Jan Matthys, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJan Matthys
Dutch Anabaptist leader
Date of Birth: 01-Jan-1500
Place of Birth: Haarlem, County of Holland, Netherlands
Date of Death: 05-Apr-1534
Profession: baker
Nationality: Netherlands
Zodiac Sign: Capricorn 
About Jan Matthys
- Jan Matthys (also known as Jan Matthias, Johann Mathyszoon, Jan Mattijs, Jan Matthijszoon; c.
- 1500, Haarlem – 5 April 1534, Münster) was a charismatic Anabaptist leader of the Münster Rebellion, regarded by his followers as a prophet. Matthys was a baker in Haarlem, in the Holy Roman Empire's County of Holland, and was converted to Anabaptism through the ministry of Melchior Hoffman in the 1520s.
- Matthys baptized thousands of converts, and after Hoffman's imprisonment, rose to prominent leadership among the Anabaptists.
- Matthys rejected the pacifism and non-violence theology of Hoffman, adopting a view that oppression must be met with resistance. In 1534, an Anabaptist insurrection took control of Münster, the capital city of the Holy Roman Empire's Prince-Bishopric of Münster.
- John of Leiden, a Dutch Anabaptist disciple of Matthys, and a group of local merchants, summoned Matthys to come.
- Matthys identified Münster as the "New Jerusalem", and on January 5, 1534, a number of his disciples entered the city and introduced adult baptism.
- Reformer Bernhard Rothmann apparently accepted "rebaptism" that day, and well over 1000 adults were soon baptized. They declared war on Franz von Waldeck, its expelled prince-bishop, who besieged the fortified town.
- In April 1534 on Easter Sunday, Matthys, who had prophesied God's judgment to come on the wicked on that day, made a sally forth with twelve followers, under the idea that he was a second Gideon, and was cut off with his entire band.
- He was killed, dismembered and his head stuck on a pike.
- Later that evening, his genitals were nailed to the city door.
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