Nikolaus Storch (born pre-1500, died after 1536) was a weaver and radical lay-preacher in the Saxon town of Zwickau. He and his followers, known as the Zwickau Prophets, played a brief role during the early German Reformation years in south-east Saxony, and there is a view that he was a forerunner of the Anabaptists. In the years 1520–1521, he worked closely with the radical theologian Thomas Müntzer.
Weaver and lay preacher
Very little is known about the life of Storch. There are no data about his place or date of birth, but he is assumed to be a native of Zwickau itself. His activities both in and away from Zwickau are not well-documented. He left no letters or other writings. He was a weaver by trade, but it is not known whether he was an apprentice or a master-weaver. Zwickau, at that time a town of around 7,000 inhabitants, was a prosperous town with a significant cloth trade, with the burgeoning silver-mining operations in the surrounding Ore Mountains. The influx of wealth from the mines meant that several local master-weavers had the capacity to break smaller competitors. This introduced volatile social and economic relationships into the town. The weavers' religious organisation in Zwickau – the Fronleichnams-Bruderschaft or 'Brotherhood of Corpus Christi' – had an altar at the church of St. Catherine in the town.
Prior to 1520, a splinter group broke away from this guild under Storch's leadership, a sect whose members believed that the source of true Christian belief came through visions and dreams. Storch was remarkably well-read in the Bible, having been taught by Balthasar Teufel, one-time schoolmaster of Zwickau. Storch had made several trips to Bohemia in the line of business, and there had come under the influence of the Taborites of Žatec (Saaz). In Zwickau he conducted 'corner sermons' in the houses of other weavers. The town chronicler Peter Schumann thought of Storch as 'someone with a profound knowledge of Scripture and expert in the things of the Spirit'
Working with Thomas Müntzer
When the radical reformer Thomas Müntzer was appointed to preach at St. Catherine's Church, in October 1520, after a short period at the neighbouring St Mary's, he and Storch began to work together. Müntzer was greatly interested in Storch's doctrines, although he viewed Storch as a like-minded individual, rather than a follower or someone to follow. During the winter of 1520–21, tensions in the town ran high between Catholics and reformers, plebeians and richer citizens, sects and town-council. A number of disturbances took place in the town, usually involving the lower classes and frequently resulting in acts of violence against the Catholic monks.
On 14 April 1521, a 'Letter of the 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples' was posted up in the town, addressed to the Lutheran/Humanist reformer Johann Sylvanus Egranus, who had crossed swords with Müntzer and Storch on several occasions already. Egranus was described now as the "desecrator and slanderer of God ... who hounds God's servant ... a heretical rogue". The letter was almost certainly the work of Storch's group, but it defended both Storch and Müntzer jointly. It enumerated, in verse, all the false doctrines of Egranus, his denial of the suffering of the soul, his worship of the ‘world’ and of money, and his preference for the company of 'bigwigs' : "And you seek mere chattles, cash and praise, But that’s the last thing you'll get from the 72 Disciples, And just watch what you'll get from the 12 Apostles, And then even more from the Master... And we want to prove in writing that you're an arch-heretic"
In a defamatory letter of that same month, Müntzer was depicted thus: “at that time preacher at St Katharine’s, [he] made them [the Storchites] his supporters, won over the weavers, particularly one named Nichol Storch, whom he praised so mightily from the pulpit, raised him above all other priests as the only one who knew the Bible better and who was highly favoured by the Spirit...that Storch dared to give corner-sermons beside Thomas... Thus this Nichol Storch was favoured by Master Thomas; who recommended from the pulpit that laymen should be our prelates and priests”. Although this same report talked of the 'Storchite sect', there is no indication that this included Müntzer: indeed, the report states that the 'secta Storchitorum ... conspired and gathered together as Twelve Apostles and Seventy-Two other Disciples ... reinforced by Master Thomas and his followers', which strongly suggests that there were two separate groupings.