John of Leyden was made
prisoner, together with his two chief men,--Knipperdolling, his
executioner, and Krechting, his chancellor,--they being reserved for a
slower and more painful fate.
For six months they were carried through Germany, enclosed in iron
cages, and exhibited as monsters to the people. Then they were taken
back to Muenster, where they were cruelly tortured, and at length put to
death by piercing their hearts with red-hot daggers.
Their bodies were placed in iron cages, and suspended on the front of
the church of St. Lambert, in the market-place of Muenster, while the
Catholic worship was re-established in that city. The cages, and the
instruments of torture, are still preserved, probably as salutary
examples to fanatics, or as interesting mementos of Muenster's past
history.
The Muenster madness was the end of trouble with the Anabaptists. They
continued to exist, in a quieter fashion, some of them that fled from
persecution in Germany and Holland finding themselves exposed to almost
as severe a persecution in England.
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