To protest the corruption of the Catholic Church, twelve Anabaptists ran naked through the streets of Amsterdam on February 26, 1535, in the first recorded instance of streaking as political protest. The seven men and five women stripped off and burned their clothing under order of Hendrik Hendriksz, a self-styled prophet who stirred his followers into a feverish excitement after seeing a child throw his slipper into a fire and deciding it was a sign from God to reject all bodily garments.