(German city painted by Sebastian Münster (1488-1552), [Public Domain]
via Creative Commons)
During the 1530s, a strange
occurrence blandly labeled the Münster Rebellion broke out in the city of
Münster, within the region of Westphalia (modern northwest Germany). For the
multiple-year rebellion, Münster was basically turned into a theocracy ruled by
a group of over-zealous Anabaptists—a Protestant Christian sect disliked at the
time by both Catholics and other Protestants. In the case of the Münster
Rebellion, however, religious debate turned into religious oppression, and a
battle of theology devolved into bloodshed and war.
