the spirit 'chosen by God' is to proclaim itself free of the flesh.

"The world has judged Jan harshly, condemned him to endless
execration. It were better to have cursed the generations of
oppression, the flood of persecution, which forced the toiler to
revolt, the Anabaptists to madness. Under other circumstances the
noble enthusiasm, with other surroundings the strong will, of Jan of
Leyden might have left a different mark on the page of history. Dragged
down in this whirlpool of fanaticism, sensuality, and despair, we can
only look upon him as a factor of the historic judgment, a necessary
actor in that tragedy of Münster, which forms one of the most solemn
chapters of the Greater Bible."

Gradually Jan rose to be head of the saints, Mathiesen having been
killed, and none other displaying so much strength of purpose
or magnetic enthusiasm. And here his mind gave way. Like so
many absolute rulers before and since, he could not resist the
ecstacies of supremacy. To resume Professor Pearson's narrative:
"The sovereign of Sion--although 'since the flesh is dead, gold to him
is but as dung'--yet thinks fit to appear in all the pomp of earthly
majesty. He appoints a court, of which Knipperdollinch is chancellor,
and wherein there are many officers from chamberlain to cook. He
forms a body-guard, whose members are dressed in silk. Two pages
wait upon the king, one of whom is a _son of his grace the bishop of
Münster_. The great officers of state are somewhat wondrously attired,
one breech red, the other grey, and on the sleeves of their coats
are embroidered the arms of Sion--the earth-sphere pierced by two
crossed swords, a sign of universal sway and its instruments--while
a golden finger-ring is token of their authority in Sion. The king
himself is magnificently arrayed in gold and purple, and as insignia