Overview: It was the time of upheaval, the Reformation shook the existing order. In 1521, there was turmoil in Zwickau, Saxony: the young priest Thomas Müntzer (1489-1525), who preached at St. Mary's Church, turned against the ecclesiastical and secular authorities and demanded the God-given right to freedom and equality for all people. Müntzer was not a man of compromise. The church criticism of Luther, whom he had once admired, did not go far enough for him. Not only the papacy but also the secular order based on the estates were a thorn in his side.