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Well today we're doing another very interesting character amongst the Anabaptists. And frankly I learned quite a bit doing the research on this myself. This is a name that you often hear whenever people talk about the Anabaptists. But I really had never gotten into his actual life and did not realize just how influential he was and how his heritage lives on today.

This is Baltimore. But before I give that, let me stay. Are we about to go up there? Let's get our overheads going. By the way, I guess while we're waiting for that, I'll just give this a little aside. Came across a very interesting lecture talking about the Anabaptists in Switzerland.

And what was particularly interesting about it was most of the Anabaptists actually did not flee. They stayed there. And the name of this lecture was Hiding in Plain Sight. And it talks about how many of these Anabaptists stayed in Switzerland. They hid out in the country areas, but they didn't really hide.

They were in their communities. And the people there protected them. It's really kind of interesting. One that gave several. Examples of this. In one case, the authority there, he's sort of like our sheriff. Every time he was told to go arrest this lady, he just would refuse to do it.

And the authorities finally called him in, and he says, She's sick. And then the next year, same thing, she's sick. And then one year, he says, Well, you know, the Abaptists have this very usual disease. It seems to hit her right before they're supposed to appear for a court case.

So it was quite an amazing lecture. Okay, so in 1516, one year before Martin Luther nails his 95 theses on the Wittenberg church door, you got another doctor of theology. There he is, the only known portrait we have of him, woodcut, began preaching in Regensburg, a city located in southern Germany.

He was an extremely powerful and very popular preacher, especially amongst the common people. But by his own admission, he was not yet born again while he was doing all this. In fact, he's a Roman Catholic priest preaching in this Roman Catholic church. His name is Balthazar Hubmeier. Baltazar Hubmeier.

That's pronounced and spelled several different ways, but I'm going to try to stick to this one. He's born in. 1480 in Freburg in the Duchy of Bavaria, and that was, of course, part of the Holy Roman Empire, which is really Germany, plus some additional territories. And he becomes one of the most influential German Anabaptist leaders over time.

He's also a very respected theologian. He is very well educated. He's therefore somewhat unusual amongst the Anabaptists because he was so well educated. And, of course, later on, he becomes a big hero to the Mennonites. And they would say that he is their Calvin, you know, like Calvin is to mainstream Reform groups and the Presbyterians, he was to the Mennonites and other Anabaptist groups.

He's born in 1480, 81 to poor tenant farmers. He came from poverty. He attended Latin school at Augsburg, entered the University of Freiburg in 1503, but he soon ran out of money. And so he goes to Schaufausen, which I'm mispronouncing, I'm sure. And there he basically apparently taught and tutored anyone who would pay him.

And by the way, he's 19 years old and he's teaching Greek and Hebrew. What do you think about that, Justin? Pretty impressive, huh? Yeah, 19 years old. He's teaching Greek and Hebrew, earning money so he can go back to college, which is pretty amazing. So he returns to Freburg in 1507, and he simultaneously received his bachelor's and master's degree.

Not quite sure how he managed that. In 1511, then in 1512, at age 31, notice he's older than most of these guys we've talked about previously because it took him longer. He said the four-year plan, six-year plan, I guess his was like the ten-year plan, but he got through it, guys.

Degrees. He receives the doctor's degree at the University of Ingolstadt, where his favorite professor was none other than Jan Eck. Y'all remember him? That's the guy that had the famous disputation with Martin Luther. And, you know, cornered Luther into admitting that basically he rejected the Pope, he rejected church councils, and, you know, he only had faith in the Bible as being the final authority.

So you got this famous Roman Catholic priest, professor that Ingolstadt. And at this time, basically, he almost worshiped Jan Yek, you know, Jan Yek. And so because Yek was a very prominent personality, very important mentor. It's not too surprising the university turns around and hires him to be their vice rector, which means he basically is running the University of Ingolstadt.

However, he also on the side would preach, and apparently he was a spell-binding speaker. It just people loved to listen to him preach. And the church at Regenburg basically offered him a better salary and not near the headaches that you have with college professors. I know a little bit about that, be my colleagues.

They're not always the best, nicest people to get along with. And so he left Ingolstadt and he becomes the Roman Catholic priest at Regensburg. This is 1516, where he is going to be very initially successful. Now, that's the University of Ingolstadt as it looks today. And I believe that building was there when he was there.

And this shows the church in Regenburg where he would preach. I think they called it St. Peter's, not St. Peter's in Rome, obviously, but another St. Peter's. And so he's there at Regenburg. And while there, and you see, you have a confluence of these three rivers right there at that location, which is one of the reasons it's such an important city.

Rivers back then were the highways of the day. And in 1519, now remember time period. 1519, you got the situation going on with Luther up there in Germany. You got Hernando Cortez is landing in Mexico. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on worldwide at this time.

But in Regensburg, he's going after the Jews, sad to say. Now, remember, he is Roman Catholic at this time. He is going to, there's this campaign already going against the Jews. He jumps in on it, becomes a leader of it. And basically, they force all the Jews to leave Regensburg.

And apparently, the town council was deep in debt to them, and by kicking them out, they didn't have to pay their debts, is partly what was going on. And the synagogue, there's some dispute over this, but apparently it's demolished. And in place of it, they build this shrine of the beautiful Mary of Regensburg.

And then it's claimed some miracles happened there. And pretty soon it becomes a center of pilgrimage for Roman Catholics. And he was put in charge of that as well. And, of course, things seem to be going great. However, there was a Dominican monastery there at Regensburg. And apparently, prior to this building of this shrine, they had been getting the attention.

And they were apparently quite jealous of this. And so they go to Balthazar, and we don't know what they had on him or what they said to him, but he apparently decides after this confrontation to leave Regensburg. Okay, so we'll never know just what happened there, but he leaves Regensburg.

Now, by the way, unlike Luther, he will later, after he becomes born again, he very much regretted how he treated the Jews. He repents of that. He's very, very sorry for that. Okay, but anyway, so he leaves and he goes to a little city, smaller city, Vallschutt, Vallschutt, much smaller city than Regensburg, located on the Rhine River, also, 1521.

Now, apparently, whatever happened at Regensburg to cause him to leave, it did have a good effect. It humbled him. Okay, it really took him down several notches. And, you know, when you're really down, sometimes we ashamed to say, it takes getting down to do this, but he really gets into his Bible.

For the first time, he really starts to study his Bible. And so he then, after he studies scripture, he begins preaching in an expository style, right? Verse by verse. It's amazing how. That always gets it, right? He starts preaching the Bible in expository, verse-by-verse style. And he still has all his talents as a speaker, and huge crowds continue to come to listen to him.

Okay. Now, he then begins reading the writings of the Reformers, starting off, of course, with Luther. And he's very impressed with Luther and Lutherism. And he basically starts, he goes from being Roman Catholic to Lutheran. And just to give you a picture of the long-range story here, he then basically is impressed with Zwingli, particularly with Zwingli's teachings on the Lord's Supper.

And so he starts heading towards the Swiss Reform movement. And then, like other Swiss reformers, he gets on the subject of baptism. And eventually he's going to become an Anabaptist as a result of that. But all this is dependent upon his reading of scripture. I'll give you a quote by him just a little bit on that.

Now, so this is 1522. Remember all kinds of stuff that's happening in 1522 in the Reformation. And he's 41 years old. Okay. And this is a picture of Volscha today. I'm not sure if it looks... Like that when he was there, but that's what it looks like today.

Now, of course, he read all the epistles of Paul, writings of Erasmus. Remember, Erasmus always pops up in the background of many of the reformers, although Erasmus himself never would leave the Roman Catholic Church. He sort of plowed the ground, laid the groundwork for it. Of course, Melancton, who's a guy that helps organize Lutheran theology.

And he also corresponds with Hendrik Galerian, who is one of the major professors who taught Conrad Grebel, who we've already discussed, you know, the famous Anabaptist. You know, originally he's one of the disciples of Zwingli, breaks with Zwingli over baptism and becomes one of the major early preachers of the Anabaptists and died of the plague.

But so he's meeting all these people, and his own testimony at the time was, Christ was starting to sprout in me, okay, is the way he put it. And of this time period. He also meets and participates with Zwingli. Initially, he and Zwingli get along just fine. In fact, they are pretty much in agreement initially.

And in October 1523, he travels down to Zurich and participates in a disputation. This is sort of like a grand debate over a particular theological topic. And at this time, they were debating over, you know, images and the mass, which, you know, they began to realize there's real problems here.

And he set forth the principle of obedience to scripture writing. And can I have my mic person read this for me? Very clearly, please. Testing. Okay. The entire thing? In red. Okay. In all disputes concerning faith and religion, the scriptures alone, proceeding from the mouth of God, ought to be our level and rule.

Okay. You know, level, using Carpenter's terminology there. All right. That should hold us level, right? God's Word. In other words, he's already arrived at what we call sola scriptura. Right. And so he returns after this disputation back to Wallschutt, and he's determined he's going to change the Mass.

He begins giving the Mass in vernacular German. And the city council totally supports him there at Wallschutt. And pretty much the Catholic priest there and the surrounding region that does not want to get in on the program of Reformation that's now sweeping the entire area, the Wallschutt council says, y'all can leave if you don't, you know.

Be part of the program. And so they are basically expelled. His reforms, however, attract the attention of the Catholic Archduke Ferdinand. Now, we mentioned him last time. Anyone recall who he is? He's brother of the Holy Roman Emperor. He will later himself become a Holy Roman Emperor. And he's the guy that took out Michael Sadler last time.

Okay, so this, of course, is going to get him upset to hear of this reformer now at Wallschutt, and he threatens to send in imperial troops. Well, at that point, Hubmeier, not wanting this entire city to be punished for him being there, he flees Volschut and goes to Schaufausen.

And while he's there at Schaffhausen, he pens a book which becomes very famous. And even people who are not Anabaptists are strongly influenced by this book. I believe even Voltaire, who's not even a Christian, is influenced by it. It's entitled Concerning Heretics and Those Who Burn Them. It's one of the earliest arguments for religious toleration ever pinned in Europe and on the idea of freedom of conscience.

And a lot of this is based on this idea of priesthood of the believer. Now, of course, that idea, when it gets involved in politics, is somewhat transformed. And that would be for a future lecture, probably next year, if y'all are interested, get to that. But I would argue that's the reason American democracy has worked.

So we all hear that the Greeks gave us democracy. Well, did it work out for the Greeks? Not very long at all. And I would say that one of the reasons it did not work is they did not have this concept, priesthood of the believer. They did not have this concept that, you know, of toleration, in other words.

And the Anabaptists is one of the greatest gifts of the Western world, is this concept. So anyway, he writes that book, and it's kind of interesting. Let's have a reading. Who's up for reading? Okay? The Inquisitors are the biggest heretics of all since, against the teaching and example of Christ, they have condemned heretics to the flames and before the time of the harvest root up the wheat together with the tares.

Did y'all get that? They root up the wheat with the tares. In other words, you're not allowing, we cannot save anyone, right? Only God can do that. And it's his timing. And you're going in there and you're trying. Trying to do God's work for him, and you're doing it all wrong.

Okay, is basically what he's saying there. He then concludes this remarkable tract, which some believe to be one of the most significant in the Reformation history concerning future government attitudes toward religion. And this is how he sums it up. Let's read that as well. Now, it is apparent to even to the blind that the law which demands the burning of heretics is an invention of the devil.

Okay, so he really, really nails it. Okay, now, fortunately for Hubmeier, Ferdinand does not at this point send troops into Volschut because a war in France breaks out. And so Hubmeier returns back to Volschut and sort of in triumph. The entire city comes out. He had been a very beloved pastor, very popular with the people.

So they all come out to greet him. They immediately reinstall him as pastor for the city. And there in 1524, he's celebrating the Mass in German, and he institutes Zwingli's views on the Lord's Supper. And he removed images and religious idols from the church. And he also now, on further study of the scripture, begins to question infant baptism.

1524 he marries Elizabeth and meantime the city of Volschut was preparing for battle because the surrounding areas had risen up in rebellion led by the peasants. Now Hubmeier never did actually join in battle with the peasants, but he definitely sympathized with them. And it was frankly quite convenient for him that the peasants were rising up because basically imperial control of the area collapsed.

They seemed to be on the verge of victory. And in this atmosphere of basic freedom from the emperor, he is going to go even further in his attempts at reform. And one of the things which occurs there is you have the arrival of Wilhelm Rublin. Rublin, you know, we've mentioned him before.

He's one of the early Anabaptists who is preaching against infant baptism, perhaps even before Conrad Grebel and Blaurock and all those guys in Zurich. But he arrives there and Hubmeier basically agrees to have him, since he's already been baptized, to baptize him. So this 50% of the 1825, Hubmeier publicly now has adopted adult baptism, and he and 60 others are re-baptized by, because you know they've been baptized as infants, so they're re-baptized by Wilhelm Rublin.

And in the following days, Hubmeier, of course, continuing to preach, will then baptize 300 of his prisoners. And in the days remaining, almost daily, he starts baptizing people. For a brief moment in Volschut, Anabaptism becomes the quote-unquote state religion. You know, the entire city adopts the views of Anabaptism.

And it flourishes. Now, it is also in this period that Hubmeier is going to write The Christian Baptism of Believers. Now, you know, there's a little controversy as to how influential this was, but this is what a Catholic authority at the time said. You know, you would not expect him to be very sympathetic, obviously, but here's what he said.

He said, this treatise is correctly regarded as the classic presentation of his teaching on baptism and as one of the best defenses of adult baptism ever written. And all Anabaptist and even later Baptist groups are going to refer back to this, the Christian baptism of believers. All right.

Well, it seems like throughout Hubmeier's entire life, he raises to almost pinnacle and then gets crashing back down again. And that is the case here again. By December of 1525, the peasants' rebellion is crushed in that area when they're defeated in battle. And apparently Ferdinand is now free of problems with France and he's crushed the peasants' rebellion.

So he's able to turn his full attention on Volschut, which he's very upset with because they're leaving Catholicism. And so this time he actually sends troops into the city of Volschut, and Hubmeier barely manages to escape. And he really is surrounded by these imperial troops on seemingly all sides.

So the only place he felt he could go was to Zurich, where he's hoping to find refuge, you know, with Zwingli. And so he's going to flee down towards Zurich. Meantime, the Imperial troops enter Volschut and, you know, By force, reconvert the city back to Catholicism. And he arrives in Zurich, and of course, Zwingli is well aware of his views on re-baptism, which you know Zwingli has gone fanatically against and has, you know, even started executing people.

And so he instead arrests Hubmeier, throws him in prison. Okay, well, as a prisoner, Hubmeier requested a disputation on the topic of baptism. Let's have a public disputation debate over this. And Zwingli agrees. Now, the reason he agrees is because it was set up. Hubmeyer was famous for being very open to changing his mind if you could show him by scripture that he was wrong.

And in this disputation, he basically tells Zwingli, you know, if you show me I'm wrong, I will agree to recant. But you're going to have to show me by scripture, you know, and you should be willing to do the same thing. And so they have this disputation, and Hubmeier apparently goes into this with great confidence because he's got the Bible.

And really, scripturally speaking, I think most of us would agree he had the best scriptures because I think most of us in here are Baptists, right? Okay, and And boy, he goes after Zwingli. And what really is embarrassing to Zwingli is he takes quotations by Zwingli, which his former disciples had written down, taking notes when he is giving lectures to them, in which Zwingli himself, at that point early in his career, if you will recall, Zwingli privately had come out against infant baptism.

And so he now brings this out, but Zwingli gets around him. He basically says, oh, you just misunderstood me, basically. All right. And then the city council, which are the judges in all of this disputation, they, of course, had predetermined their decision before the debate ever happened. That's the reason it's a setup.

And Zwingli knew this. No matter what was said in that disputation, they were going to come out for Zwingli. And so they, and the end of the disputation, even though Hubmeier, you know, defense of believers' baptism was so very, very persuasive, they come out and say, nope, Zwingli won the debate.

And Hubmeier is just totally bewildered. And he thinks, apparently, well, maybe, maybe I'm not seeing something. Maybe I'm wrong, you know. And since, you know, he thought this was supposed to be a fair disputation. He had this panel of judges. Well, he must. Be wrong, all right? He thought.

And so he agrees to recant. And of course, Zwingli, you know, Hubmeier is a big guy now. You know, the writings he's already written have spread throughout the area. And Zwingli knows that if he can get Hubmeier to recant publicly, he's really brought off a coup here, so to speak.

So he has Hubmeier come before his congregation there in Zurich, and he's to publicly from the pulpit recant. And so Hubmeier gets in the pulpit, and at first he starts recanting, but then as he really starts thinking about it, he this is no, I'm right and they're wrong.

And he basically says, I cannot, this is Luther's line all over again here, I cannot and I will not recant. And then he starts preaching a sermon on why re-baptism is the correct way. And of course, Zwingli is furious. He literally goes up to the pulpit, grabs him and drags him down out of the pulpit, and then they throw him back into prison again.

But this time it's not going to be nice. This time he's put to torture. Six months. He is held in prison. Now, several of the sources I read said that he's tortured by the rack for six months. That cannot be true. If you survive six days of the rack, it's miraculous.

Okay, but of course they were not feeding him properly, they were abusing him, they were doing everything they could. But at one point, there, they do put him to the rack. And you know, if you know anything about the rack, they literally pull all your bones out of their sockets.

And the pain is indescribable. And some people, they're just their bodies are ruined after this. You know, I've read one story of an English Protestant during the time of Henry VIII, a young lady. In fact, she's the only lady who was tortured this way for religious beliefs, and her body is completely ruined, and they had to carry her to the stake to burn her because she could not move.

It's just horrible. But they put him to the rack, and he had never experienced this before. I cannot imagine what would I do. But he agrees to recant under this brutal pressure. So, you know, he's weakened spiritually, mentally, physically. He's a broken man, and he recants. At that point, Zwingli has him kicked out of Zurich, and he is now a man without a country or even a city or a pastorate.

And he eventually wanders over towards Moravia. And he finds a little town there, Nicholsburg. And in Nicholsburg, you know, he finds finally refuge. And it is there that he writes his little pamphlet entitled Short Apology in 1526. And somebody read that for me. I may err, I am a man, but a heretic I cannot be.

Oh, God, pardon me my weakness. He was very always regretful, remorseful, that he had been so weak as to recant. And he now recants his recantation. Now, one reason he is going to be in such refuge there is because there had been a Protestant church already started there two years prior to his coming there, a Protestant congregation.

And the two pastors there, and this indicates to me they really are Christians, because I'm real sad to say, and Tom can testify to this as well. Sometimes pastors can be jealous of one another. And these two pastors welcomed him with open arms. He began to preach. And amongst the people that showed up to hear him was the local feudal lord, very powerful, influential person, Count Leonard Liechtenstein.

I like that name. Okay, yeah. And he, of course, is going to allow himself to be baptized under Hubnar. And so, bam, he's got total protection there because this count, and the Moravians, you know, have this long history going back to Jan Hus, you know, being Protestants. And so with his protection, nobody can touch him, at least for a while here.

And so you have at the time a Hutterite document, you know, relates this in 1526. Balthazar Hubnar, you notice his spelling's different, came to Nicholsburg and Moravia, began to teach and preach, but the people accepted his teaching. In a short time, many were baptized. Now, you remember what I tell you was the average time span for Anabaptist leader once they were baptized and began preaching.

Two years. He broke the record. He lasts three years. Okay. Over the next two years, he will baptize in Nicholsburg alone 2,000 people. Now, that is astonishing considering what we've already talked about here. You know, today, if somebody wants to be baptized, they don't have to worry too much about the after effects.

But this is a time in which, if you're baptized, you know that it is quite likely that somewhere down the road, you can be executed for it. You know, 2,000 converts. One thing you can say about it, though, you can be pretty certain that the people asking to be baptized really, really are serious about it.

Right? Can you imagine that church? What a church it must have been. Okay. And news of this spreads throughout Europe, and pretty soon Anabaptists from all over the place start immigrating towards Nicholsburg. Before it's over with, there are 12,000 Anabaptists. And they come from all over the place.

And this is a picture of Nicholsburg. Today. Beautiful little town there. Czech Republic is what we would call it today. Now, and there you have Count Leonard von Liechtenstein. And you have with his conversion to Liechtenstein, he gets fully behind Balthazar and he thinks, you know, this guy's an incredible pastor, he's an incredible, you know, intellectual leader as well.

I understand he's writing books. He needs a publisher. Okay, in those days, the publisher is the printer as well. And so, guess who's available? Christoph Froschauer. See in green? Who can tell me? Who was listening to previous lectures? Y'all remember the early days of the Reformation in Zurich?

And there's a real big controversy when a local printer allows his workers to eat sausages during Lent. Same guy. Froeschauer, who printed all of Zwingli's original works, like Conrad Grebel and Blayrock, breaks over the issue of infant baptism. And himself becomes an Anabaptist, which means he's kicked out of Zurich.

And so he's available, and Liechtenstein finds out about him and he says, Come over here, I want to hire you, and I want you to print Balthasar's works. And by the way, Balthasar, while they're in this brief, about two-year period that he's there, he's going to produce 18 major works, which are going to be very, very precious to the Anabaptists.

Now, by the way, Froeschauer really almost could do a talk on him because, but there's so little material about him, interestingly enough, since he's the printer. He printed stuff, but he doesn't really say that much about himself. Froeschauer was already famous because he was the author, not the author, but the one who printed and produced what was popularly known as the Froschire Bible.

And I learned a little bit about this, some things I did not know. You see, the Froschauer Bible comes out actually, parts of it's coming out simultaneous with Luther's Bible. Of course, you know, they didn't have all the books translated yet. And Luther's Bible comes out only partially completed.

And one of the things that was lacking in Luther's German Bible. Was the prophets, you know, the old Hebrew prophets. And you have two guys here, Ludwig Hetzer and Hans Denck. They were scholars of the Hebrew, and they are going to translate these Old Testament prophets. Froeschauer, and they do this, by the way, when they're in Worms, Germany.

Froeschauer learns of their translation, and he then includes it in his translation, which was basically Luther's Bible, but the Swiss-German changes were made. The Swiss-German had a very different dialect. Sort of like you say, you guys, it was y'all, come on now. All right. Okay, and it's not the same thing, but you get the idea.

It's a quite different dialect. And so he took Luther's translation, you know, changed the German to fit the Swiss German. And then he got a hold of these two individuals who had translated the prophets. And he comes out with a complete German, Swiss-German, translation of the Bible before the Lutheran Bible was complete.

And the funny thing about that is, then Luther. Or, I should say, the Lutherans. I'm not sure Luther was behind this part of it at all or not, but they would take the same translations of these two guys and they would use it for the Lutheran Bible. Now, why do I make an issue of this?

Well, because Hans Denk and Ludwig Hetzer were both Anabaptists. Now, I want you to think about this. Okay, you guys are heretics. In fact, they're going to execute Hetzner, although that's a long story there. And then Hans Dink dies of the plague. By the way, Hans Denck had previously been baptized by none other than, guess who?

Balthasar Hubmeier. Okay. But here you got two Anabaptists. They do a translation of the Old Testament prophets. Although they're considered to be heretics, get them out of here. Oh, we think your translation is wonderful. And we're going to use it, Swiss Reformers in their Bible, and we're going to use it, the Lutherans, in their Bible.

I just thought that was really interesting, you know, that that was the case. So, Froschaire, and by the way, Froscheier's prints of the Bible in Swiss German will henceforth be the Bible on the Anabaptists. In fact, I was reading up on the translation, and I think that some Mennonites.

Who continue to speak German, they were using the Froshire Bible. They had reprints of it as late as the 60s, 1960s, you know, still using that same Bible. So I guess to them, it's sort of like what the King James is, you know, to English Protestants. Okay, so anyway, so much for that.

Sorry, I took you on a little aside there. But you now have, you know, Hubmeier is preaching, thousands are coming to Christ, his books are being printed, they're being distributed all over Europe, and others are attracted to Nicholsburg and become sort of like the new Zion for the Anabaptists, and they actually have governmental protection and freedom there.

By the way, one of the interesting things, especially about the feudal lords in Eastern Europe, even in die-hard Roman Catholic territories, a lot of the times the feudal lords would take in Anabaptists. Anyone care to guess why? See, bottom line of the feudal lords is they got to make money for their estates to make it financially.

And if you get a group of Anabaptists working your land, boy, just think, if you own a whole bunch of land that was not productive and you're losing money hand over fist, and several thousand Amish show up and say, hey, we'd like to work on your land and we'll, you know, pay rent.

Would you turn that down? You get the drift? The Anabaptists were incredibly industrious, hardworking, and honest. And they loved them as workers on their lands, you see. And so a lot of times they would cover up the fact that they were Anabaptists, you know, Catholic authorities, got you Anabaptists.

Oh, no, I don't have a Anabaptist. We're around here, okay, but they're working their lands, you see. All right, well, anyway, you got the trouble with this is, I guess you could say, too successful because along with these Anabaptist refugees arriving in Nicholsburg, are prominent Anabaptist leaders of differing Anabaptist sects.

And you know, the Anabaptists have quite a variety of beliefs, right? And invariably, guess what the problem is? Arguments, disputes, lack of unity begins to set in. And one of the people they most famously is going to have a split with is Hans Hutt, who is the founder of the later Hutterites, right?

Major branch of the Anabaptists. And it'd take way too long to. All the differences, but basically, all of them, their problem usually was that they felt Hubmeier was just not radical enough. He's too moderate. Okay, and so they will argue over different things. The big thing they're arguing over is, you know, they're supposed to be paying what they call a tax, which is used by the local nobleman, Liechtenstein in this case, which he then used to hire troops to defend the realm.

Well, the Hutterites split, they felt this was immoral because they're total pacifists and they refused to pay the tax. And they criticized Hubmeier because Hubmeier, though an Anabaptist, was not your usual Anabaptist on the topic of using the sword, so to speak. Hubmeier, while he was what I would call a moderate pacifist, he felt that the state did have the authority to use the sword.

And if they want to raise taxes to pay the soldiers, you're, of course, benefiting by the protection that these secular authorities are providing for you, and we're supposed to be in submission to authority. According to Scripture, according to Hubmeier, therefore you should be willing to pay the tax.

Hans Hook, nope, nope, nope. You should not for any reason do this. Also, Hubmeier even goes so far as to say: if the war is a just war, say, like, you know, the Turks are attacking, and they're going to kill, they're going to rape, they're going to pillage the innocent, then if the authority says you should stand up and fight these guys, Hubmeier said, in that circumstance, it is even okay for you to obey the local authorities.

And oh, that was just anathema to the other Anabaptists who said there should be no reason ever to defend yourself. And so this is what the big split was. Liechtenstein was so upset with this Hutterite attitude that he tells them, hit the road. And so several thousand of them leave Nicholsburg.

And Liechtenstein, even at that, though, he is nice about it. He escorted them outside the realm, made sure they all had provisions, and even suggested who they might go to who would be happy to have them work on their lands. But you have a split. Now, what next happens, though, is overnight, Moravia falls to the control of Ferdinand.

And Ferdinand gets control over the entirety of Moravia. And he immediately finds out that Hubmeier is there at Nicholsburg. And you gotta remember, Ferdinand had been after Hubmeier since Volschut. And this also happens when there's a great split taking place there, and you know, it's talked about all over the area.

You know, there was a lot of controversy about it. And he said, ah, that Hubmeier, he's causing trouble again up there in Nicholsburg, my new realm. I want him arrested. And he calls in Liechtenstein, and we're not quite sure what pressure he put on Liechtenstein, but basically Liechtenstein is put in a corner where he has to agree to hand over Hubmeier.

So Hubmeier and his wife are arrested. They're taken to Vienna. And they're held in Kreitzenstein Castle. And this is actually a rebuild of the castle. It is at one point destroyed, just a ruin. Then it's reconstructed. Apparently, in the reconstructions, when they found that only known print of that I showed you starting off, though there's different variations of it, they found it there in the ruins of this castle.

And anyway, they've Put him in there and they're going to torture him again. Of course, now it's Catholics torturing him. And Hubmeier, we actually have a letter that he writes to his wife. It's very tender, very vulnerable, and he is deathly, deathly afraid that he will give in to the torture again.

And she basically writes him a letter, you know, along the lines Christ is sufficient, buck it up, and exhorts him to remain faithful. And he gets through the torture without recanting. And since they can't force him to recant, they put him on trial, they convict him, and they condemn him as a heretic.

And on March the 10, 1528, they bring him to the square, which now has a statue of him there. And they, of course, rub him down with sulfur and gunpowder. Of course, you know, he had an unkempt beard, hadn't been able to shave, and they just filled that beard with gunpowder.

You know, your face is a very, very sensitive part of your body. You know, us guys know that with razors, but it is. And the idea was when the flames would reach his beard, it just, you know, and just horribly, horribly burn him. And this was also like fireworks and exciting to the onlookers, you know, to do this.

To the victims. And so he's burned at the stake, March 10, 1528. And his wife is also going to refuse to recount. And she is going to be drowned by a stone being tied to rope around her neck, and she's thrown into the Danube River. Now, what is Hubmeier's place amongst the Reformers?

Well, according to his enemies, they would consider him to be the head and the most important of the Anabaptists. Some would dispute that, but he was certainly very important. One critic even called him the Anabaptist Pope. And the Council of Trent, you know, this reforming council, the Catholic Church reaction to the Reformation, you know, we've got to, you know, do something here because everybody's going Protestant.

They placed him in the same league as Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and Sweikenfeld. And his writings were added to, you know, the Catholics had this big list of works that you're forbidden to read. And all Hubmeier's works were on the list. You know, they didn't want you to read his stuff.

And I guess we'll end with his motto, which was he said this all the time. Throughout his sermons, he just popped this out. Truth is immortal. Or is the word of God? God, truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes into the Father except by me.

That's always going to win out. And that was his favorite motto. I guess we'll end with that. We only have three minutes, probably time for one question. Anyone? Did y'all on this side get this? Okay. Well, in that case, Jackson, would you please close us out in prayer?