MUNSTER MURAT. 



91 



and finally received its present name from the 

 splendid church and monastery (in German, Munstcr) 

 erected by Chnrlemagne in the eighth century. In 

 the sixteenth century, it was the theatre of the fana- 

 tical violence of the Anabaptists. In 1648. the 

 peace of Westphalia was signed in the hall of the 

 council- house, which still contains the portraits of the 

 ambassadors present on that occasion. 



MUNSTER, PEACE OF. See Westphalia, Peace of. 



MUNTER, BALTHASAR, born at Lubeck in 1734, 

 studied theology at Jena, was preacher to the orphan 

 asylum in Gotha (1760), and afterwards to the Ger- 

 imm society of St Peter in Copenhagen, where he 

 died in 1793. His sermons are esteemed for their 

 practical character. He was also the author of 

 Geistliche C'antale (1769) and Gcistliche Lieder. 

 Milliter was appointed to prepare the unfortunate 

 count Struensee for death, and wrote an account of 

 his conversion, which was translated into almost all 

 the, European languages. His son Frederic, bishop 

 of See.land and primate of the Danish church, born 

 at Gotha in 1762, studied theology in the university 

 at Copenhagen, and then spent two years at Gottin- 

 gen. In 1783, he visited Italy and Sicily, resided 

 some time in Rome, and, returning to Copenhagen, 

 in 1788, was appointed extraordinary professor of 

 theology, in 1790, ordinary professor in the university, 

 in 1808, bishop of Seeland and knight of the Dane- 

 brog, and died in 1830. Among his numerous and 

 learned works, the most important are his description 

 of the Two Sicilies ; Specimen Versionum Danielis 

 Copticarum (Rome, 1786), from a manuscript dis- 

 covered by him in Rome ; Statutes of the Templars 

 (also discovered by him) ; Religion of the Carthagi- 

 nians (second edition, Copenhagen, 1821) ; Antiqua- 

 rian Essays ; Miscellanea Hafnensia (2 vols., 1816 

 25); Ecclesiastical History of Norway and Denmark 

 (third vol. left in MS.); the Star of the Wise Men, 

 containing investigations into the year of Christ's 

 birth. His daughter Frederica Brim, born at Tonna 

 in 1765, married a Danish counsellor in 1783, is 

 distinguished for her poetical and prose writings. 

 In 1791, she travelled in France and Switzerland, 

 and, in 1795, visited Italy, whither she again re- 

 turned in 1805, and spent several years in Italy and 

 Switzerland. Her travels are described in her Episo- 

 tlen, her Briefe aits Rom, &c. Her poems have also 

 been published in three volumes. 



MUNYCHIA; one of the ports of Athens, between 

 the Pyrseus and Sunium. See Athens. 



MUNZER, or MUNTZER, THOMAS, a celebrated 

 German fanatic, was born at Stolberg in the Hartz. 

 If the tradition, that his father was illegally executed 

 by a count, is true, this circumstance may account 

 for the direction which his feelings afterwards as- 

 sumed. He probably studied at Wittenberg, where 

 he received the degree of master. He was after- 

 wards a teacher at Aschersleben, and preached for 

 several years in different places, every where dis- 

 playing a violent enmity to the papacy. Luther's 

 doctrines began about this time to spread widely, and 

 men's minds were roused to shake off the papal yoke; 

 but at the same time the spirit of fanaticism began to 

 spread abroad. Whilst Luther was shut up on the 

 Wartburg, and Carlstadt was committing the greatest 

 violences in Wittenberg, the sect of Anabaptists was 

 formed at Zwickau, by Klaus Storch, a clothier, with 

 whom Mark Stubner, Martin Kellner. and Munzer as- 

 sociated themselves. They entered Wittenberg with 

 their followers ; but Luther attacked them with such 

 force, that both Storch and Carlstadt were obliged 

 to leave the city. Munzer promulgated his doctrines 

 with more zeal and success at Altstedt in Thuringia, 

 where he preached from 1523. He assailed the pa- 

 pacy and Luther with great violence, and excited the 



people to revolt against the authorities, particularly 

 after they were forbidden to attend his preaching. He 

 easily persuaded them that God would soon deliver 

 Christendom from the yoke under which it groaned. 

 His followers increased so rapidly, that Frederic, 

 elector of Saxony, and John, duke of Weimar, sum- 

 moned him to Weimar, to answer for his conduct, in 

 1524. Nothing further, however, was done, than to 

 direct the authorities of Altstedt to remove so dan- 

 gerous a person from the city. Munzer disappeared, 

 and was not heard from again for a year, when he 

 made his appearance at Nuremberg. Not being 

 allowed to remain there, he went to Schaffhausen, 

 where he continued six months, and then returned to 

 Saxony. In Muhlhausen, he gained an entire as- 

 cendency over the populace, deposed the city council, 

 which forbade his preaching, and appointed a new 

 one, permitted the pillage of the mona-teries and of 

 the houses of the rich, and proclaimed a community 

 of goods. Another fanatic, by the name of Pfeifer 

 entered the Eichsfeld, with his troop of plundering 

 followers, and joined Munzer. This event, and the 

 information that 40,000 peasants had assembled in 

 Franconia, and plundered and burned 150 castles ot 

 the nobles, and twenty-three monasteries, inflamed 

 his zeal. He roused his adherents in Frankenhausen, 

 the mountaineers of Mansfeld, and the peasants at 

 Muhlhausen, Langensalza, and Tennstedt, and pre 7 

 pared for- the war, promising his followers, that he 

 would raise them all to the rank of nobility. Leav- 

 ing Pfeiffer governor in Muhlhausen, he proceeded, 

 with 300 chosen men, to Frankenhausen, broke oil' 

 the negotiations which had been opened with the 

 count of Mansfeld, and rekindled the ardour of the 

 town's people. Frederic the Wise, elector of Saxony, 

 was now dead, and his more energetic successor, 

 John, associated himself with George, duke or 

 Saxony, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and Henry, duke 

 of Brunswick, and sent a -force against the insurgents, 

 who amounted to about 8000 men, advantageously 

 posted on a height near Frankenhausen, and protected 

 by a barrier of wagons. The princes attempted to 

 effect the peaceable submission of the revolters, but 

 Munzer would not listen to terms, and was totally 

 defeated, after an obstinate struggle, May 15, 1525. 

 The insurgents lost from 5000 to 7000 killed, and 

 the survivors threw themselves into Frankenhausen. 

 Munzer concealed himself in bed, feigning sickness, 

 but was accidentally discovered, and being carried to 

 Heldrungen, confessed his accomplices on the rack. 

 Pfeiffer, who attempted to flee from Muhlhausen, was 

 also made prisoner. They were condemned, with 

 twenty-four others, and executed at Muhlhausen. 

 Munzer behaved with the greatest pusillanimity, and 

 was unable even to pronounce the creed at the 

 execution. After the decapitation, his body was 

 impaled, and his head stuck upon a stake. See 

 Peasants 1 fVar. 



MURAL ARCH (from murus, a wall); a wall, or 

 arched wall, placed exactly in the plane of the meri- 

 dian, for fixing a large quadrant, sextant, or other 

 instrument, to observe the meridian, altitude, &c., of 

 the heavenly bodies. 



MURAT, JOACHIM, the son of an innkeeper at 

 Cahors, born in 1771, was a man of an elegant per- 

 son, spirited and active, but distinguished for the 

 most daring courage, rather than sagacity and 

 strength of mind, and finally fell a sacrifice to his 

 rashness. When a boy, he escaped from the college 

 of Toulouse, where he had been placed to prepare 

 him for the ecclesiastical profession. He was after- 

 wards a common chasseur, and deserted ; served in 

 the constitutional guard of Louis XVI.; then entered 

 the 12th regiment of mounted chasseurs ; rose, by his 

 zealous Jacobinism, to the rank of lieutenant-colonel ; 



