The Revelation of Jesus Christ - The Herald

"The appeal of the angel to the Creator of all things for the truth of his asseverations,
denotes that they whom he symbolized, unlike those who uttered the seven thunders,
were to found their teachings respecting the commencement of that reign on the Word of
God alone, and make it the sole rule of their faith and ground of their hope. . . . The attack
on the Papacy by Luther, Zwingli and their associates, and proclamation in opposition to
the false doctrines and impious superstitions of the Romish Church of the great truths of
the Gospel, instantly produced a thunder explosion of passion from the people of
Germany and Switzerland and subsequently the other nations of Europe. Of these
multitudes there were many, especially in Germany, who not only anticipated the speedy
overthrow of Antichrist and the establishment of the empire of the saints, but assumed the
office of prophets, predicted the immediate fall of the apostate church, and claimed for
their announcement the authority of inspiration."
The same writer proceeds to quote from history, the fanatical doings of some of these:
"A body of persons sprung up at this period, 1522, who asserted that they had
communications from God and had received a command to slay all the wicked and
constitute a new world in which the pious only and innocent should live and rule. . . . In
November, 1524, the peasants in several parts of Germany engaged in seditions, and in the
spring of 1525 vast bodies rose, especially on the borders of the Danube, and made war on
the Papal ecclesiastics, partly in order to greater civil and partly in order to religious
freedom. This contest was excited in a degree by a class of rash preachers of whom the
principal was Thomas Muncer, who abandoned the Gospel, and proposed a new doctrine.
He taught that while the Roman Pontiff chained the minds of men by too severe laws,
Luther unloosed these chains indeed, but granted too great indulgence; . . . that if we
would gain salvation we must not only abstain from flagitious crimes, but chasten and
macerate the body by fasting, look grave, be taciturn and wear a long beard. Having
prepared his followers by these instructions, he further taught them that God manifested
His will by dreams, made them the great instrument of his schemes, and when he
succeeded in interpreting one, boasted of it in his public addresses. When he had in this
manner induced a large number to join him, he began to enroll those who promised him
assistance in his attempt to slay the ungodly and institute a new magistracy asserting that
he had a commission from God to destroy the old rulers and establish new; collected a
vast crowd of followers half armed and without discipline, to accomplish his purposes,
and perished, and a vast body of his adherents, in the attempt.
"At the distance of ten years a party of similar fanatics was again organized under
Cnipperdoling, who claimed prophetic gifts, was constituted their king, and asserted that
the Kingdom of Christ was to be like his till the day of judgment, in order that the wicked
being wholly destroyed, the pious and elect might reign. He taught that it was lawful for
the people to abolish their magistrates; that although the Apostles were not commanded to
assume a civil jurisdiction, yet the present ministers of the Church ought to take the
sword, and by force constitute a new republic; that this was the time in which all the
prophets had foreshown that righteousness was to prevail throughout the whole world;
the time in which Christ had said the meek should possess the earth. Another sect under a