as the Kingdom of God is instituted throughout the world.
Come join us! Leave your worldly status and possessions, immediately,
for any day now the Lord will come in Glory and you will sorely regret
having procrastinated your obedience to this call!
Hoping to hear from you, --Matilde-- and --Jacob--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
October 1534. Message from Matilde to All: A MIRACULOUS
RESCUE!

The city of Muenster is abuzz with excitement. A man was found
begging for entry at the gate a few mornings ago. His name is Heinrich
Graes. He is one of the 27 apostles, and until a few days ago he was in a
jail in a nearby city. He was chained in a tower, awaiting his execution the
next morning, when a revelation came to him from God the Father: jump
from this tower without regard for your safety and you will see the New
Jerusalem!
Heinrich believed, he had faith. He stepped into the window, looked
straight ahead, and stepped out. It was as if angels slowed his descent, and
the next thing he knew he was safely on a street and headed for Muenster.
He strolled through the Bishop's military encampment without being
noticed, giving proof that God protects those who believe from harm. He
said that in the Bishop's camp rumors are flying about a great Anabaptist
relief force being assembled in Amsterdam and Deventer. He prophesied
that God is mobilizing His forces, and soon the city will be free and the
Kingdom of God will begin to spread over all the Earth as has ben foretold
in holy writ. Johan has given the man a residence and installed him among
the prophets as part of the leadership of the city.
Jacob, my husband has met him and says he is undoubtedly a sign from
God that signals the beginning of the end of the siege of the city and
Kingdom. Some people throng around him and touch him as if he is holier
than others of our prophets. This is not correct, there is no virtue in a
man's clothes as there was in the clothes of Jesus, but, such is the
superstition among some of our humble followers. All in all such
misplaced devotion is harmless, as long as they obey the weightier matters
of the law.
From this event you may again see that this place is a place of great
faith and of miracles. If miracles are not where you are, be assured it is
because your religion is false! --Matilde--

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____________________________________________________________
December 1534. Message from Matilde to All: KOBLENZ
CONSPIRACY!

It is now December, 1534, and the 13th was a momentous day. Over
50 delegates from surrounding principalities met with bishop von Waldeck
and heard testimony of our evil thoughts, words, deeds and plans. We
were vilified so that even an ordinary decent person, if any were indeed in
attendance, could fail to rise to the occasion and pledge support to the
plans for our murder! But such it must be, in accordance with that which
has been prophesied.
Six months of aid were promised, in terms of men, supplies and money.
The bishop has six months to take over the city, and doubts were expressed
as to his ability to finish what he began. Hence, his mercenary commanders
are being replaced by the personal general staffs of several of those who
pledged fortunes toward our demise.
Here it is a few days later and already we are feeling the stranglehold
tightening. For the first time it seems that it will actually be a stranglehold.
The bishop promised that if by end April we were still breathing, he would
ask the Kaiser for aid, thus doubling or tripling the military resources that
could be brought to bear against us. This also is in accord with prophecy.
Eventually the whole world will be arrayed against us, and then the Lord
will come!
We have experienced a great loss because of these new developments.
Twenty seven apostolic messengers were sent out to convert as many as
they could and rally believers and sympathizers to our cause. We were
hoping for an army of the elect to give us relief. Most of the apostles are
already dead, a few particularly prominent ones, among them Heinrich
Graes, the man who was miraculously delivered from a high tower jail cell
by God's holy angel and placed at our city gates, now languishes in a field
prison in the bishop's encampment.
Of course we are still of good cheer. After all, as some among us have
observed, the prophecies are that Christ will come in power when there is
no fleshly arm left that could possibly be extended to give us relief.
According to these persons among us, sending out these apostolic
messengers to not only convert, but also to rally a relief expedition, would
only have delayed Christ's coming. I do not know what to think of this line
of reasoning, but it seems to make sense. This is troublesome because our
prophet-King sent these men on their missions and instructed them that
their going was indeed God's will. Perhaps God thought some among them
had suffered enough for His sake and He wanted them to be with Him and
rest before the rest of us? That is another view being expressed. The
King, Johan, is so upset over the loss of so many of his closest and dearest
friends that he has not spoken publicly for a few days. I shall attempt to
send dispatches with news when I can, although it seems almost impossible
now, to me, to get through the enemy's lines.
My couriers, however, tell me that it isn't so difficult: as long as they
use the same route at the same time of night, and pass a silver coin to the
same guards at the same checkpoints! I hope our food supply is as ample
as our silver supply!
It seems now safe to say our Deliverance is less than six months away,
especially since we project our food supply to be less than that by two
months. Those of you who believe, please pray for our, and your, speedy
deliverance! --Matilde--
____________________________________________________

A person had the temerity to ask if I were not mistaken in some of my
judgements, to which I replied:

Xxxxx, are you attempting to make me doubt because of this unforeseen
tragedy? I believe our leader was just shaken by the loss of so many close
associates at once. That is all, and that is a very human response. Queen
Divara told me he was actually sobbing and could not eat the first day and
night. He is a man capable of strong friendships, and he loves his friends
even as the Lord loved His disciples.
But let me tell you how ridiculous our enemies are. In Koblenz the lie
was told by a so called informant, our former assistant miller, that we were
planning an armed breakout on Christmas day, that we would head for the
town of Roxel and kill everyone in the cathedral there attending Christmas
mass. The bishop's armies were on total alert from a few days before
Christmas through Christmas. They had a miserable Christmas. Nothing
happened. We had never planned any such massacre, but suspect the story
was told to make sure neighboring towns and principalities felt threatened
and would send money. We heard this story from one of our paid
informants, a guard who makes some extra money from letting our couriers
by at night. Mercenaries are sometimes very accommodating: they will
defend to the death whoever pays the most!
I suppose one could say, regarding the use of mercenaries, that there is
no alternative. Only men defending their homes and families will fight like
a wounded mother bear with cubs nearby. The moment you wish to use
soldiers in ways not in direct defense of their homes, however, you must
pay them enough to risk their lives for you, not for their own selves. They
thus gamble they will live to spend their wages.
We have at times outbid the bishop for his own soldiers. But that
practice was short lived since many of those soldiers wanted no part of our
rules and punishments for breaking them. They just wanted more pay!
Bizarre way for a man to make a living, I believe, since there is no honor
nor principle at stake, only money. No wonder money is done away with
in God's society and Kingdom! --Matilde--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
December 1534. Message from Matilde to All: OUR OWN JUDAS!

Perhaps now we know how our Lord felt when one of his own chosen
disciples betrayed Him for a few pieces of silver. One of our chief apostles,
the very same Heinrich Graes who was a witness to a great miracle,
apparently could not again persuade God to send an angel to deliver him
from his jail cell. Amongst ourselves we had compared his angelic
deliverance from prison to the apostle Paul's miraculous deliverance from
jail as reported in scripture.
This time the miracle was not forthcoming, and perhaps because he was
so miserable in his cold, wet cell, wherein he would certainly die of
exposure and starvation, he asked for an audience with the bishop.
Audience was granted. Secrets were reportedly divulged. Prisoner was
released into a state of relative comfort, no doubt in return for promises of
additional information!
We have been betrayed even as our Lord was betrayed just prior to His
trial and crucifixion. Our hour of trial and tribulation must now be very
close. Rumors were rampant about what our brother Graes knew. He was
part of the inner circle. He knew our defensive strengths and weaknesses.
He knew where we had sent and when we were expecting the return of
spies, couriers, and apostolic messengers. He had a sizable amount of
silver coin with him, to be used for the needs of the 27 apostles that were
on missions with Graes. They were to divide the money some distance
from the bishop's lair, and set off in their respectively assigned directions.
Johan spoke to the people, after an official spokesperson had informed
us of the facts of the probable damage done to our security. He did not
minimize the expected effects, but sought to allay unreasonable fears by
stopping the expansion of the tale as it would have spread via the rumor
route. Johan's talk was an exhortation from the scriptures, likening our
situation to several situations in Holy Writ, and asking the people to repent
and renew their faith.
Privately, in the war councils attended by my husband, the assessment
was made that this signaled the beginning of the end. Graes knew our
defensive weaknesses and that we had little means to improve them. He
also knew we had enough food to last through Easter, with difficulty. The
conclusion was, therefore, that the attack, and hence the Lord's deliverance
could be expected at or anytime after Easter, 1535.
The mood in the city is turning as grim as this winter weather. We
actually have looked out from our walls at the soldiers below and felt pity
for their suffering from the cold more than we. But then the thought
always quickly returns that they are out there for money, and that they will
make more when they actually start the killing of our people.
Finally. we end up praying for colder wind and more snow and ice to
fall. We are human, and not quite able to love this particular enemy as we
are commanded. Of course, our loving our enemy does not mean we
would restrain ourselves from doing our best in combat against them. We
love the Lord first, and desire therefore to obey His command that will
have us be his vanguard in cleansing the Earth of all wickedness.
We are stripping houses near the walls for burnable materials and all
moving closer together in the middle of town, sharing our hearths and
hearts with more of our brothers and sisters as the winter progresses. Our
food supply is dwindling faster than expected because the bishop's siege is
better than expected. Few small shipments are snuck through the siege
lines successfully.
There seems to be no letup of diligence among these new soldiers as
time goes on. By contrast, the previous group of soldiers were lazy and
incompetent. One other thing is apparent also. The new soldiers brought
in to fortify the bishop's original hirelings are a higher grade of soldiers.
They are very businesslike as they decapitate the few who attempt to take
the bishop up on his offer of free passage to anyone wanting to leave the
city. Whereas before we were treated to extended duration torture
sessions by the bishop's troops, now if we blink we could miss the whole
thing.
Since we punish rebellion against the Lord's government in the same
way, we do not at all mind this treatment of our traitors. We only worry
when we see interrogations near our gates that lead to the prisoner being
led towards the central command posts. One Judas is quite enough for one
Kingdom of God.
Since our women outnumber our men by about 3 to 1, we women are
now spending much time on the walls training for our defense. They are
expecting to kill 5,000 defenders, and then to have their pick of almost
15,000 defenseless women as part of their renumeration. We are preparing
a big surprise for them! --Matilde--
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December 1534. Message from Matilde to Xxxxx: INFORM, INSPIRE,
KILL!

Xxxxx: so good to hear from you again, in response to my description of
our recent betrayal by one of our own apostles.
Yes, as you observed, our leader and King Johan has some very good
skills for communication to his own people in such a way as to have them
correctly informed and yet enthused no matter what the circumstances. He
followed the official, realistically pessimistic assessment of our new,
post-betrayal situation, which he authorized but did not make himself, with
a call to repentance and rededication.
The charge has been made that we hold frequent, public executions of
wrongdoers and rebels for the sake of making the people afraid to rebel or
leave. There may be something to this, because setting an example for
those wavering between obedience and rebellion is a reason for doing these
things in public. The complaint is not doing these things in public, since
both law and scripture mandate it be done so. The complaint is that the
frequency of our executions and the number of reasons for those
executions strikes terror in the hearts of those who waiver between
obedience and rebellion. We are only doing as Holy Writ commands.
I do not see where this is a problem at all, since executions and other
punishments, such as hanging someone in a cage for days in a public
square, to be abused by passersby, is done everywhere to assure that
everyone knows what is done to whom and why, in the way of punishment,
so as to clarify that certain behaviors will not be tolerated.
In our city when a man has his head hacked off it is a quick and clean
process, and the man is usually in good health when the event occurs. In
the societies we have escaped from, however, it is the law that pain is to be
administered to extract confessions prior to punishment, and that pain may
be administered in such ways as to result in a half dead and demented
person being brought to the scaffold or the pyre. The final administration
of justice, fire, rope or sword, is usually a merciful release from what has
gone before. Our hacking off heads when guilt has been established by
witnesses is indeed very humane.
Because of recent developments, especially our betrayal and the recent
inability to go out our gates for supplies, have made us surer than ever that
our days are numbered: the end of time is very near. We are as double
minded as you are: we look forward with both dread and longing to that
day. That is why after the pessimistic assessment there was a call to
spiritual renewal. Even Johan dreads the suffering and violence he knows
will presage Christ's return in glory.
Part of Johan's way of enthusing the people and keeping their spirits
high is to put on performances of all sorts. Plays, pageants, dances and
song fests. Many of them Johan writes himself, and the more popular are
the spoofs he creates that make fun of the actions and beliefs of our
enemies. It helps keep us aware of the mindless and spiritless cause of
those who oppose us, and keeps us from having second thoughts about our
own cause, which has both mental and spiritual depth.
One gentleman who has sent answers to my messages has been both
thoughtful, spiritual, and yet Catholic! And most of our preachers are
former, thoughtful Lutherans. So there are, it seems, humble believers in
even these camps. But the points of our entertainments are to keep the
feeling alive that we are here because of God's direct commands; they,
below our walls, are there because of greed and blood thirst. They want
their properties and incomes back, and the masters want their slaves back,
and all to be restored to the way it was before we came.
But God has other plans for them, and only one in ten will live to see
how wrong they have been in opposing us. To oppose us is to oppose
God! Thank you again for a thoughtful message. --Til--
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February 1535. Message from Matilde to All: FEBRUARY DISASTERS

Satan's legions seem to sense the imminent coming of the Lord. They
have been stepping up their activities in all of Holland and Northern
Germany. As a result, thousands of true believers have been tortured and
killed, and several major movements of people have been intercepted. We
can not help but blame these things on that Judas, Heinrich Graes, who
knew where persons were sent to mobilize supporters and bring them to
our aid. Our followers were intercepted in considerable numbers in
Gelderland, Utrecht, Friesland, and several places very near us here in
Germany as well. No aid is coming!
This is a major blow to those among us who were expecting some relief
from the arm of flesh. Those of us who know that there is no relief
expected until Christ's own arm is bared in our defense are not surprised,
though, although we secretly yearned for relief from anywhere, if the truth
need be told. We have faith, but we are weak.
But all of us mourn, and can't help but fear as message after message
tells of capture, torture, execution, and sometimes betrayal. We can more
and more sympathize with our Lord's lament to His Father on the cross as
day turned to night, our version of which is "Father, why hast thou
forsaken us?" But we know surely that after the darkness comes the light,
and surely as our situation grows more desperate and dark the Godly
sunrise comes ever nearer! Such is our faith, such is our belief.
Hunger is beginning to be a serious thing now, and we are starting to
have some murmuring from men who found having many wives to their
liking when there was plenty, who are now wishing to return to having but
one wife. They want to not be responsible for these other women who
have come to trust and depend on them. The wails of women now twice
abandoned by husbands are tearing some of our hearts in two.
My favorite sister in the faith, Elisabeth, the King's youngest wife, has
renewed her vocal, negative commentaries on the way men treat women in
our former, evil, as well as our present, Godly, societies. She says these
women were abandoned first by unbelievers leaving them behind to protect
their property; second by believers who are trying to have more bread for
themselves and the wife they either love the best or have been with the
longest. In both instances, she observes, men abandoned women to protect
their own well being, making it seem there is little difference, after all,
between the Godly and the ungodly man. She suggests we make a deal
with the bishop's forces to allow those women and children so abandoned
safe passage to relatives in other places where they can at least survive.
She is sharing her views within her small circle of friends only, having
learned the hard way that discussing these things openly is treason and
rebellion. And rebellion is death. But sometimes to discuss these things
gives us an outlet for our anger and frustrations, so we all shake our heads
wisely and agree, and move on to other topics such as the redistribution of
food to take care of the newly uncared for.
So, as February turns into March, winter continues and we are daily in a
worse situation with respect to food and fuel, and in terms of some of our
people's spiritual well being. I suppose this is part of God's design to weed
the wheat from the chaff, but it hurts nevertheless: Come quickly, Lord,
take pity on your suffering children and grant them speedy relief from on
high! --Matilde--

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March 1535. Message from Matilde to All: MARCH 28th, DAY OF
DELIVERANCE!

Our prophet Johan was shown a vision: in it he saw our people moving
out of the city with a great parade of armored wagons. We rode and
walked unmolested through the bishop's siege lines, and went to the rescue
of our beleaguered co-believers in Holland, especially. We prevailed over
our enemies, beating them decisively and causing the rivers to flow with
blood, not our blood for a change! We march triumphantly back into the
New Jerusalem to be received there by our Lord, in person. Messengers
have gone out to prepare our people far and wide for a simultaneous
uprising that will throw fear and confusion into the hearts of our enemies
everywhere.
Our city has forgotten about hunger and misery, it is a bee hive of
planning, sketching and building. 300 women are being trained in hand to
hand combat, the best among them will be outfitted with mens' armor and
will be in the vanguard to strike fear and confusion into the hearts of our
enemies. Our men and boys are training continually when they are not
working on our 17 armored wagons wherein we have mounted sizable
guns and are placing our supplies. Older women everywhere are sitting
outside when weather permits sewing bandages and in their homes they are
mixing herbs and salves to treat our wounded.
There is, again, unity in our city. The sound of smithies' fires and
hammerings, and the cries of mock combats can be heard at all times of the
day or night. The city has been divided into three groups, each of which
uses the available manufacturing and training facilities in turn.
Our deliverance day is but a few weeks away, the excitement can be felt
coming through the thickest walls, and there hasn't been this much
camaraderie and good cheer since our last Christmas celebrations.
Easter 1535, we break out of our prison, we rescue our fellow
believers, we overcome the enemy, and then we are received back into the
Kingdom by the Heavenly King Himself! The glory of the vision is so
overpowering that many of us resent having to tend to mundane matters
such as feeding ourselves and sleeping. We want to spend every moment
preparing and making the moment of deliverance arrive sooner.
For a week I had to keep this a secret, until we knew our messengers
had safely passed through the siege lines. But through Heinrich Graes the
traitor, who knew of this vision prior to his capture and his turning on us,
we are sure the bishop knows that we will attempt to break out on Eater.
But part of the vision was that the bishop's siege would be temporarily
confused and blinded and we would pass by undetected and unmolested.
This no doubt rivals Moses' deliverance from Egypt, but why not? We
have the same God, the same need, the same society, and like that society,
we have and obey our Prophet! --Matilde--

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March 28, 1535. Message from Matilda to All: EASTER 1535,
HALLELUJAH?

Our preparations are finished. 17 armored wagons are fully loaded,
each with 2 splendid horses ready to be harnessed. Colorful banners are
hung from every building, decorate each wagon, and are tied atop each
lance. We await our prophet-King's appearance. He will order the gates
opened, and God will then confound Egypt and Israel will go free. We will
join forces with our co-believers in all of the Netherlands. We will smite
our enemies and return triumphant! Our lord will then return and greet us!
We can't wait to begin this journey whose destination is salvation.
We know that in dozens of villages and cities people awoke to find the
flag of our Heavenly Kingdom flying where flags of the kingdoms and
principalities of this world flew when they went to bed. Everywhere
uprisings are being staged, in orderly progression, to strengthen our
numbers as we travel. We will be as Daniel's stone cut out of the mountain
without hands, we will roll forth and destroy all the kingdoms of this
world!
No one has seen our prophet-King Johan for a week. He has been
fasting and praying to obtain a revelation from God, so that we can be
assured of doing everything He wishes us to do at the right time and the
right place.
We stand here, assembled in the market square, awaiting Johan's
presence and message from God. Although we are so excited we could
burst, we are at the same time quiet and reverent as we wait.
Ah, here he is in a window overlooking the marketplace! But oh, how
pale and sickly he looks! He must have fasted completely all week long!
And how unkempt! He usually takes great pains to assure the people of his
kingly appointment from God by grooming himself and dressing so as to
look the part. He obviously has not bathed, shaved or combed his hair for
a week. He wears only a shirt, nothing else, which is not only out of
character but also considered in very poor taste.
He seems to have suffered enormously, for his voice quavers as he
utters: "Brothers and sisters" and then remains quiet for a few seconds as
he looks to see if we are listening. He then explains that all week long he
has had placed upon his shoulders the burden of all Israel's, meaning our,
sins. God did this to try him, but he carried this oppressive burden well
and willingly. Then, as the week ended and Easter appeared, God lifted
this burden from him, and told him to announce to all the people that they
have been made free, as of this moment all assembled here have proved
their single minded willingness to obey the Lord, and he has freed us from
the burden of sin and pronounced us free of all sin, all evil, and all
uncleanness. Thus have we been delivered, as promised, this Easter day!
The silence that followed was punctured by a hymn of thanksgiving. Its
message was that we would not cease to call upon God and He would not
cease to bless us.
We dispersed in silence to our homes. I believe almost everyone was
grateful to know our sins were forgiven and we were pure, pure enough in
the eyes of God to be allowed to stand, and not be destroyed, as He came
in glory.
Many who knew of the part of the planning that was done so that there
would be uprisings everywhere over the next few days wondered, however,
how God was going to deliver them from certain destruction if our army
was in fact not approaching from the east as promised!
My poor husband, Jacob, did not sleep most of that night. He actually
sobbed at one point and thus woke me. I tried to tell him he was to
exercise greater faith and trust in God: He will take care of His elect!
Jacob turned to me with red, teary eyes and whispered hoarsely: God has
shown me a vision, and our fellow believers are to be brought en-masse
into His presence to receive their rest. He is saving them, yes, but not on
this Earth: blood will flow as a river in the lands to our West, and I can not
bear to live knowing this is going on even as we live. He slept only the
sleep of the totally exhausted that night. These are times that sorely try
men's souls! But we must believe, trust, and obey at all cost! --Matilde--
 

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April 1535. Message from Matilde to All: APRIL, BLOODY APRIL!

As my husband saw in vision, an immense slaughter of our fellow
believers followed shortly after Easter. Our plans were for believers in
West Friesland to capture and hold a fortified cloister, Oldenklooster,
between Sneek and Bolswaard. That was our destination after our
breakout, and from there we would rally our supporters and defeat our
enemies, and return triumphant to the New Jerusalem where a guard was to
be left in place.
Estimates are that between 800 and 900 bodies were counted after the
artillery did its damage and the fourth attempt to storm the defenses finally
succeeded. None, we heard, survived.
Three ships with reinforcements were en route to this place, on the
Ijssel, and all three were sunk with no attempt at rescue. All aboard
perished.
Several other places where we had arranged for uprisings they were
quelled ruthlessly, with some successful efforts at saving leaders for later
public tortures and executions. All in all, the best people in Friesland,
Gelderland and Utrecht have been systematically exterminated. I suppose
this makes things easier for the Lord's destroying angels who are sure to
come soon.
There is very real starvation now setting in among us, with even our
best efforts at providing for expectant mothers leading to the birth of dead
children. All of these gruesome developments have caused some among us
to lose faith, finally, and some have openly accused our leaders angrily with
the charge of being false prophets and lunatics. Johan was confronted by a
formerly substantial citizen who swore to dispatch him to h fear of having offended
God. His singing changed in tone and others felt that Spirit too and joined
in, including Jacob.
Then the vision opened to him that this seemingly innocent waif's
disobedience was but a small outward sign of a great moral malignancy that
resided within her. He discerned evil spirits hovering in the room, that had
come out of her since they no longer had a residence. To ward them off he
reached out to others' hands and together their united song and dance of
praise to God reached a crescendo that cast these spirits out of that room
and even out of the city. That is when all felt their strength, their
supernatural strength from the Spirit of God, leave them and people slunk
home in a daze. It was a powerful spiritual witness that we should all
remember when we doubt, according to Johan.
Jacob came home and told me all this. I asked him if he believed this,
and he said he did, and hoped to God I did too. Then Divara returned and
told me the same story as another eye witness, quoting the scripture that
says in the mouths of two or three witnesses shall the truth be established.
I am contemplating this. I am strongly desiring to believe, but every
time I try to force myself to accept these testimonies as facts I should also
believe, something inside me screams NOOOOO! and I become extremely
agitated and nauseated. But I keep a calm exterior, because I do not want
to be interpreted as being possessed by an evil spirit by my husband!
I am attempting to sort out my feelings and to sort out the truth. I am
so torn inside I am unable to perform any of my duties. I am being left
alone a lot, since I keep saying I need to be alone. I will eventually either
renew my faith in the Kingdom and its Earthly rulers, or I will escape.
Thank you for your suggestion, it is one of the things I am contemplating,
except that I love Jacob and want him with me if I escape. Sometimes life
hurts so much that death seems like a lovely alternative, but that thought in
and of itself is a sin, and I believe I am past that degree of self pity.
--Matilde--

____________________________________________________________

The same person advising escape reiterated his advice, to which I replied:

Your advice is bold and may be what I should follow, but life is
rapidly becoming more complicated.
In keeping with the general tone of your advice, I had thought of
sneaking out with one of our couriers and joining my parents in the bishop's
camp. We have received written invitations from the bishop, lobbed in
packets over the walls, inviting us to leave the city and guaranteeing safety
if we renounce our faith. For humane reasons we have allowed about
1,200 older people, women and children to leave. We thought they were
being held until relatives could be found who, in return for making a
modest monetary payment to the bishop, would receive the prisoners.
Jacob's parents and my parents believed those promises.
Now we find that most of the first who responded to the bishop's
invitation were killed as soon as they were out of the gates of the city.
This was to warn others not to come and seems to have been a mistake.
When more flyers were sent, and more began to leave, they were ushered
into the camp, and unbeknownst to us at the time, killed there. A noble,
Philip of Hesse, pursuaded the bishop to be more humane and only kill
those who were, on interview, found to be guilty of leading people in this
"madness" of ours.
Prisoners were interviewed, it appears, but all who showed no promise
of being worth a sizable ransom from well to do families or friends were
executed. We, meaning our people who trusted the bishop, have been
betrayed. My idea of fleeing to save my unborn child --yes, I am
pregnant!-- is not a viable one it seems.
Philip of Hesse has been very interested in and even protective of us, to
the point of offering to accept our surrender so we would not have to
surrender to the bishop and his bloodthirst. We think he is only interested
in us because we have shown that scripture supports having more than one
wife, and he has two. He, being a follower of Luther, consulted that
pompous fool who upheld the nobles' right to kil rebellious peasants
attempting to revolt against oppression about a decade ago. In reaction to
that action by Luther, many of his preachers were disillusioned with him
and turned toward the true faith that begins with adult baptism. Luther,
however much beholden to the protection of the nobility, or perhaps he
was so beholden to that same nobility, nevertheless correctly discerned
from scripture that there was no prohibition against having more than one
wife. Upon receiving this reading, Philip took a second wife, one who,
hopefully, could bear him an heir.
Another complication is that, apparently, Bernard Rothmann, our
theologian, was present when my husband was questioning Johan, our
King. He took my husband aside after, my husband belatedly tells me, and
tells me he has developed some doubts about our future as it is prophesied.
He says he is willing to stand until the time of no hope is reached as
prophesied. But if Christ does not at that time appear, he has made plans
for escape and hiding until the killing has stopped. He has friends in
Friesland who will be expecting him if things do not go as we believe they
will. He needs help making good his escape through a heavy gate, and
asked Jacob and myself to help if things went so far wrong. He says he
asked the leaders, including the King, if they were sure that Christ would
come exactly as promised, and hinted at his doubt and fear. To a man they
assured him he had no basis for fear. So when he heard the doubt in
Jacob's voice he thought he might have an ally.
The plan is not cowardly. It is to stay and fight until all is obviously
lost, and to then retreat to a rear tower that has a sealed door that has been
partly unsealed. Water and provisions for a few days are placed there, and
a second sealed door needs to be breached allowing lowering by rope into
the river. Floating a ways and then emerging behind the bishop's camp is
the plan.
We still fervently hope our prophet is correct. But now we have an
alternate plan in case he is not. Perhaps this is the very double mindedness
that scripture says Christ hates, but I am genuinely confused about who or
what is in harmony with Christ's mind and will #000000">denounce God's prophet and King. As we move through the month of
June. executions occur daily.
At latest count we have 1,000 fighting men in the city, about 5,000
women, and 3,500 children. We daily remove tens of bodies from homes
throughout the city. Our situation is desperate. --Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
To another correspondant and confidante I wrote:

I am having my courier make available my reply to xxxxx's note
because in it I tell the story of the "mad dog" Johan. He tells a story that
seems to be convincing my husband and my remaining best friend, and even
I quite desperately want to believe it also, but at present I can not.
In truth, my husband needs to believe, hence he believes. My friend
Divara is so in love with her husband the King that he could behead her and
her lips would bless him even as her head rolls toward his feet. Yet, these
are people whom I have loved and trusted for the past year and more, and
with whom I have shared much. How can I speak so mockingly and
callously of them? They define who I am, to a large extent.
You spoke from your heart in your message, you showed you
understood me, and did not try to take control of my mess of a life and tell
me what to do. I appreciate that.
If in my contemplation and prayer the inspiration truly comes to me to
make my escape, I shall do so. Thank you for suggesting I continue
prayer, since I know there is a God despite what I currently feel about His
appointed servants' actions. In a way, I can now sympathize with the
Catholics, like the bishop's followers, who are required to come to God
through a thoroughly evil man. Except as soon as I have that thought I
force myself to repent of it and say to myself that I should give it longer, I
am still not seeing clearly enough to make such a self-damning judgement.
I want my husband with me if I do escape. Why? Because I love him
enough to want him to survive? Yes, but also because I love myself. I can
not face our former enemies as a petitioner for mercy alone.
Why can't I? Well, one reason I can share with you and no one else, note to leave Muenster, I
received your two messages. As you can see from my reply to xxxxxx,
leaving this place is not possible, at least at present. But we do have a plan
for escape if it turns our our faith has been misplaced as some have
suggested it is.
It has just been made known to us through mercenary informers that
both Jacob's and my parents were killed in the bishop's camp. They had
apparently told stories of their family farm holdings and their relatives'
willingness to pay for their release. This kept them alive until word came
back: no ransom was offered!
This makes it more important for us to look toward the saints in
Friesland as our new and true family, if we make good our escape.
Your use of my familiar name, Til, makes me think you are acquainted
with sister Franca? I feel close enough to her to confide in her and use my
familiar name. She is the only one to whom I have confessed my being
with child prior to your writing your messages. So I infer that you and
xxxxx have discussed me and my plight and the plight of our people.
You err in invoking the heart of the Mother of God in your appeal to
my heart. Jesus entered the body of Mary as a spirit and took of her body,
acting on His own volition, to build his own body. She was not a mother
in the normal sense. She was used by God to make Himself an earthly
body and deserves no special recognition as is accorded her in the
idolatrous religion of the Catholics, who err greatly in venerating a woman
as if she is in any degree Divine and worthy of adoration. It is blasphemy.
But you do not err, nor fail to appeal to my heart when you suggest that
the new life within me is a gift from God, and is meant to survive. You
correctly discern that my child can not be expected to survive its birth
given that I am reduced to eating anything that grows wild in the city and
some wormy meal blended with water and heated to stop the crawling
infestations from moving long enough to allow chewing and swallowing.
Some days the only thing that allows me to gag and keep this poison
down at all is the very real promise of this new life within me. I also
question whether0000">When I feel this calmness I know this is the lot that true faith in the true
God has cast for me and it will lead to my eternal salvation even if it leads
to my baby's mortal death. At those times I often get a weak feeling in my
knees as I sabotage my resolve and my faith by deliberately and
blasphemously looking toward heaven and saying: "God, if my baby dies,
take me also!" How selfish of me, does not my husband deserve me to
live? Or my God? Or my people?
When faith is truly tried, hearts fail. My heart fails often, God, please
help my often unbelieving soul to be more true to Thee! --Til--
____________________________________________________________

Xxxxx! So good to hear from you again.
I heard from a sister with whom you have shared my plight, and I
already told her that she erred, from the perspective of my belief, in
appealing to the relationship between Mary and Jesus. You just did the
same thing, and I point you to Jesus' setting His mother in her place when
she made demands on Him. He reminded her that He was here to do the
business of the Father, not her. We follow His example and thus differ
radically from and object vehemently to the idolatrous veneration of Mary
as the Mother of God in Catholic belief.
As to this voice within that you pay heed to and that you use to make
decisions in your life, how can you listen to such a voice when all you hear
within is bowels crying out in agony for nourishment to feed a very small
child?
I do feel voices within, as I explained to your friend, sister DHR (she
chooses to disguise her name, no doubt to protect herself). But these
voices scream at me in every direction, in turn making me full of impotent,
rebellious rage, and then turning me from rage to quiet acceptance and
faith. But even as peace and acceptance overtake me I sabotage my faith
by speaking to God out of my suppressed rage!
I am a sinner! I deserve to die a miserable death. For my moments of
unbelief I deserve to have my baby born misshapen and dead. For my
moments of unbelief I deserved to have my very best friend cut out of my
heart with a sword. My unbelief is causing the death of all those close to
me. It is my punishment from God!
Why do I not tell my husband? Because up until this time he has been
faithful and is full of belief. Although he agreed to help Rothmann with his
escape plans if the city falls and there is no heavenly rescue, he really
believes that that plan will never need to be put into effect. He believes
truly, and it is probably the strength of his belief that preserves me now and
may save me hereafter.
He has wanted a child, a son preferably, so badly that if I tell him of my
pregnancy, and he knows he is powerless to provide better for my
nourishment, his faith may also fail and then we will most surely be erased
from this Earth now and from the Book of Life hereafter.
I am in part indulging my fits of unbelief knowing I am saved by his
unwavering belief. If he knows that with some more nourishment I will
bear him a child, he may do something meriting death such as stealing from
the community supply he helps dole out as fairly as possible. Or knowing
the certainty of our baby's death here, he may curse God in full faith and we
will surely die in the attempt to escape this place now and be forever
damned.
So you see why I do not tell my husband. It would in fact be better for
him if I would lose this child as so many do now, even before my belly
begins to swell noticeably. Many women with swollen bellies are dying,
they are not pregnant. If my belly swells for either reason I fear my
husband's usually unwavering obedience and loyalty to God will be severely
tested.
Yet often I feel like telling him, but always draw back at the last minute.
I do not want to be the cause of his temporal death, and especially not his
eternal death. --Til--

____________________________________________________________

The diatribe about Jesus and his mother did not sit well with my friends, and i reply to their protests:

Xxxxxx,
I am sorry I misread your intent, and probably sister xxxxx's intent as
well, in referring to the relationship between Jesus and Hie=+0>we wept out of both joy and sorrow at the same time. The Lbelly gently and we lay face to

attempted to enter a passage under one of the towers, the passage that was
left open for our couriers' use to enter and exit the city. The fighting was
fierce and bloody and our men fought with Godly power and inspiration.
We prevailed and managed to drive the aggressors out of the city and lock
the gates.
Disposing of the hundreds of bodies littering the city began, and there
was no time to celebrate.
This morning, upon advice from the same traitors, the bishop's forces
rammed in a door we were fortifying, and entered the city again. Our
remaining 900 fighting men were quickly reduced to 300. Bodies of men,
women and children were everywhere. We expected the Lord's return. the
skies were an unearthly black color, winds howled, and we felt this strange,
eery sky to be a sign of the arrival of the legions of Heaven. Alas, we were
wrong.
Our people, when the killing slowed, were told to lay down their arms
and return to their homes. They were guaranteed safety if they would
obey. After the streets cleared, soldiers patrolled the streets and killed
anyone venturing out. Meanwhile, assassin teams began to go from house
to house and appear to even now be systematically killing the inhabitants,
judging from the continuing distant screams periodically penetrating even
these depths! So much for their word! How truly and completely I now
hate our enemies amazes me.
Rothmann decided that he would fight to the death and we lost track of
him in the confusion. If he is still alive, it will be extremely difficult for him
to cross the town and come to this appointed hiding place.
We have moved the stone at the exit end of our hiding place, but found
there to be a soldier's tent and campfire too nearby to risk a daytime exit.
Late tonight we will crawl out and make our way along the river until well
past the bishop's camps.
Our leaders were being lined up and beheaded systematically at the time
we pretended to return to our house, went a street further and dropped out
of sight. The King and his two closest advisors are being held in chains for
interrogation. Queen Divara is also in chains, but in her house. These
were paraded around the two main squares of the city to show the people
all hope was gone.
We are numb with fear, disappointment and exhaustion. Strangely, the
food cache deposited here by Rothmann has allowed us to eat better than
we have been able to eat for weeks.
If you receive this message, it means we have escaped and found a
means of having this message delivered. My husband, Jacob, was entrusted
with a small sack of the city's remaining silver coin. If the city fell, he was
to hide this sack against the day the Lord would recall and reorganize His
saints.
This sack will feed us well and allow me to pay couriers in the towns
where we hide as we make our way to east Friesland to seek asylum with
other true believers. In Friesland we will turn the remaining silver over to
the local leadership.
--Matilde--
 

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
June 1535. Message from Matilde to All: ESCAPE TO OSNABRUCK!

After what seemed like an eternity of waiting in the dark, we crawled up
the narrow tunnel toward the outside of the city wall. At the end we
shoved aside the loosened stone and emerged into the grass sloping down
to the river.
As we started to make our way downstream, crouched low so we
would be more difficult to see from where there seen to be campfires, we
heard horses approach. Since most of the soldiers were in the city behind
us, we were surprised and huddled together in fear. A voice from atop one
horse whispered hoarsely "Jacob, where are you," in our own Dutch
tongue. We surfaced just below him and he explained that Berndt
Rothmann sent him to fetch us to safety." Apparently, through some
strange miscommunication within the bishop's forces, a small number of
defenders were allowed to leave the city, led by Hinrich Krechting, a friend
of both Bernard Rothmann and my husband.
I asked if Bernard then survived, and the man said it was best, in case
we were captured, that we know as little as possible. He had two horses,
one for us, and it occurred to us that we were so emaciated that the horse
would never know there were two persons on its back rather than one. We
were asked to be silent, and rode most of the night and the next morning
until we entered a farm not far from Osnabruck.
We asked, worriedly, why we were going to one of the cities ruled by
the same bishop as ruled and now conquered Muenster. The reply: here
we have a friend, and here the local government is totally depleted of
manpower and resources because of the Muenster war. Everywhere else in
the low countries local governments were on full alert for Muenster
sympathizers and escapees, here none were left to carry out such duties.
We stayed on this farm, recuperating, eating, and resting, for a few
days. During that time we heard that the massacre in Muenster lasted three
days and nights. Essentially all men had been killed, and over 2,000
women. About 3,500 remaining women, and some children, were then
forced out of the city to find their own way to their relatives, wherever they
might be. Part of Johan's family was imprisoned. Johan, Berndt Krechting
and Berndt Knipperdolling were taken to some other city and jailed to
await more extensive interrogation. We pray for them, as well as for the
released women and children, continually.
I shall continue this report later, right now I have work to do, in the
kitchen!!! Soon we are headed to Oldenburg, and I shall write again from
there. --Matilde--

____________________________________________________________

_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

Coorespondence was sent to East Friesland with the prayer we would be there
to claim it. To one of these I reply:

Sister Xxxxxx, how good to receive your note here in East Friesland.
We had wanted to go to the Dutch Friesland, but we are so happy to be
here among friends, doing useful work, receiving ample food and
comfortable lodging in return for our labors.
It was such a terrible time, those last few months in Muenster, that the
role of my best friend's death in making me suspect that my leaders were
fallible men, had almost escaped me. I do not share your rather extreme
view, because I believe they were inspired at times, just as our local leaders
here say we all are. But they deceived themselves into thinking their every
thought and action flowed from inspiration, and that is where they erred
and erred grievously.
I cried afresh over Elisabeth's death upon reading her name in your
message, she was so great an uplift to my soul that I went into a very dark
place in my soul upon her murder, and could not get out until we crawled
out of that dark hole under the city wall. As we entered the darkness of
night, I entered a light within me and it has been burning brighter and
brighter ever since.
How good to hear you say hat a heretic is a good man! Until that good
man is baptized, I shall also consider him a heretic! We judge alike!
I hope a time will come when we can travel without fear for our lives.
If I live to see that day, my lady and friend, I shall come to see you in your
most splendid estate. Now that we live comfortably, my picturing you in
your grand house and overlooking your grand gardens does not bother me
anymore. It bothers me when I hear of the rich who fail to reach out and
succor the poor, but you, dear sister, succored me repeatedly in my time of
need, even as I was abusing and insulting you all the while. You are indeed
a lady, and a true friend! Thank you!
I shall write again when my child is born. --Til--

____________________________________________________________
June 1535. Message from Matilde to All: PEACE IN OLDENBURG.

I had to interrupt my last message because I was needed to help
prepare a number of meals, what a privilege that is after our time starving
in Muenster!
A number of the refugee women and children just arrived at the farm to
which we escaped near Osnabruck, and we were asked to accompany some
of them to Oldenburg in East Friesland, where we were told there is quite a
concentration of true believers prepared to give us shelter.
Johan offered his silver coins to help the relief for the refugees that will
benefit from this farm family's hospitality. Some were accepted but he was
then told to turn them over to Hinrich Krechting when we get to
Oldenburg. He and his men had only stopped long enough to replenish
their supplies, because they feared pursuit after it was found out that they
had been mistakenly allowed to escape.
We rode three nights, spending days in haylofts of prearranged farms.
We were a group of seven mounted persons, our guide and Johan the only
men. The women all had relations in Oldenburg or its vicinity. We bad our
guide and the women farewell after we were received for a night as a group
at a well to do farmer's estate just west of the city.
Johan was offered work helping the aging farmer who had lost both
his sons to the bishop of Muenster's forces as they proceeded on their way
to Muenster with a relief mission of six men. The older man sobbed, as did
his wife, as he recounted that their expectation was that this group would
not be harshly dealt with since they were not armed but carried bags of
dried foodstuffs on several pack animals. They were all naive, now they
are all dead.
We were reunited with Hinrich Krechting, who had taken up residence
with another farmer, and turned our remaining silver coin over to him. He
warned us that there was an ongoing argument between local Anabaptists,
as we were being called, some few of them being of the same conviction as
we were, most others rejecting the need for restoring Old Testament
societal practices and especially the sword. Christ told Peter to put his
sword away, Hinrich said, and he was coming to see that this view may be
the correct view: this story may very well have been recorded just to be
here as a warning for our day. He said that he was in contact with one of
the leaders of the group that believed that no believer should ever wield a
sword, David Joris, who was present when our Jan van Geelen attempted
in vain to persuade Menno Simons, the priest of Witmarsum, of the
rightness of our cause.
He asked us to study for ourselves the letters written by these peaceful
people, and if we saw they were correct in their judgement, and wished to
join him here, we would be a welcome addition to his community of
believers.
We asked him if this meant Christ would not return in glory, soon, as
prophesied, and he said this must most assuredly come to pass, but he cited
Holy Writ saying that no man will know the time or the place. Johan and I
felt at peace, and indicated we would study the teachings he recommended.
We indicated our desire to return to Holland. He said he hoped that
could be done at some future time, but now the entire low country was in a
state of alert and the killing of Anabaptists, whether of peaceful or militant
persuasion, was at least a weekly, if not nearly a daily, public spectacle in
many, many city squares.
Johan now works the farm and preaches, and I help a group of women
prepare relief packages for a continuous trickle of refugees, mostly women,
who pass through this community. Many are found homes here, since they
have already been to their family homes and were turned away. The
hospitality of this people is marvelous: they are true Christians!
I am beginning to gain weight, and when I now feel my baby kick within
me I know that we are in the right place and that God now smiles at us in
our daily efforts at teaching His salvation and feeding His sheep spiritually
as well as physically. I shall write again at some future time, especially
toward the time my baby is to be born. And, yes, I will report if anything
happens with our past prophet-King Johan, who languishes in a dungeon
between interrogations assisted by the pain specialists.
We still pray for him, but were he to be released we would welcome
him as a brother and a his wife as a dear, dear fiend, but not as King and
Queen. Menno Simons said Christ was the true Christian's only King. He
was right.
We asked Hinrich if it isn't about time this priest accepted baptism as a
believing adult? He replied that David Joris says he will do so, soon, and
has asked a local leader of the Anabaptists, a man named Obbe Philips
known to Joris, to perform the ceremony when he is ready.
Life is good, again; God is good, still. --Matilde--

____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________
July 1535. Message from Matilde to All: THE QUEEN IS DEAD!

I overheard some refugee women from Muenster who stayed with our
hosts here in Oldenburg some days, and noted they were casting glances
my way. I took one aside and confronted her: if they had ought to say
about me I wanted it said to my face.
She said they recognized me as a special friend and frequent public
companion of Queen Divara. I asked why that was important to them, and
she said they had begun to wonder if I knew Divara was dead, since I had
enquired of one of their number regarding her whereabouts and well being.
The woman I questioned had apparently feigned ignorance since she feared
me as she had feared Divara. It is a new thought to me, that a woman
could fear Divara, but apparently the lower ranks of people feared the
higher ranks in our society just as they did in the society from whence they
came. It never occurred to me that I was numbered among the higher
ranks by persons such as these women. This troubled me as I heard it, and
troubles me still, because it shows there was a class of persons in our very
midst that was not fully aware of the vision of equality between all men.
This vision, which is scriptural, was the very heart of our society!.
But then I learned the truth. Before they were allowed to leave the city
they were treated to a spectacle. First, their three most respected, or
feared it seems, leaders were displayed and led around in chains in front of
them like performing bears. King Johan looked most miserable and
despondent, especially seeing his favorite wife and most of his other wives
being readied for execution.
A large number of leading women were brought out, and asked to deny
their religion. Some begged for mercy and seemed to be saying they would

argument, Elisabeth Divfont>
mine was an easy birth, and I believe her for I have assisted in some
horribly difficult birth attempts by sick and starving women that often
included the deaths of mother or child, and sometimes both. But the pain
was a surprise to me even though it had been described to me and I was
told how to cope with it.
But my daughter was soon resting on my bosom and took to my ample
milk supply quite readily. She is a beautiful, healthy baby, and I am already
looking for signs of her having that unique sparkle that so characterized the
person for whom she was named. But the good news isn't over yet, for us.
Unto us a son was given. His name is Johannes Bernardus Jacobszoon.
I suckle him, but I am not his mother. He is the son of Jacob, but my
husband is not his father. One of the women, a refugee from Muenster as
we were, whose husband was named Jacob and was killed, came to stay
with us until her baby was born. I did not attend the birthing, because I
was still in bed after Elisabeth's birth. I was told that all went well until the
child was about to thrust its head completely out. Bleeding began to be
profuse, and the rest of the child shot out with a stream of blood that did
not stop until the mother was dead.
The mother, God bless her soul, had extracted a promise from us that,
in case she died, Jacob and I would raise the child as our own. Without
considering this a likely prospect, since she appeared healthy after she
regained some weight, we agreed.
Her dying words were "He is whole, thank God! Quick, take him to his
mother!" Then her eyes stopped moving about, they were no longer
following her child's movements in the attendant's arms.
She had told us beforehand that she was sure it would be a boy, and
that a voice had commanded her to name him after the three Muensterite
heroes still being tortured and interrogated: Johan van Leiden, Bernard
Knipperdolling, and Bernard Krechting. We indulged her continuing
enthusiasm for the cause of the Kingdom of God and its Earthly King, our
friend Johan.
But at the same time we attempted to get her to see that the religion of
our hosts, which we had adopted also, was more fully in keeping with
Holy Writ. She seemed to not hear us, for she kept saying things like how
lucky she was to be living with genuine heroes of the Kingdom. She said
God had preserved me for a special purpose, for all other women of my
rank had been rounded up and killed in front of her eyes. As she saw the
three leaders led about in chains, she felt the baby leap within her and knew
then that it would be a boy and what his name should be.
A week later she found herself safe and placed with a prophet and his
wife, a leader of women, and knew then also that her son would be raised
by us so that his calling from God, suggested by his names, would be
fulfilled. We humored her, hoping she would change her beliefs over time,
and we feared she would open her mouth in front of the wrong people and
call persecution down upon our household.
We have kept our promises to her, but we see our new son's role in the
peaceable Kingdom of God to be the same as that of his proud new father:
to be a preacher and a baptizer of souls unto salvation! Some among us
teach that the Kingdom is not here or there, but it is within us. Jesus is
supposed to have said this, and now we see clearly the meaning of those
words, and what a comfort this idea is.
In our first days of being true believers we were taught that we had to
baptized while standing or kneeling in a stream, in imitation of Jesus in the
River Jordan. Soon thereafter we learned that this was a nice symbolic
feature but not a necessity. Here in the farmstead, we do secret baptisms
weekly, in the meadow behind the house, and Jacob teaches baptismal
applicants almost nightly. These are truly happy times for us: we are part
of an expanding Godly family welded together by Christ's love. And we
are also a true family, with a healthy baby boy and girl that we love dearly.
Most assume they are our twins. We don't tell them otherwise.
Our host and hostess have made arrangements with the landowner to
whom they pay rents. In a few years we will take over this farm, and will
become hosts to our current hosts. They have becom"#000000">phase of our lives that, in retrospect, is beginning to seem more and more
strange. Our new lives are happy ones. We are true to our consciences
and beliefs, and as we have become passionately dedicated to peace and
nonviolence in the world, we have finally gained an inner peace that
testifies to our hearts of God's nearness and love.
But January also brings us good news. Our leaders' friend Menno
Simons has finally left the Catholic priesthood and went into hiding in
Groningen. After he resigned from his post in Witmarsum, he was hunted
like a fat rabbit. People who were thought to have sheltered him were
arrested and tortured, and they will no doubt be killed.
He has escaped to our area, and is nearby in a secret location. He has
been baptized by Obbe Philips, and has married his friend Gertrude. He
has been approached by the heavily persecuted leadership of the peaceful
Anabaptist movement in the Dutch portion of Friesland, as well as by our
leadership here, to apply his God given talents to unite us and work to
increase the peaceable Kingdom of God.
Simons has humbly accepted the challenge, and has already started
writing theses that define our beliefs and peaceable principles. He has been
officially made an elder among the leaders of our flock. Already we are
being nicknamed by the disrespectful as being followers of Menno Simons,
Mennonites. But we know we are humble followers of Christ, as are all
our elders, including Menno Simons.
One of the things he has been asked to effect is a stronger separation
from the surviving and regrouping radicals who are again taking up the
sword to carve out a physical Kingdom of God on Earth. They draw down
the vengeance of state forces on all of us. In East Friesland we are
relatively secure because the authorities realize there is a great difference
between peaceful and radical Anabaptists. They tolerate and even protect
us in part because we serve, politically and unwittingly, their scheme to
thwart attempts by either the Catholics or the Lutherans to take full control
of the government and strangle the local merchants and farmers with their

int>
Friesland, and she and her husband have three children who are busy
having children themselves. Johan and his wife have had four children born
to them, but only one survived into adulthood. He will be married this
spring, to a wonderful woman whose family I have known for a long time.
They will likely take over the farm here, since they are already helping it be
a more productive place through much hard work.
But the very special occasion that causes me to write? Better sit down
for this one: we have it on good authority that on 26 January 1577 William
of Orange, Prince of all the Netherlands, declared a policy of toleration for
us Anabaptists! Sure, when he was governor of Antwerp in 1566 he did
the same thing only to be overruled by Philip II. We expect that there will
be attempts to overrule this policy since there are strong anti-Anabaptist
zealots in the Dutch States-General. But the magistrate of Middelburg,
Zeeland, was told to cease his persecutions by the Prince, and he did. The
Prince said the magistrate was not to interfere with a citizen's exercise of
his conscience. This magistrate was under the influence of Dutch
Reformed Church zealots who were trying to replace the papacy's former
yoke with a new one of their own making. Prince William will have no part
of it!
God bless this just man! I should write more to explain what has
happened since 1535 when I sent my last message, but I tire easy and so
will make an end for this day. My daughter in law, Anneke, is writing this
message for me as I speak slowly. Her command of your language is
limited, so please forgive us if there are imperfections in the wording.
--Matilde--
Note from Anneke: We are so jubulant over this development in the
Netherlands, I keep thinking it is sad that Jacob, my kind and wonderful
father in law, did not live to see this day. He did, however, live to hear of
the Antwerp declaration by Prince Willem, and prophesied then to his
family and friends that a new day of freedom was about to overtake our
people. He died before that archfiend's apprentice Alva entered Flanders
on behalf of Philip II, and reestablished the violent and fearful yoke of the
papists. But his prophecy was right! It just took another decade for the
sunrise of freedom to illuminate this longed for new day for our community
of believers. Matilde and I shall, no doubt, write again in a few days.
--Anneke--
____________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________

March 1578, Message from Matilde to All: MATILDE TELLS A TALE

This is Anneke, writing as Matilde tells a tale of their adventures in
their early years in Oldenburg. She tells of being repeatedly approached,
because of their prominence in the Kingdom of Muenster, by men sincerely
believing they should continue the Muensterite expectation of a physical
Kingdom to be established by an elect group that wields the sword of
justice to destroy the evil and prepare for the physical return of Jesus
Christ.
We had learned, by then, from Menno Simons and Obbe Philips and
their associates, that this was not God's plan for His people. Jacob pleaded
with these men to consider the words written by these peaceful brethren.
To protect the peace loving believers, there were stronger and stronger
rules adopted to shun believers in continued armed resistance to oppression
and persecution by princes, popes and Protestants. We had a hard time
taking such a strong stance against people who believed as we did just a
short time before. We knew of the reality and sincerity of their
convictions.
There was one group, however, that all agreed were a danger to the
survival of the entire believers' movement, the followers of Johan van
Batenburg. He was a mayor and a son of a noble family who accepted
baptism as an adult. After the fall of Muenster in 1535 he felt inspired to
take up the sword of truth and justice and use it to root out evil. He drew
to himself a goodly number of radical Anabaptists in the Netherlands, and
began making raids on the estates of rich nobles and properties of the
Roman church. His group had considerable support among those who had
been persecuted and oppressed, since he was taking from the rich and
distributing the spoils to the poor: his followers.
In 1538 Johan van Batenburg was captured. Under interrogation he
confessed to the criminal acts of many of the leaders of peaceful
Anabaptism, failing to name his own followers. After his execution, his
approach to establishing the Kingdom through war on the nobility and the
established church was gradually abandond.
We, Jacob and I, had mixed feelings at hearing of Johan van
Batenburg's death: we knew what he was doing was not right in the sight
of God. But we also couldn't help but feel some very human satisfaction at
hearing of a successful raid on some egregious oppressor. We are, after
all, human! --Matilde--
This is Anneke again: this story was somewhat abbreviated because
mother Matilde has not been feeling very strong lately, and told this story
in a hurry and then had me help her to bed. She keeps saying she has been
having more frequent visits from Jacob in her dreams and knows the time is
near for her reunion with him. When she talks like this it makes Johan, my
husband, and I sad, but it obviously makes her happy to talk of her reunion
with her beloved Jacob! --Anneke--
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____________________________________________________________
September 1579, Message from Anneke to All: MATILDE HAS DIED,
and A TALE OF TWO KINGDOMS OF GOD

This is Anneke again, bringing you sad news. It is now September of
1579, and when I went to attend Matilde this morning I found her with a
smile on her face. Johan says his mother was smiling at his father, who
must have come for her in the night. We felt empty and miserable over this
for some time, but then rallied to the memory of our faith which clearly
tells that she is now at peace and happily basking in God's love together
with her husband. She is finally in the Kingdom of God!
A few days before she passed on, she said our next message should be
about the restablished Kingdom of God in Westphalia and its recent bloody
fall. She was very much upset over the suffering surely awaiting the
participants in this new Kingdom. She wanted us to tell this tale in the
hope that it would help prevent similar ill-fated and wrong headed
movements in the future.
This is a tale of which I know quite a bit myself, so I will carry out
Matilde's desire: The story of my husband Johan Berndt's being named
after the martyred leaders of the Kingdom of God at Muenstert has brought
us to the attention of several of the groups attempting to keep the
establishment of the physical Kingdom alive in the hearts of believers.
Representatives of one such group came by in 1567, and reported that the
Kingdom of God had been restablished in Westphalia, near Cleves and
Wesel. This group was led by a prophet, Johan Willemsen, who had 300
followers who were attempting, to the very best of their ability, to restore
the Kingdom as it had been envisioned at Muenster a generation previous.
They had all things in common, the reprinted the pamphlets created in
Muenster explaining the new order of marriage, Johan Willemsen set the
example with 21 wives! Some say that Johan thought he himself was the
Messiah, but we did not hear such blasphemies from his representatives. It
was explained to us, however, that the believers were commissioned by
God to prepare the Earth for His return by cleansing it of evil, and they
took by force from their oppresors what was rightfully theirs as true
believers. This latter was an adaptation of the Batenburger practice of
wielding the sword of truth and justice with rather practical results and
rewards. Matilde would have explained this in a more sympathetic way,
but violence so horrifies me that I have a hard time seeing perpetrators of
violence as being at the same time humble and sincere followers of Christ.
My husband Johan felt kinship with the men he was named after, and
was assured by mother Matilde that these were indeed honorable and
sincere men attempting to do what they thought was the will of God. But,
they were wrong about the will of God. Because his mother had been so
sympathetic and yet honest about Muenster's leaders, Johan was in turn
able to listen sympathetically to these men and yet refuse them. He
declined to be a part of this Kingdom, even though they begged him to join
them. He bade them peace and gave them supplies for their return journey
south. They departed, pronouncing a blessing on us and urging us to
prayerfully reconsider.
We have followed their story with interest. They were persecuted, but
were never thought sufficient of a threat to warrant large scale military
action, which is a reflection of our rapidly changing times.. Then, just this
year, Johan Willemsen and many of his followers were surprised by a
sizable force, arrested, interrogated, and executed. Survivors of that
Kingdom, as in the days after the fall of Muenster, were reduced to
beggars, being left nothing upon setting out on the road to family and
friends.
Matilde's plea would have been to avoid anyone claiming to have been
commissioned by God to establish His Kingdom on Earth. God's Kingdom
will surely come, but will not require true believers to take up swords and
shed the blood of those who do not believe. I say "amen" to that
sentiment.
Mother Matilde has joined her husband, and our Lord, in the true
Kingdom of God. It also appears that the peaceful Anabaptists (we seem
to be labeled "Mennonites" by some) are clearly in the majority among the
believers, and are gaining official protection, or at least toleration, in the
Netherlands and parts of Germany. To me these events make it a good
time to cease writing and sending these messages. Unless, of course, you
wish to ask me any questions? Between Johan and I we should be able to
answer any questions you may be wishing to ask. --Anneke--
 

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