assembled at the town-hall, and the council laid the document before them. 'This is indeed our doctrine,' they said, 'but we are not prepared to defend it.' They were consequently deprived. The bishop, who had quitted Munster, resolved to cut off the supply of food to the town--a measure not exactly within a pastor's function, whose call is to feed his flock. The townsmen, provoked, arrested most of the canons and the priests and imprisoned them; and it was arranged in 1533, that evangelical doctrine should be preached in the six churches of the town, and that the old abuses should be no longer allowed except in the cathedral.[504] Among the most respected inhabitants of Munster was the syndic Wiggers, whose wife, continually followed by a host of admirers, was a person of doubtful character. She had a great admiration for Rottmann, and, clever woman as she was, knew how to captivate him. Her husband died shortly afterwards, and the rumor was spread that she had poisoned him.[505] This is, however, uncertain. Whatever the fact may be, Rottmann married her, and thus showed again, that although he was a preacher of the Gospel, he did not practise it. Honorable men now withdrew from his society. This circumstance, with others, drove him to take an extreme course. In 1533 a very large number of enthusiasts from the Netherlands arrived at Munster. One of these, Stapreda, from Meurs, became Rottmann's colleague, and preached vigorously their particular doctrines.[506] Rottmann, abandoned by his old friends, threw himself into the arms of these new ones, and strongly advocated their views. Great alarm was excited in Hesse. Hermann Busch, of Marburg, came to Munster to oppose the fanatics, and in consequence of a dispute between him and Rottmann the adherents of the latter received orders to leave the town. They concealed themselves for a time and then reappeared. The pastor Fabritius, sent to Munster by the landgrave of Hesse, who was growing more and more alarmed, earnestly exhorted the senate and the people to be steadfast in sound doctrine. But one of the visionaries, pretending to be led by divine inspiration, went about the town towards the end of December, 1533, exclaiming: 'Repent ye and be baptized, or the wrath of God will destroy you.'[507] Ignorant men were filled with terror and hastened to obey. [Sidenote: MATTHISSON AND BOCKHOLD.]