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JOHX BOCKHOLDT, OH BOCCOLD. 
As this prelate was the great restorer and promoter of the monastie 
institutions, the grateful monks, who were almost the only historians of 
those dark ages, have loaded him with the most extravagant praises> 
and represented him as the greatest wonder-worker, and highest 
favourite of heaven, that ever lived. To say nothing of his many con- 
flicts with the devil, in which he often belaboured that enemy of man- 
kind most severely, the following short story, which is told with great 
exultation by his biographer Osborn, will give the reader some idea 
of the astonishing impudence and impiety of those monks, and of the 
no less astonishing blindness and credulity of the people. 
** The most admirable, the most inestimable Father Dunstan,” says, 
that author, '‘whose perfections exceed all human imagination, was 
admitted to behold the Mother of God and his own mother in eternal 
glory ; for before his death he was carried up into heaven, to be pre- 
sented at the nuptials of his own mother with the Eternal King, which 
were celebrated by the angels with the most sweet and joyous songs. 
When the angels reproached him for his silence on this great occasion, 
so honourable to his mother, he excused himself on account of his 
being unacquainted with those sweet and heavenly strains ; but being 
a little instructed by the angels, he broke out into this melodious song, 
O King and Ruler of nations, &c.” 
It is unnecessary to make any comment on this most shocking story^ 
The violent and too successful zeal of Dunstan and his associates, in 
promoting the building and endowing so great a number of houses for 
the entertainment of useless monks and nuns, was very fatal to their 
country; for a spirit of irrational, unmanly superstition was thus dif- 
fused amongst the people, which debased their minds, and diverted 
them from nobler pursuits ; and a great proportion of the lands of 
England having been put into hands wh.o contributed nothing to its 
defence, rendered it an easy prey, first to the insulting Danes, and 
afterwards to the victorious Normans. 
John B.ockholdt,. or Boccold. 
This person, a memorable example of the force of fanaticism, was 
a journeyman tailor of Leyden, in the early part of the sixteenth 
century. Joining with John Matthias, a baker of Haerlem, who, like 
himself, assumed the character of a prophet among the sect of Ana- 
baptists, they fixed their residence at Munster, an imperial city in 
Westphalia, and employed themselves with great zeal in propagate 
ing their opinions. Their proselytes at length became numerous 
enough to enable them to make themselves masters of the city, in 
which they established a new form of government, directed by Mat- 
thias as its head, with the uncontrolled power of a prophet inspired 
by Heaven. This was in 1534 ; and Matthias sent emissaries to all 
the sect, inviting them to repair to Munster, as the Mount Sion of 
true believers, whence they were to proceed to reduce the whole earth 
to their obedience. Meantime the bishop of Munster, assembling an 
army, laid siege to the town, and Matthias, in a frantic sally, was 
slain. Boccold succeeded him in the prophetic authority, and, being 
a more cautious man in action, he contented himself with carrying on 
