od they had. Lochau also became a destination for pilgrims. Once they got to Lochau people began to prepare for the end of the world. Some people even took their own life instead of waiting. Some of the town's people burned their houses in an attempt to remove themselves from material objects and make it easier for to get to "Heaven". Lochau had only two bars, and in the time between Stifel's announcement and "the end" it was said that they were never empty. The owner's gave away free drinks. The owners' of the town's inns also let people stay there for free. While all of this was happening, Lochau's historian took all the money from the treasury and left. As a result of this craziness Stifel was forbidden to preach. Finally, the "last day" came and Stifel began to prepare his followers for the end. Fortunately for everyone except Stifel the world did not end that day. At 8:30 AM the authorities took Stifel away and put him in protective custody, for his own protection. Crowds gathered outside his cell and chanted "Stifel must die" for many days after this. Martin Luther got Stifel out of this, but he had to promise not to make anymore prophecies. Another one of Stifel's adventures had to do with the newly crowned pope Leo X. Since he was a Lutheran, Stifel was not too fond of Leo and he had the calculations to back up his opinions. Stifel took the name Leo X and wrote it in Latin; this was LEO DECIMVS. He then assigned the numerical counterparts (Roman Numerals) of these letters, throwing out the non-numerical E, O, and S. He rearranged the remaining letters and came up with MDCLVI. The next "logical" step was to add back the X from Leo's original name and Stifel had MDCLXVI. He then took off the M because it was the initial of mysterium, a word for a religious mystery. The result was DCLXVI, or six hundred sixty-six, or 666. According to Stifel this proved that Pope Leo X was indeed the Antichrist. In response to this, Peter Bungus, a...
