l by its side." The thing that most distinguished these weird
Dutchmen was their communistic views. They taught that, since we all
were equal in the eyes of God, we should all be equal likewise in the
eyes of men, that temporal government along with class distinctions of
every kind should be abolished, and that Christians should indulge in
absolute community of goods. In religious matters, too, they had
peculiar views, believing that only adults should receive baptism, and
that all adults who had been baptized in infancy should be baptized
again. By reason of this tenet they were known as Anabaptists. Their
first appearance in the Swedish capital occurred at a moment when the
monarch was away. In that, at any rate, they manifested sense. The
capital was all agog with Luther's doctrines, and everything that bore
the stamp of novelty was listened to with joy. Melchior and
Knipperdolling were received with open arms, the pulpits were placed at
their disposal, and men and women flocked in swarms to hear them. The
town authorities raised no opposition, believing the influence of these
teachers would be good. In a short time, however, they were undeceived.
The contagion spread like wildfire through the town, and every other
citizen began to preach. Churches, monasteries, and chapels were filled
from morn till eve, and pulpits resounded with doctrines of the most
inflammatory kind. All government was set at naught, and every effort to
stay the tempest merely added to its force. Finally these fanatics made
war upon the altars, throwing down statues and pictures, and piling the
fragments in huge heaps about the town. They dashed about like maniacs,
a witness writes, not knowing what they did. How far their madness
would have led them, it is idle to conceive. Gustavus returned to
Stockholm while the delirium was at fever heat, and his presence in an
instant checked its course. He called the leaders of the riot before
him, and demanded sharply if this raving lunacy seemed to them religion.
They mumbled some incoherent answer, and, the fury having spent its
force, most of them were reprimanded and discharged. Melchior with one
or two others was kept in jail awhile, and then sent back to Holland,
with orders not to return to Sweden on pain of death. Some ten years
later Melchior was executed along with Knipperdolling for sharing in the
famous riot of the Anabaptist sect in Muenster.[105]

The hurricane had swept past Stockholm and wa