Storch, Nicholas

Storch, Nicholas, founder of the religious doctrines of the Anabaptists (q.v.), was born at Stolberg, Saxony, about 1490, and was therefore a young man when Luther commenced preaching the doctrines of the Reformation. He went much further than Luther in proscribing ancient authorities, for he denounced all external documents and traditions whatsoever, and, accepting no book but the Bible, he taught his disciples to renounce the study of literature and theology, and trust to the spirit of God to enlighten their understandings. He insisted, also, on the necessity of rebaptism when that ceremony had been performed in infancy, on the principle that it was an act of faith and could not otherwise be valid. Neither Calvin nor Luther could tolerate these doctrines, and they became still more hateful to the princes of Germany when political ends and the doctrine of the, community of goods were associated with them. For years previous the poor half- starved and half-naked serfs of Germany had been accustomed to assemble in great numbers, and; with "Bread and Cheese" inscribed on their banners, had threatened the complete overthrow of the existing state of society. Storch gained many proselytes in Suabia, Thuringia, etc., which fact led to much bloodshed; and at length the elector of Saxony, at the; pressing instance of Luther, banished their spiritual guide, in addition to executing their political, in the person of Münzer, in 1525. Storch was a man of the most amiable disposition; but the Baptists of the present day deny all connection with his party, to avoid the odium belonging to these scenes of turbulence. He died in his retreat at Munich in 1530.