The Naked Socialist
Page 14
Force and More Force
The longed-for Third Epoch that Joachim and Amalric had promised wouldn’t come until first there was a cleansing of the Church. Once that was out of the way, the new and wonderful heavenly society would have room to finally establish itself. So, mobs of Free Spirits began attacking any establishment of the Church they could lay their torches to. They rained down upon villages and towns, slaughtering men, women, and children. Count Montefeltro (A.D. 1290-1364), boasted about plundering villages and churches, and raping nuns. According to records from the Inquisition, members of the sect openly embraced Satan as their supreme deity.178
Similar to the Cathars, the Free Spirits had a caste. At the top level was an “inner circle” of the most elevated. The group leadership declared that any act committed by them, regardless of its depravity, was not a sin. At the lower level—the “outer circle”—were the great masses of followers who evidently didn’t realize what atrocities the inner circle was perpetrating. Still, they all lived by the doctrine of no private property, no family, no church, and no state.
WHEN: 1200-1400s
HERESY: Dolcino and the Apostolic Brethren
STORY: Followers of Fra Dolcino submitted to the socialistic ideals of a supreme ruler on earth whose every utterance was truth. He deployed all the usual suspect ideas: things in common, stringent regimentation, control of all information, use of force, and no rights.
The Apostolic Brethren actually descended from the Free Spirit movement. They ran around telling everyone that the fulfillment of Joachim’s prophecy (see above) of the coming Antichrist was near, and the Catholic Church’s corruption had finally reduced it to the point of total collapse. Like many others, the Apostolic Brethren pointed to Emperor Constantine in A.D. 300 as the beginning time of the Catholic decay. They taught that the pope was possessed by the devil, and set themselves up as the new lighthouse of righteous leadership. At their head was a man named Dolcino.
Dolcino demanded strict obedience to his every command, and declared that violence against anyone was permitted because it helped to further cleanse the earth. He also ordered that members’ wives, property, and all things be held in common. As before, nobody recorded what the women thought about this religious tenet of wife-swapping, but the husbands seemed agreeable.
In 1304, Dolcino summoned 5,000 Apostolic Brethren to the mountains of northern Italy and began a guerilla warfare campaign, attacking villages and destroying churches. This war lasted for three years until his followers were finally beaten back. Dolcino and his “spiritual sister” Margareta were given the chance to recant their heretical beliefs, but they refused. They were burned at the stake on June 1, 1307.
* * *
173 See Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, The Reformation (1957); Tony Perrottet, New York Times, The Besieged and the Beautiful in Languedoc, May 9, 2010; Catholic Encyclopedia, Cathari; The Encyclopedia Britannica, 13th Edition, 1926, Cathars.
174 J. J. Herzog. Abriss der gesamten Kirchengeschichte [“History of the Demolition of the Entire Church”], Bd. I, Abt. 2. Die römisch-katholische Kirche des Mittelalters [“The Roman Catholic Church of the Middle Ages”] Erlangen, 1890, Vol. 12, p. 651.
175 Op. cit., Shafarevich.
176 Caesarius of Heisterbach, Dialogue on Miracles V: 20-22
177 See Murray N. Rothbard, Karl Marx as Religious Eschatologist, Ludwig von Mises Institute, Mises Daily: October 9. 2009.
178 M. Erbstößer, Religious Social Movements in the late Middle Ages (M. Erbstößer, Sozial Religiöse Strömungen im spaten Mittelalter), Berlin, 1970
Chapter 27: Socialism and the Reformation
Frustration leads to rebellion against the Church.
As populations in Europe grew in size, so did their frustration with the tyranny of renegade priests who oppressed the people. Wanting to gain freedom from oppression, large groups left the Catholic Church and joined reformers who wanted to impose changes on the Church. Even though many of the Church’s official teachings were aligned with the Christianity that Jesus introduced, the abuse that the renegade clergy exercised was a constant reality. The people’s complaints were very justified and their suffering quite real.
WHEN: 1300-1400s
HERESY: Taborites and the reformation
STORY: The Taborites adopted the socialist principles of severe top-down control. They built armies to force their belief systems on others, or at least break the grip that the Catholics had on alternative religious beliefs. However, the Taborites went about violating the very same rights they were rebelling against as they destroyed and fought and killed their way to dominance.
Our story begins with two forerunners of the Protestant Reformation—the English theologian John Wycliffe (1328-1384) and a Catholic priest named Jan Hus (1369-1415) from the Czech Republic.
They were among a growing number of people all across western Europe who were angry with the evolving role of the Church in civic affairs. Political power, material possessions, and privileged position became the chief focus of local Church leaders. Many bishops and abbots acted as if they were secular rulers instead of representatives of the Church. They labored more to increase power and income than to help the poor. Celibacy wasn’t uniformly practiced, and misgivings about Church doctrine and goals were festering in many locations.
Wycliffe Calls for Cleansing
John Wycliffe began publicly criticizing the Church for these lapses, saying it should renounce its massive land holdings and wealth, and become poor as in the days of Jesus. He revered the Bible as the sole source of Christian doctrine, not the pope, and believed the bread and wine of the Eucharist (the sacrament or Holy Communion) remained bread and wine once consumed and didn’t turn into the actual flesh and blood of Christ, as was being taught.
War
Meanwhile, over in the Czech Republic, Jan Hus read Wycliffe’s writings and embraced his ideas. He went so far as to translate them into Czech, and taught the same ideas in his own writings. He gained many supporters and followers, but at a serious cost: Hus fell into serious disfavor with Church leaders.
In 1415, Hus was lured to Constance, a city on the German-Swiss border, to an ecumenical council that had been called to settle the thorny issue of who exactly was the legal pope. The justification of Hus’s presence was to give him opportunity to air his grievances face-to-face with leading church authorities.
It was a trap. After a couple of weeks, the church guards suddenly confined Hus to quarters, and then one day, they brought him out for a contrived trial. The council members found him guilty of heresy, led him in chains to a meadow beyond town, and burned him at the stake.
Hus’s death triggered a revolt by his followers. Within five years, Hus’s original followers and others who aligned themselves started a series of wars against the Church. These lasted from 1420 to 1434, and became known as the Hussite Wars.
A leader of the Hussite army set up fortified headquarters just outside of Prague, a town they named Tabor. This became a gathering place for preachers who were opposed to the Church. Although they were united in their opposition to the Church, the groups eventually splintered into various sects.
First Priority: Destroy the Church
The Taborites sent their armies to fight the pope’s crusaders along various fronts. They were victorious and defeated the pope’s armies on numerous occasions.
“Pull down trees and destroy houses, churches and monasteries,” they ordered. “... All church property must be demolished, and the churches, altars and monasteries destroyed.”179
In the process, thousands of priests were pursued, burned and killed. The Taborite invaders destroyed libraries, works of art, sacramental candelabras, and gold and silver ornaments. The order was issued, “All human institutions and human laws must be abolished, for none of them were created by the Heavenly Fathe
r.”180
All Things in Common
Meanwhile, back in Tabor, the Taborites put all their money and wealth in barrels to be distributed evenly. There was to be nothing “which is mine or thine, but all possess everything in common and no one is to have anything apart, and whoever does is a sinner.”181 All things were to be communal, including wives: “There will be free sons and daughters of God and there will be no marriage as union of two—husband and wife.”182
Adamites Go Crazy
The Adamites carried the destruction of the Catholics even further. They attacked villages and towns at night, setting them ablaze, killing both young and old.
At their meetings, they wore no clothing as a sign of purity and separation from the ways of the world. They taught that marriage was wrong, and any man could take any woman by merely declaring “she inflames my spirit.”183 They practiced unlimited sexual liberty, mimicking the earlier established Free Spirit movement. This debased behavior couldn’t endure—it never has—and the Adamites eventually weakened, fell prey to attack, and were exterminated under the leadership of Hussite commander Ian Zizka in 1421.
Legacy
The Hussite wars did more than just ravage nearby countries and Church holdings. They also served to spread the utopian ideas of a necessary cleansing of the land as preparation for a coming millennium of peace with all things in common—no more oppressive overlords in the form of the Church, the monarchs, or any other tyrant. But first, they had to get rid of the corruption—
WHEN: 1525-1540
HERESY: The Anabaptists
STORY: The Anabaptists tried all the usual socialistic ideals to further their cause—things in common, no private property, and the destruction of the existing society. Their plan was still struggling to get off the ground when a new invention came to their rescue.
Gutenberg’s printing press did a lot to spread the influence of the heretical off-shoots during 16th century Europe. With the Peasant’s War in Germany, the Anabaptist movement was enabled to more quickly expand their rate of conversions through Germany to Switzerland, The Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, Czechia, and decades later, over into England.
The name “Anabaptist” implied re-baptism, from the belief that infants were too young to make such religious decisions. Infant baptism was a tenet of the Catholics, and Anabaptists taught that it was meaningless—therefore, all people must be rebaptized.
Opposing the Church on All Fronts
The Anabaptists rejected the Catholic Church, saying it had been in apostasy since Constantine (A.D. 300). The Anabaptists claimed their own authority came directly through the bloodlines of the original Apostles. They rejected any sacrament or Church tenet that wasn’t in the Bible, and claimed for scripture only those words spoken by Jesus himself.
Their doctrine, however, was inconsistent. Some Anabaptists believed that baptism made them impervious to sin and they could do as they pleased. A 16th century German free thinker, Sebastian Franck, described these inconsistencies: “Some believe themselves to be holy and pure; they have everything in common. ... Others practice commonality only to the extent that they do not permit need to arise among themselves. ...Among them a sect appeared which wished to make wives, as well as belongings, communal.”184
Wealth, Wives, and Worship in Common
It went further: their clothing was dictated—the fabric, shape, style, length, and size. Then came the broad gray hat, mandatory for all to wear. They also had rules for eating, drinking, sleeping, free time, and when and how to stand or walk about. A group of enforcers checked on people’s upbringing of children, their marriages, their work, and wouldn’t allow private cooking or eating. The children were taken away at age 2 to be raised in common nurseries, and were not allowed contact with the community. Wives could be taken as desired by whomever—all in common.
Forcing Love and Humanity With the Sword
After the Peasant Wars in which the Anabaptists played a role against Germany, the authorities unleashed a wave of persecution against the movement. It weakened them for a while, but they rose again in 1530. Their new doctrine of self defense was proscribed: “The saints must be joyful and must take up double-edge swords,” said Apostle Hans Hut, “in order to wreak vengeance in the nations. ...slaughter of all overlords and powers that be.”185
Another Tyrant Meets His Maker
By 1535, the Anabaptists had angered enough Germans that a large coordinated attack was organized to neutralize the heretics once and for all. The “saints” gathered to Münster, Germany, where Jan Bokelson was made their ruler as well as king of the world. He had a huge court of luxury, and many wives. He wielded all justice, and personally beheaded evil-doers in the town square.
Surrounded by all his utopian dreams, all the riches and benefits that a poor mortal soul could want, Bokelson was captured and the city of Münster fell. He and his Anabaptist leadership were executed, and the rest of his followers were hunted and killed up until about 1660. To escape the persecution, thousands migrated to North America, taking upon themselves various names such as the Amish, the Hutterites, and the Mennonites.
WHEN: 1640s
HERESY: The Diggers—spreading atheism
STORY: The Diggers took hold of the socialistic idea of all things in common, and went about pushing it as far and wide as they could.
The mid-1600s was a time of upheaval in England. Corruption in the government gave rise to conflicting opinions about the best form of rule. Some wanted to return a king to the throne; others, led by Oliver Cromwell, wanted property owners to have more say in community and political affairs. And another movement wanted to build a parliamentary government that represented all male leaders of a household. Some wanted a theocracy, and then there were The Diggers.
The nickname of Gerrard Winstanley’s group, the Diggers, came about because they believed in digging the land as a common ownership and equally sharing in the harvest and fruits of labor. These Protestant socialists preached the gospel of knocking down enclosures, disposing of borders, and making everything free to everyone. They called themselves the True Levellers, a term associated with socialism to distinguish themselves from other levellers groups.
No Walls, No Fences
Winstanley’s pamphlets served as the Diggers’ guiding articles of faith. These condemned private property as the root of all evil. Of land, he said, “Not enclosing any part into any particular hand, but all as one man, working together, and feeding together as Sons of one Father, members of one Family; not one Lording over another, but all looking upon each other, as equals in the Creation.”186
In April 1649, food prices were at record highs. When The Diggers came into Weybridge (England), and offered communal land and harvest to freely share, local farmers blew their stacks. Landowners were irate that free food was undermining their efforts to get maximum pricing. This triggered a revolt against The Diggers.
Chased From Town to Town
After the local farmers exhausted their efforts to reclaim control over pricing, they grabbed their pitchforks and turned to violence. The locals began harassing, arresting, and burning until the Diggers pulled up stakes and moved to Cobham. The Diggers were not appreciated there either.
Another settlement was started in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire. After similar clashes and troubles, some sect members were arrested without charges and held in prison indefinitely. By 1651, the farmers finally crushed the upstart, forcing its members to disband. Even though their numbers probably didn’t exceed 200 people, their impact was felt far and wide. Legacy
The Diggers’ tactics for proselytizing their cause introduced to the rest of Europe the effective use of pamphlets. This wonderful new media helped them to magnify their pursuit of political goals. They had friends in a newspaper called The Moderate in which defense of their actions was supported. Using these techniques to rouse public sympathy and suppor
t for their cause helped expand the Digger movement, but also proved the power of the written word.
WHEN: 1649-1660
HERESY: The Ranters—Leaderless fanatics
STORY: The Ranters’ socialistic ideas included having all things in common, including wives, and no private property.
There remain many questions about this strange group, but what is known is that they embraced many of the teachings of the Brethren of the Free Spirit of the 14th century. They rejected a personal God, and some of them denounced immortality or a life hereafter. They didn’t believe they had to obey anyone, including local governments and leaders.
Their most well-known member was Laurence Claxton, who declared in his 1650 pamphlet, A Single Eye, “[Ranters believe] that a believer is free from all traditional restraints, that sin is a product only of the imagination, and that private ownership of property is wrong.”
Popular Theme: Women in Common
From another of their pamphlets, The Ranters’ Last Sermon, came the teaching, “...for one man to be tied to one woman, or one woman to be tied to one man, is a fruit of the curse; but they say we are freed from the curse; therefore it is our liberty to make use of whom we please.”
Ranters went around nude as a means of social protest and as a demonstration of abandoning earthly and material things. They also engaged in unlimited sexual contact.
The Ranters as a distinct group were lost when most of the members joined the Quakers in the 1650s.
Socialism at Work
Destruction of the existing moral codes and institutions continued the basic theme of socialism under the guise of Christianity, or whichever religious leaning the assorted and varied heretics liked to claim.
Predominant among the heretics’ teachings was abolishing private property, including no possible claim to spouse and children. In the eyes of most other Europeans, the heretics’ direct assault on the family reduced their perch atop higher moral ground as they sought to institutionalize permissible orgies.