oom
was given to the pure word of the holy Gospel, but all its sincere
teachers and confessors were persecuted, and the deep darkness of the
Papacy still prevailed and poor simple men who could not help but feel
the manifest idolatry and false faith of the Papacy, in their
simplicity, alas! embraced whatever was called Gospel, and was not
papistic), we could not forbear testifying also against them publicly,
before all Christendom, that we have neither part nor fellowship with
their errors, be they many or few, but reject and condemn them, one and
all, as wrong and heretical, and contrary to the Scriptures of the
prophets and apostles, and to our Christian _Augsburg Confession_, well
grounded in God's Word." (1097, 7f.)

258. The Anabaptists.

The Anabaptistic movement originated in Zurich. Their leaders were
Conrad Grebel, Felix Manz, and the monk George of Chur (also called
_Blaurock_, Bluecoat), who was the first to introduce anabaptism. In
rapid succession Anabaptistic congregations sprang up in Swabia, Tyrol,
Austria, Moravia, etc. Because of their attitude toward the civil
government the Anabaptists were regarded as rebels and treated
accordingly. As early as January, 1527, some of them were executed in
Zurich. Persecution increased after the council held by Anabaptists in
the autumn of 1527 at Augsburg, which then harbored a congregation of
more than 1,100 "Apostolic Brethren," as the Anabaptists there called
themselves. In Germany the imperial mandate of September 23, 1529,
authorized the governments to punish Anabaptists, men and women of
every age, by fire or sword "without previous inquisition by spiritual
judges." They suffered most in Catholic territories. By 1531 about
1,000 (according to Sebastian Franck 2,000) had been executed in Tyrol
and Goerz.

The most prominent of the early Anabaptistic leaders and protagonists
were Hubmaier, Denk, Dachser, and Hans Hutt. Besides these we mention:
Ludwig Haetzer, published a translation of the prophets from the Hebrew,
1527, for which he was praised by Luther, was executed as adulterer
February 4, 1529, at Constance; Eitelhans Langenmantel, a former soldier
and son of the Augsburg burgomaster, expelled from the city October 14,
1527, impassionate in his writings against the "old and new Papists,"
_i.e._, Luther and others who adhered to the real presence of Christ in
the Lord's Supper, decapitated May 12, 1528, at Weissenburg; Christian
Entfelder, 1527 leader o