and eight of the leading citizens to the tender mercies of Austria. These terms were of course refused, and there was nothing left but an appeal to force. There had all along been a Catholic minority in the town, to whom the reforms introduced had been most obnoxious, and now they were emboldened to declare that they meant to surrender the city to the Austrians. Hübmaier felt that all was lost, and, with some of the more timid or more deeply compromised citizens, fled. The Austrian forces occupied the city December 5th, and on the 17th the Vicar-General of the Bishop of Constance, John Faber, entered the city and celebrated the mass. After an interregnum of two years or more, Waldshut was thus forcibly restored to the Catholic faith, and we hear no more of reformation there.[1]
Hübmaier had been ill during these last trying weeks,—so ill that he described himself as sick unto death (ein todtkranker Mann),—and his departure was made in the utmost haste. As we know from a letter of Zwingli's, his wife accompanied him, and if we may accept another statement from the
- ↑ Kessler, Sabbata, i., 350; Egli, Actensammlung, No. 911.
