Münster Disputation (1533)
An earlier attempt to frame a church order had faltered over Rothmann’s teaching on the Supper and his growing doubts about infant baptism. Münster’s reform was unsettled when its council ordered a disputation on August 7 and 8, 1533. Bernhard Rothmann and the Wassenberg preachers faced Lutheran opponents led by Hermann Buschius. The immediate question was infant baptism, but their disagreement also involved the Lord’s Supper and the authority to determine the city’s worship. Rothmann’s proposed church order had already drawn objections from theologians in Marburg. His reply pressed the case that infant baptism lacked biblical warrant, and the city syndic hoped a public debate would contain the widening disagreement.1
Monasterium tumultuatur misere.Martin BucerLetter to Heinrich Bullinger, November 30, 15333
The Debate and Its Outcome
Rothmann argued that infant baptism lacked scriptural warrant. His opponents defended it, and the council hoped to restrain the growing division. The exchange did not restore agreement. A further debate was contemplated, but the conditions for it were disputed while Rothmann’s position in the city strengthened.2
Why It Matters
The meeting is a warning against treating Münster’s later Anabaptist rule as an inevitable outcome of every earlier reforming argument. In 1533, several reforming groups still contended over the city’s direction. The debate exposes the point at which an evangelical city began to fracture over baptism and church order.
