the most prominent is Thomas Munzer, who
has been made to bear the blame, not only of whatever befel amiss
during his lifetime, but even of the excesses of the fanatical
Anabaptists which occurred _ten years_ after his death; and the
Wittenberg theologians themselves contributed not a little to these
calumnies. Of the early years of this singular man (who was born at
Stolberg in the Harz mountains, probably in 1498) little is known
with certainty; but it is said on good authority that his father had
been unjustly condemned to death on the gallows by the Count of
Stolberg, whose vassal he was, and that this was the original cause
of that deep and burning sense of wrong which arose in the mind of
Thomas Munzer, and formed the key to much of his future life. He
studied at Wittenberg, where he gained a doctor's degree, and was
distinguished above his contemporaries for diligence and knowledge;
but previously to this, and whilst still a boy, he obtained a
situation as teacher in a school at Aschersleben; and afterwards at
Halle, in the year 1513, when he was only in his fifteenth year; and
had even at that age formed an association with some of his
companions, which had for its object the reform of religion. What
means were proposed for this end does not appear; probably they were
such as might have been expected from raw university lads; but the
mere proposal of so high an object implies a state of mind very
different from that of the mere vulgar, sensual, selfish fanatic,
such as he has been actually described."....

"In the year 1520 he was appointed to be first Evangelical Preacher
at Zwickau, having by this time, like some others, who had at first
warmly espoused the cause of Luther, become dissatisfied that the
Reformation seemed by no means likely to perform what it had
promised. In Thuringia, where Munzer was now beginning to attract
attention, the seeds of religious enthusiasm had been sown deep by
the doctrines and the fate of Huss; and through the whole fifteenth
century, a tendency to fanaticism and mysticism had been perceptible
in that country. The sect of Flagellants had maintained itself longer
here than elsewhere, and the persecutions which the Brothers of the
Cross had to encounter, the fires in which so many perished, had not
been abl