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The Zwickau prophets (German: Zwickauer Propheten, Zwickauer Storchianer) were three men of the Radical Reformation from Zwickau in the Electorate of Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire who were possibly involved in a disturbance in nearby Wittenberg and its evolving Reformation in early 1522.
The three men – Nikolaus Storch, Thomas Dreschel, and Markus Stübner – began their movement in Zwickau. Though these three names are favored in recent scholarship,[1] others have been suggested. Lars Pederson Qualben used the name "Marx" for "Dreschel",[2] and Henry Clay Vedder replaced Dreschel with Marcus Thomä[3] (William Roscoe Estep gave Stübner the middle name "Thomas".[4]).
The relationship of the Zwickau Prophets to the Anabaptist movement has been variously interpreted. They have been viewed as a precursory foundation of Anabaptism before the rise of the Swiss Brethren in 1525, as unrelated to the movement except for the influence on Thomas Müntzer and as being a dual foundation with the Swiss Brethren to form a composite movement of Anabaptism.[5] Regardless of the exact relationship to Anabaptism, the Zwickau Prophets presented a radical alternative to Martin Luther and mainstream Protestantism as demonstrated in their involvement in disturbances in Wittenberg.
- ^ Harold Stauffer Bender "The Zwickau Prophets, Thomas Müntzer and the Anabaptists", MQR 27, no. 1 (Jan. 1953): 7; Olaf Kuhr, "The Zwickau Prophets, The Wittenberg Disturbances, and Polemical Historiography," MQR 70, no. 2 (Apr. 1996): 205.
- ^ Lars Pederson Qualben, History of the Christian Church rev. ed. (New York: Thomas Nelson, 1964), 239.
- ^ Henry Clay Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists (Valley Forge, Pennsylvania: Judson, 1907), 148.
- ^ William Roscoe Estep, Renaissance & Reformation (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1986), 140.
- ^ Bender, "Zwickau Prophets," 2–4.