BOKELSZOON (BEUKELSZOON, BOCKELSON, BOCKHOLD), JOHANN. — Leader of Anabaptism in Germany, better known under the name of John of Leiden, b. at Münster around 1509 and d. executed in the same city in 1536. He did not decide to embrace the new doctrines until after a visit to Münster to hear the “brave preachers,” the Anabaptists, to whom he adhered. In 1533 he returned definitively to Münster, where, after Giovanni Mettheisen had been killed at the beginning of 1534, he married his widow and became an “apostle.”
Taking advantage of that city’s turmoil, the audacity of this demagogue knew no bounds. On 25 April 1534, at his suggestion, a decree was issued banishing all those who did not accept the new baptism. Churches, monasteries, and libraries were destroyed; the community of goods was also introduced. Claiming a revelation from heaven, he abolished the magistracy, installed twelve of his own judges, and then himself assumed, under the title of king, the government of the city of Zion—as he called Münster—and ruled as an absolute tyrant. He introduced polygamy, and is said to have taken sixteen wives. In a manifesto he proclaimed his imminent expedition to punish all the kingdoms of the earth and subject them to himself, and he was already dividing the neighboring countries among his confederates. Disorder reached its height. Only after ten months of siege did the prince-archbishop of Münster, assisted by the troops of other princes, succeed in taking the city (25 June 1535). B., his chancellor Krechting, and his executioner Knipperdolling were, after much abuse, executed, and their limbs, enclosed in iron boxes, were hung from the tower of St. Lambert.