page_title: Nikolaus Storch
section_title: Working with Thomas Müntzer
hierarchical_section_title: Nikolaus Storch / Working with Thomas Müntzer
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows the Katharinenkirche in Zwickau (Saxony, Germany). Deutsch: Dieses Bild zeigt die Katharinenkirche in Zwickau. Camera data Camera Nikon D70 Lens Nikon 18-70 AF-S DX / 3.5-4.5 G IF-ED Focal length 18 mm Aperture f/7.1 Exposure time 1/250 s Sensivity ISO 200
context_page_description: Nikolaus Storch was a weaver and radical lay-preacher in the Saxon town of Zwickau. He and his followers, known as the Zwickau Prophets played a brief role during the early German Reformation years in south-east Saxony, and there is a view that he was a forerunner of the Anabaptists. In the years 1520-1521, he worked closely with the radical theologian Thomas Müntzer.
context_section_description: When the radical reformer Thomas Müntzer was appointed to preach at St Katharine's Church, in October 1520, after a short period at the neighbouring St Mary's, he and Storch began to work together.  Müntzer was greatly interested in Storch's doctrines, although he viewed Storch as a like-minded individual, rather than a follower or someone to follow.   During the winter of 1520-21, tensions in the town ran high between Catholics and reformers, plebeians and richer citizens, sects and town-council.  A number of disturbances took place in the town, usually involving the lower classes and frequently resulting in acts of violence against the Catholic monks. 
  On 14 April 1521, a ‘Letter of the 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples’ was posted up in the town, addressed to the Lutheran/Humanist reformer Johann Sylvanus Egranus, who had crossed swords with Müntzer and Storch on several occasions already.  Egranus was described now as the “desecrator and slanderer of God ... who hounds God’s servant ... a heretical rogue”.  The letter was almost certainly the work of Storch's group, but it defended both Storch and Müntzer jointly.  It enumerated, in verse, all the false doctrines of Egranus, his denial of the suffering of the soul, his worship of the ‘world’ and of money, and his preference for the company of ‘bigwigs’ :
  
  	“And you seek mere chattles, cash and praise,
  
  	But that’s the last thing you’ll get from the 72 Disciples,
  
  	And just watch what you’ll get from the 12 Apostles,
  
  	And then even more from the Master...
  
  	And we want to prove in writing that you’re an arch-heretic” 
  In a defamatory letter of that same month, Müntzer was depicted thus: “at that time preacher at St Katharine’s, [he] made them [the Storchites] his supporters, won over the weavers, particularly one named Nichol Storch, whom he praised so mightily from the pulpit, raised him above all other priests as the only one who knew the Bible better and who was highly favoured by the Spirit...that Storch dared to give corner-sermons beside Thomas... Thus this Nichol Storch was favoured by Master Thomas; who recommended from the pulpit that laymen should be our prelates and priests”.  Although this same report talked of the ‘Storchite sect’, there is no indication that this included Müntzer: indeed, the report states that the ‘secta Storchitorum ... conspired and gathered together as Twelve Apostles and Seventy-Two other Disciples ... reinforced by Master Thomas and his followers’, which strongly suggests that there were two separate groupings.  
  
  In the event, the town-council retained enough authority in April to crack down on the unrest.  Müntzer was forced to flee the town on 16 April, after yet another riot by Storch's supporters, 56 of whom were put behind bars.  
  
  One of Müntzer's friends, Markus Stübner (or Thoma) of Elsterberg, accompanied Müntzer on a journey to Prague, which lasted from late June until late November 1521; Stübner then returned to Saxony and teamed up with Storch.
  
  After his departure from Zwickau in April 1521, Müntzer had no more dealings with Storch.  In June 1521, he wrote to Mark Stübner wondering why Storch had not written to him.  But his question is not shaded with any annoyance.  His only other reference to Storch in later days was in a letter to Luther of July 1523: “You raise objections about Markus and Nicholas.  What manner of men they are is up to them, Galatians 2... As to what they said to you, or what they have done, I know nothing about it”.  ‘Galatians 2’ is a quite telling reference: this tells the story of certain early Christians who, through lack of principle, drew back from arguments with the Jews.  This judgement in 1523 indicates his doubts about Storch in the intervening period, and - with the man - his ideas.
caption: St Katharine's Church in Zwickau, where Thomas Müntzer preached
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