History
Münster Rebellion
The Münster Rebellion was a radical Anabaptist movement that took place in the city of Münster, Germany, from 1534 to 1535. The rebellion was characterized by the establishment of a theocratic government, led by Jan Matthys and Jan van Leiden, and the implementation of radical social and religious reforms. The rebellion ultimately ended in a violent siege by the combined forces of the Catholic Church and the Lutheran rulers.
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eBook - PDFThe Irish Brigade, 1670–1745
The Wild Geese in French Service
- D. P. Graham(Author)
- 2020(Publication Date)
- Pen and Sword Military(Publisher)
Chapter 3 Rebellion 1641–1651 A n exhaustive analysis of the significant and far-reaching events in Ireland during the 1640s would demand many volumes. However, it is pertinent in this instance to outline the key events and thus set a context for the unfolding drama. The English Civil War, and its links to events in Scotland and Ireland, provided the crucible for the destabilisation of a monarchy and the death of a king. The early years of the seventeenth century had seen upheaval and displacement amongst the Irish in Ulster, through the combination of plantation and the new political and socio-economic environment. After the Flight of the Earls and the transplanting of settlers to the lands of the erstwhile Gaelic lords, most Irish tenants were, in turn, transplanted to more mountainous or less fertile areas. In the end the move to ‘plant’ had been a political one, an attempt to exorcise the threat of rebellion and invasion and to seize the initiative after the departure of so many of the Irish ruling classes. The new planters and settlers had become established. The plantation had, however, still fallen short of one of James’s ultimate aims. The Reformation and Protestantism had shown little hope of taking root in Ireland, at least not in the way that he had hoped for. Indeed, Scots Presbyterianism was having the opposite effect to a large extent, creating stronger divisions rather than promoting a fundamental change of religious bias. The 1630s saw a series of national incidents which created tension and growing discontent. Native Irish indebtedness to the settlers, centralised government, failed harvests and an increasingly poor economy had their inevitable negative effect on the bulk of the native populace. 1 The decade not only witnessed growing frustration in Ireland, but across the three Stuart kingdoms, a series of events that would unleash an unprecedented war across the British Isles.
eBook - PDFThe Future of Religion
Secularization, Revival and Cult Formation
- Rodney Stark, William Sims Bainbridge(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- University of California Press(Publisher)
Similar events were commonplace in medieval Europe, especially in the growing com- mercial towns of the Rhine Valley (Cohn, 1961). In this chapter we ex- plore the tendency for political protest and hope to be channeled into religious expressions and for there to be a great deal of magic combined with such religions. Then we examine these same elements from the reverse point of view: Why can even the most repressive totalitarian states not stamp out religion? Why are antireligious regimes chronically vulnerable to religious challenge? MAGICAL AND RELIGIOUS REBELLIONS To discover the conditions that cause political discontent to take magical and religious form, we must examine more closely the situation of the rebels at Münster. It is not important that we understand fully why they were embittered by their conditions of life. As Norman Cohn (1961) has pointed out, European feudalism was fundamentally rural. As com- mercial towns developed, they raised questions of authority, such as to whom a city belonged. Population mobility and economic upheavals ag- gravated the confusions. The towns of medieval Europe were chronic 5 0 8 SOURCES OF RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS sources of political unrest. Such rebellions as that at Münster were fre- quent. The interesting question is why these rebellions nearly always erupted as new religious movements. Why did medieval rebellion depend upon or produce messianic leaders? The answer lies in two aspects of the situation faced by all medieval rebels. One of these problems is pe- culiar to only certain times and places; the other is general. Impact of Monopoly Religions The peculiar problem faced by all political dissenters in medieval Eu- rope was the existence of a religious monopoly. There was only one legal religion, the state church. For centuries, the monopoly religion through- out Europe was the Roman Catholic Church. Following the Reformation, many nations established monopoly Protestant state churches.
eBook - PDFSociology of Religion
A Rodney Stark Reader
- Rodney Stark, Dedong Wei, Zhifeng Zhong(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Baylor University Press(Publisher)
Similar events were commonplace in medieval Europe, especially in the growing commer-cial towns of the Rhine Valley (Cohn 1961). In this chapter we explore the tendency for political protest and hope to be channeled into religious expres-sions and for there to be a great deal of magic combined with such religions. Then we examine these same elements from the reverse point of view: Why can even the most repressive totalitarian states not stamp out religion? Why are antireligious regimes chronically vulnerable to religious challenge? MAGICAL AND RELIGIOUS REBELLIONS To discover the conditions that cause political discontent to take magical and religious form, we must examine more closely the situation of the rebels at Münster. It is not important that we understand fully why they were embit-tered by their conditions of life. As Norman Cohn (1961) has pointed out, European feudalism was fundamentally rural. As commercial towns devel-oped, they raised questions of authority, such as to whom a city belonged. Population mobility and economic upheavals aggravated the confusions. The towns of medieval Europe were chronic sources of political unrest. Such rebellions as that at Münster were frequent. The interesting question is why these rebellions nearly always erupted as new religious movements . Why did medieval rebellion depend upon or produce messianic leaders? The answer 375 REBELLION, REPRESSIVE REGIMES, AND RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS / lies in two aspects of the situation faced by all medieval rebels. One of these problems is peculiar to only certain times and places; the other is general. Impact of Monopoly Religions The peculiar problem faced by all political dissenters in medieval Europe was the existence of a religious monopoly. There was only one legal religion, the state church. For centuries, the monopoly religion throughout Europe was the Roman Catholic Church. Following the Reformation, many nations established monopoly Protestant state churches.
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