Page:Balthasar Hübmaier.djvu/190

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124
Balthasar Hübmaier
[1524-

same source they were not ill provided with money.[1] Why he should have chosen Zürich as a place of refuge it is not easy for us to guess, since in our ignorance of the motives that influenced him it seems now that this was the very last place that he would or should have chosen. Possibly he still relied on his former friendly relations with Zwingli, and did not yet comprehend how complete was the breach between them, nor know how deep was the resentment of the Swiss reformer. He must have known, or at any rate he very soon became aware, that the Zürich council had now adopted very severe measures against all Anabaptists, and especially those foreign to the canton, for every precaution of secrecy was taken by him and his friends.

About the middle of December he reached the city, and was given harbourage (contrary to law) by Henry Aberli, an Anabaptist preacher, and was by him taken to an inn called the Green Shield, kept

  1. "When he went away [from Zürich] he so worked on these good men's feelings that they gave him ten gold pieces. And yet either he or his wife had more gold than they had silver. . . . I see in him (I trust I am mistaken) nothing more than an immoderate thirst for money and notoriety." Jackson, Huldreich Zwingli, p. 256. With this compare the statement of Hübmaier himself in his recantation, p. 138 sq. In this issue of veracity, it seems most probable that Hübmaier spoke the truth, and Zwingli a slander.