MITNTZ, munts. CI 1.tRLES .ke1111,1,F, (1816—). A French agrieultural chemist. brother of the art critic Eugne Miintz. He was born at Sulz, Alsace. studied under BoussinganIt in Paris, and, after acting as his assistant for ten years. succeeded him as director of the chemical laboratories in the Institut National Agrono mique. .Mlintz made special res•mch on the feeding of cattle and horses, and, following Boussingault's method, tested his theories by practice on great herds, on Parisian cab horses, and, in the case of his contributions to vinicul ture, in various vineyards. He founded a Bihlio theque de l'Enseignement Agricole, published the results of his experiments in the .1 iinales of the Agricultural Institute, and other chemical and agricultural journals, and wrote: Recherches sue l'alimentation des eheraux, with Girard (1884) ; Les engrais, with the same (1888-91) ; and Les rimes (1895).
MtiNTZ, EUGENE ( 1845-1902). A French art critic, born at Sulz, Alsace. He took Taine's place as professor of the history of art at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts, where he lec tured from 1885 to 1893. He made a specialty of Italian art, and the following works are of unique value: Notes sue les mosaiques de ( 1874-92 ) ; Les arts a la eour des popes pendant le Xl'eme at le siecle (1878-98) ; Les precurseurs de (a Renaissance (1881) ; Histoire tic la tapisserie (1882) ; Etudes sur Phistoire de la peinture et dc ('iconographic chretiennes (1832) ; and Histoire de ('art pendant la Renais sauce, vol. L. Italic: les primitifs (1888) : vol. IL, Italie: rage d'oe (1892) ; vol. iii., Italie: la fin de la Renaissance (1895) : Leonard de Vinci, ('artiste, le penscur, le savant (1899).
MtNZER, Mkt letS61*, THOMAS ( c.1489-1525 ) . A religious enthusiast of the German Reforma tion, born at Stolberg, in the Harz Mountains. He acquired a good knowledge of theology, taught at Asehersleben and Halle, became in 1519 chap lain of a nunnery at Beutwitz, and in the following year received a call as preacher to Zwickau. There lie gained great popularity by his attacks on the monastic and mendicant Or ders. In 1521 he was compelled to leave the town, and went to Bohemia, where his preaching, however, met with little sympathy. In 1523 he became pastor at Allstedt, in Thuringia, married a nun who had abjured her vows, and carried on his pastoral work in full sympathy with the ad vanced representatives of the Reformation. He
was an ardent champion of German nationality, and was the first to substitute German for Latin in the liturgy. He stood in close touch with ('arlstadt and shared the latter's iconoclas tic ideas. In time he developed a fanatic mysticism whose chief tenet was the validity of inner revelation, and he attacked as pa pists' those reformers who set up the Gospel above personal justifieation. Ins ideas partook also of a political and social nature; he preached the speedy coming of God's kingdom on earth, and sought to organize the peasants and the artisans of the towns into secret associations looking, it is asserted, to the destruction of all authority and the establishment of comomnal property. In August. 1524, he was expelled from Allstedt and betook himself to Mfililhau sen, where he joined forces with Heinrieh Pfeifer. a renegade monk, who had succeeded in gaining great influence over the lower classes. Together they were driven from the city in September, and Mflnzer wandered through Southern Germany and Switzerland, forming close relations with the Anabaptist leaders and hastening in no small degree the peasant uprising in those regions. Ile returned to Miihlhausen in December, and with Pfeifer, who had likewise reiMtered the city, as sumed leadership of the discontented masses. The old council was overthrown, and a coun cil was installed under the control of Mfinzer. Mfildhausen speedily became the centre of a violent agitation. The opposition of the nobles was ineffectual; but at Frankenhausen, on Slay 13. 1523, Miinzer's peasant mob was almost an nihilated by the force of Philip of Hesse. the Elector of Saxony, and the Duke of Brunswick. I See PEASANT WAR. ) Miinzer escaped from the battlefield, hut was captured at Franken hausen and taken to the Castle of Holdrungen, where lie was put to the torture. On May 25th he was decapitated at Miihlhausen; together with Pfeifer and twenty-four other leaders of the peasants. Fanatic though he undoubtedly was. there is nothing to disprove Mfinzer's warm love for the common people. whose cause lie upheld against Luther, accusing the latter of fawning on the German princes while seeking to ap pease the peasants with empty words about the responsibility of rulers to God. Consult : Strobel, Lcben, Sebriften und Lchren Thomas .11iitr:ers (Nuremberg and Altdorf. 1795) ; Seidemann, Thomas lfiin:cr (Dresden and Leipzig. 1842).