For a while he found a refuge at Strassburg, but this city soon became too orthodox to hold him.

He then turned to Holland, where the seed sowed fell into fertile ground.

Two Dutchmen, the baker John Matthys of Haarlem and the tailor John Beuckelssen of Leyden went to the episcopal city of Muenster in Westphalia [Sidenote: Muenster] near the Dutch {102} border, and rapidly converted the mass of the people to their own belief in the advent of the kingdom of God on earth.

An insurrection expelled the bishop's government and installed a democracy in February, 1534.

After the death of Matthys on April 5, a rising of the people against the dictatorial power of Beucklessen was suppressed by this fanatic who thereupon crowned himself king under the title of John of Leyden.