World Famous Cults and Fanatics (11 page)

Meanwhile, the Bishop was beginning to despair of ever taking the town; the enthusiastic soldiers of the prophet – 1,700 of them – repelled every attack.
But as winter drew on, other
princes sent reinforcements.
Now the Anabaptists were in real trouble, and discovered that it had been a mistake to eat their food in such quantity as they were driven to eat cats, dogs and rats.
At Easter, exactly a year after the death of Jan Matthyson, the besieging general demanded the surrender of the city.
After months of starvation, hundreds had died and the rest were living
skeletons.
Yet still John of Leyden’s faith and oratory sustained them.
God was merely testing them; victory would soon be theirs.
When Bernard Knipperdolling’s mistress tried to escape
from the city, he killed her with his own hands.

After more weeks of starvation, John of Leyden declared generously that any who wished to leave the city could do so.
Parents with children felt this was their last chance, and about nine
hundred marched out through the gates.
But they were worse off than ever, for the armies refused to let them pass, and they were forced to starve to death outside the walls.

In June, four of John’s followers decided they had had enough; the whole town stank of rotting flesh.
They slipped out of Munster, and told the enemy general how some of his men could
enter the city unobserved.
On Midsummer’s Eve, 24 June 1535, four hundred soldiers entered the city quietly after dark.
When they were discovered the next morning, fierce fighting broke out;
it looked as if the intruders were about to be massacred.
But the bishop’s forces chose this moment to make another attack on the walls, selecting the weak spots that the traitors had pointed
out.
The fighting lasted all day, but the inhabitants were weak with hunger, and on 25 June, Munster fell.
John of Leyden, Bernard Knipperdolling, and a leader named Krechting, were dragged before
the Bishop and humiliated.
Three hundred Anabaptists were promised a safe conduct if they surrendered, then were massacred.
The two “queens” of John of Leyden and Knipperdolling were
beheaded.
(Bernard Rothmann disappeared, perhaps killed in the fighting and mutilated beyond recognition.)

The Bishop could not resist engaging John of Leyden in debate, but the ex-messiah proved more than a match for him.
When the Bishop said he received his authority from the Pope, John replied
that he had received his from God and His prophets.

For the next six months, the three Anabaptists were dragged in chains around the neighbouring towns and publicly exhibited.
In January 1536, they were horribly put to death in the main square of
Munster.
Chained to a stake, John of Leyden had his flesh torn off with red hot pincers; incredibly, he did not cry out.
But the pain was finally too much and he begged for mercy.
The Bishop smiled
grimly and ordered that his tongue should be torn out.
Then his heart was pierced with a red-hot dagger.

Knipperdolling had tried to beat out his brains against a wall, then to strangle himself, but the executioner was too strong for him.
He and Krechting were tortured to death as slowly as John of
Leyden, while the Bishop watched from a window opposite.
Then the torn and burnt bodies were hung in cages from the tower of St Lambert Church, where Bernard Rothmann had originally declared the
coming of the Millennium.

The death of John of Leyden served much the same purpose as the death of Simon Bar Kochba or Sabbatai Zevi; it punctured the pretensions of messiahs for a long time to come.
Some Anabaptists
came to England, and because many of them lived in communes, they became known as Familists.
Their founder was a Munster Anabaptist named Henry Nicholas, known as H.N.
(which also stood for
homo
novus
– New Man), and his group had become known as the Family of Love.
They declared that the essence of religion was simply love, and that no other law was needed.
In 1575 they
petitioned the British parliament for toleration, but five years later, Queen Elizabeth declared that they should be put down as a “damnable sect”.

Eleven years later, a man called Hacket, who had proclaimed himself the Supreme Lord of the World, was executed for treason, threatening God to rend his throne in two if He did not save him.
God
declined to intervene.

In the reign of Charles I, a curious sect known as Ranters preached many of the same doctrines as the Brethren of the Free Spirit: that sin was an illusion, and that therefore adultery,
drunkenness, swearing and even theft were not crimes at all.
In 1650, Cromwell tried to suppress them with a Blasphemy Act, but was only partly successful.
On the other hand, a remarkable prophet
named George Fox, who was wandering around England at the same time, and attacking organized religion as contemptuously as any messiah in history, succeeded in impressing Oliver Cromwell, and went
on to become the founder of the Quakers, or Society of Friends.
(The word “quaker” was applied contemptuously, meaning that they quaked with fear as they talked about the Wrath to
Come.)

His friend and disciple James Naylor was less lucky.
Female disciples convinced him that he was the Messiah, and he allowed them to persuade him to ride into Bristol as Christ had ridden into
Jerusalem.
Women shouted “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of Israel”, and threw down their cloaks before his horse’s hoofs.
He was promptly arrested.
Tried in November 1656, he
admitted to the judges that he was the Son of God as well as a prophet, and his female disciples assured the judges that this was so.
He was sentenced to have his tongue burnt through, and to be
branded on the forehead with a letter B for Blasphemer.
After that, he was whipped and imprisoned in a damp cell for three years.

It ruined his health, and he died in 1660, soon after his release, when setting out on a preaching expedition.
And so another promising messiah experienced the downfall that seems inevitable for
prophets who succumb to delusions of grandeur.

Chapter Five

Messiahs in the Land of Opportunity

A
fter the cruelty and bloodshed of the past two chapters, it is a relief to emerge into the calmer waters of the nineteenth century, when a
messiah was no longer in danger of being tortured or burnt at the stake.
We are in a new atmosphere of tolerance – and of gullibility: an observation that is perfectly illustrated by the
amazing case of Saint Matthias.

The Poisonous Prophet

M
athews discovered the power of belief early in life.
In 1797, when he was a nine-year-old, he decided that the fruit and sweets being shared
around his class at school rightfully belonged to him.
He told the other children that his uncle, the “Man of the Thunder”, lived in a passing storm cloud and that he would be angry if
the sweets were not all given to his nephew.
A moment later, thunder rumbled across the sky and Robert received an armful of goodies from his frightened classmates.

What to most children might only have been an amusing confidence trick had a deeper impact on Robert Mathews.
He developed an increasing conviction that he was one of the “chosen”.
As part of his training for his mission he decided to become a carter’s apprentice when he was sixteen on the grounds that it was a “divine trade”.

After his apprenticeship he wandered the state, plying his trade and teaching his interpretation of the gospel.
His frenetic preaching style earned him the nickname “Jumpin’
Jesus” and he would often stand up in church and dispute with the preacher.
He married and settled down in Albany, New York State.

After several years of relatively quiet home living, Mathews suddenly decided that he must take his children “out into the wilderness”, and set off for the deep woods before his
distraught wife could stop him.
Fortunately, he and his half-starved children were found by a search party of concerned neighbours a few days later.
Mathews was apparently relieved to have the
children taken to safety, but insisted on staying in the woods himself.
It was here, a few days later, that he received the divine revelation that he was in fact the reincarnation of Saint Matthew
and was thenceforth to preach the new message – as revealed to him personally by God – as the Prophet Matthias.

At about this time a similar revelation occurred to Elijah Pierson, a rich and successful New York businessman, although in a considerably less biblical setting.
He was sitting on an omnibus
travelling down Wall Street, when an angel appeared to him alone and proclaimed that he was the reincarnation of the Prophet Elijah and henceforth he must be about the Lord’s work.

Pierson immediately set about organizing a Holy Club, recruiting members from many who had become disillusioned with orthodox Christianity.
He also set up a mission in the Bowery Hill red light
district to bring the prostitutes to the Lord because, he said, they were “the descendants of Mary Magdalen”.

When his wife became seriously ill Pierson assured her and his flock that, should she pass on, she would be resurrected to help continue their work.
She died as her husband sat praying over her
fervently and anointing her with oils.
When this failed to revive her, Pierson announced that he had seen a vision of the Prophet of the Lord whose coming would set all to rights.
He instructed his
flock and even his household staff to be in readiness for the great event.

Meanwhile, the Prophet Matthias was establishing himself.
Having grown a suitably bushy beard and changed his preaching style from the frenetic to the portentous, he travelled to New York in
search of a rich benefactor.
Proclaiming his message of vegetarianism, temperance and faith in the word of the Lord, he made a convert of a wealthy businessman called Mills.

Convinced that Matthias was a genuine prophet, Mills virtually begged him to accept money.
Saint Matthias was robed in finest purple silk with trappings to match.
Mills was also ordered to
commission a set of plates mounted with the lion of the tribe of Judah and two silver chalices for the Prophet’s exclusive use.

Unfortunately for Saint Matthias, Mills’s family were less than enthusiastic about the turn of events; they had Mills packed off to the Bloomingdale Lunatic Asylum.
When Matthias
threatened them with Hell and Damnation they arranged to have him committed to the Department of the Insane Poor at Bellevue Hospital.
After an ignominious period behind bars he was released.
But
he had enjoyed his period of affluence so much that he determined that this was how he intended to live in the future.
He now went to call on a friend of Mr Mills, one Elijah Pierson.

When he arrived at Pierson’s house the door was answered by the black cook, Isabella, who was a Holy Club convert.
She asked him timorously, “Art thou the Lord?”

“I am,” he boomed without hesitation and strode in.

Pierson spoke to the stranger for several hours, by the end of which time he was convinced Matthias was he who was foretold.
The Prophet rewarded his faith by proclaiming that Pierson was not
only the reincarnation of the Prophet Elijah, but also of John the Baptist.
Matthias then settled into his new patron’s home and proceeded to live like a king.

The next convert was a well-off friend of Pierson’s, Benjamin Folger.
Folger was at first alarmed about the holy man and warned his friend of “the workings of false prophets”,
but Matthias’s combination of bombast and biblical quotation soon won him over.
As one of his first contributions to the new spiritual kingdom, Folger purchased Matthias a jewel-encrusted
sword with which to “smite the devil” and yet more purple robes, this time trimmed with silver and gold.

In fact, the Prophet’s spiritual kingdom seemed to demand large amounts of material wealth.
In September 1822, he was taken for a trip to Mr and Mrs Folger’s summer home at Sing
Sing.
He liked it very much and informed them that he had received a vision to the effect that Folger was to give the house to the servant of the Lord.
His disciple faithfully complied, as did
Elijah Pierson when the Prophet demanded the deeds to his luxurious house on Third Street, New York, together with its contents.

It was not long before all of Pierson’s and Folger’s property had been placed at the Prophet’s disposal, as well as tens of thousands of dollars.
Thus fortified against the
works of the devil, Saint Matthias decided that he and his flock of elect should all move to Mount Zion – his name for Folger’s summer home in Sing Sing.
The elect consisted of Pierson
and his daughter Elizabeth, the Folgers and their children and Isabella, the devout black cook who had first recognized the Prophet of the Lord.

Unfortunately, there was little peace at Mount Zion.
Comfort inspired Saint Matthias to behave like a tyrant.
Lying at ease all day, served like a sultan, he would only assume the vertical
position to berate his disciples.
Any sign of backsliding or hint of dissent would unleash a torrent of abuse and recrimination.
Indeed, his Hell and Damnation sermons often lasted so long that one
started at breakfast would leave his followers no time to wash the dishes for lunch.

He also devised some unusual ceremonies – for example, he would bathe in a tub of water, then call his naked disciples to gather about him so that he could sprinkle them with the water he
had thus purified.

At some point he decided that Mrs Folger was his soulmate and the “Mother of the Kingdom”, explaining to her husband that she should be relinquished to him.
As Folger wavered, his
wife suddenly announced that she had seen a vision that confirmed that she was the Prophet’s wife and a virgin in the sight of Heaven; under such divine pressure the unhappy Folger felt
obliged to agree.
As a consolation prize, Matthias offered him his own daughter, then living with her mother and husband in Albany.
Oddly enough the Prophet’s son-in-law agreed to the
arrangement – at least, after Folger had bribed him with a gold watch.

Soon the goings-on began to deeply worry Elijah/St John Pierson.
Being forced to do menial work was not how he saw the role of a double prophet, and he began to experience the sin of doubt.
After violent arguments with the Prophet he left Mount Zion, taking his daughter and the deeds to his house in Westchester County.
But his respite was only temporary.
Within a week Saint Matthias
and his entourage had come to visit.

In what seemed a peace gesture, Matthias went out to pick a big bowl of blackberries, a favourite dessert of Pierson’s.
Two others tried a few at dinner, but said they tasted bitter and
left them.
Pierson, however, ate a good many and became very sick.
He vomited continuously, suffered epileptic fits and became partially paralysed.
The Prophet stood over the suffering man and
declared that he had encouraged fifty devils to enter himself by his sin of dissent and those who tried to help him would suffer a similar fate.
No doctor was sent for.

After two days Pierson seemed to recover enough to shuffle about the house, but the Prophet threatened damnation to any who communicated with the sick man.
On the fifth day of his illness,
Pierson was found lying on his bedroom floor in a coma.
The Prophet ordered that he be placed on a pallet of straw and poured cold water over him to wake him from his “hellish sleep”.
Not surprisingly, Pierson never regained consciousness and died eight days after he had eaten the blackberries.
The Prophet then acknowledged that he had indeed killed Pierson – by making a
certain holy sign over him, a gesture that invariably led to the death of his enemies.

Despite such alarming manifestations of his power, the kingdom of Saint Matthias was falling apart.
His soulmate (the ex-Mrs Folger) seemed to lose faith in him when she gave birth to their
child – prophesied to be a son who would be heir to the kingdom – and it turned out to be a girl.
Her ex-husband also seemed to experience doubt when he discovered that the Prophet had
bankrupted him.
Both asked Saint Matthias to leave their house.
He complied reluctantly, but within a week he was back, threatening that sickness would follow if they turned from the light.
They
insisted and he left again.
That same moming, the entire Folger family became sick with violent stomach cramps and continuous vomiting.
Fortunately, they all recovered.

This time Matthias had gone too far.
He was arrested and charged with murder, and in April 1835 his trial began.
The Prophet, on entering the court, made his usual dramatic impression by
declaring that those who dared sit in judgement on him were “Damned!
Damned!
DAMNED!”
When the judge restored order he added contempt of court to the charge sheet.

Twelve years later, the Prophet would almost certainly have been found guilty of murder and attempted murder; both Pierson and the Folgers had showed every sign of arsenic poisoning.
Indeed,
Pierson’s exhumed body should have provided more than enough evidence to send Matthias to the gallows.
But the Marsh test for arsenic was not invented until 1847 and American doctors seemed
unfamiliar with other European.
tests.
Eventually the case dismissed for lack of evidence.
The Prophet served only four months in jail for his contempt of court, and for assaulting his daughter (he
had beaten her with a leather belt for being impiously rude to Mrs Folger).

After serving his sentence he went west, still proclaiming his sainthood, but his reputation preceded him.
Newspaper revelations about life at Mount Zion had shocked and titillated readers
throughout the United States, and his claims to near-divinity no longer convinced.
Fortunately, he was no longer in need of money.
He had taken eighty thousand dollars from Pierson alone, of which
the daughter Elizabeth was able to recoup only seven thousand dollars through legal action.

In his later years he met Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church of the Latter Day Saints, and they talked all night.
Smith later described him as “a brilliant intellect but a mind
full of darkness”.

Smith himself was one of the rare – and unfortunate – prophets who arouse his fellow countrymen to murderous rage; his story forms an interesting contrast to that of the egregious
Saint Matthew.

The Mormons

Smith, born in 1805, was the son of a Vermont farmer, and when he was ten, his father, Joseph senior, moved to Palmyra, New York, with his wife and nine children.
It was a
period of feverish religious activity in America, with various sects – Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist – expanding at an explosive rate as they made new converts.
Joseph’s mother
Lucy became a convert to Presbyterianism, which had been established by John Calvin in Geneva in 1536, as did two of Joseph’s brothers and his sister Sophionia.
Joseph attended meetings of
the various warring sects, and as he listened to them denouncing one another, he gave a great deal of thought to religion.