Page:Balthasar Hübmaier.djvu/237

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1528]
At Nikolsburg
167

The schism thus produced among the Anabaptists and the disturbances caused by Hut's preaching became very serious. Some of Hübmaier's most prominent disciples were carried away by this fanaticism, including Oswald Glaidt and other preachers at Nikolsburg. Even Göschel seems to have gone over to Hut; of all the former evangelists, Spitalmaier is the only prominent one who is known to have stood by Hübmaier without wavering. Something was needful to be done to check the movement, and first of all a conference or disputation was tried. The leaders met in Bergen, but the discussion left them farther apart than before. Then the Lichtenstein nobles intervened, and summoned all the preachers to the castle at Nikolsburg, where the whole subject was thoroughly threshed out in their presence. By this time the Nikolsburg preachers had all seen more clearly whither Hut's teaching was tending, and they joined Hübmaier in defending the authority of civil government, its right to bear the sword, and the duty of Christians to pay taxes for its support. Whether the question of the community of goods was also discussed is not clear. Hut stoutly