familiarly with God, that they could see the future; in short that they were prophets and apostles. How much I was moved by them, I cannot easily express. Certain things persuade me not to condemn them... No one other than Martin can judge them more closely...” In a covering note to Friedrich’s chaplain, Georg Spalatin, Melanchthon added: “The Holy Spirit is in these men...” The reaction of this leader of the Wittenberg movement was quite surprising; anyone without university training or a theological education was generally given short shrift; in later years, most unordained reformed preachers were regarded as ‘Anabaptists’. But in the last months of 1521, radicalism was rampant, and Wittenberg was open to suggestion. Prince Friedrich's reaction to Melanchthon's letter was to despatch Spalatin to Wittenberg post-haste to interview the three ‘Zwickau Prophets’, and to warn Melanchthon against Storch, whereupon Melanchthon changed his tune, and expressed an interest only in the question of baptism. Later life Storch stayed for a while in Wittenberg and then moved on. It is suggested that he spent some years in the west of Thuringia, and Luther reported that he was active in Andreas Karlstadt's town of Orlamünde in March 1524. A warning was issued by the Nuremberg preacher Dominicus Sleupner to the Strasburg town-council who stated that Storch was in their town in December 1524. However, none of these three reports have been validated. According to the chronicler Enoch Widmann, Storch was in the Bavarian town of Hof at the end of 1524, working as a weaver, but still preaching and gaining followers. Towards the end of January 1525, he applied to the mayor of Zwickau to be allowed to return to his home-town, but this was refused. There is a false report of his death in Munich at the end of 1525, but he was still being mentioned in the Zwickau town records of 1536 – therefore alive, and back in or around Zwickau. After that date, there is no further report of him. Doctrines A summary of Storch's teachings in Zwickau was made in a letter, dated 18 December 1521, to Duke Johann of Saxony. The letter was probably written by the new Lutheran preacher at St Mary's Church, Nikolaus Hausmann: “some men doubted whether the belief of the godfather can be of use in the baptism. And some think that they can be blessed without being baptised. And some