Page:Balthasar Hübmaier.djvu/321

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CHAPTER VIII

THE SUPPRESSION OF THE MORAVIAN ANABAPTISTS

HÜBMAIER'S death was popularly likened to that of John Hus, and like the Bohemian leader, he was regarded as an innocent martyr—we have the word of his friend Faber for that. The evangelical Christians mourned the loss of a man of light and leading; Catholics rejoiced that one of their most formidable opponents had been for ever silenced. The testimonies borne to the rank of Hübmaier as an evangelical leader, praises of his learning and eloquence, are numerous, emphatic, and convincing. Kessler spoke of him as "the αρχικαταβαπτιστα of Nikolsburg," and he probably imagined that to be Greek, and to mean "chief Anabaptist." Vadian, the burgomaster of St. Gall, says that he was eloquentissimum sane et humanissimum virum (assuredly a very eloquent and cultivated man). Bullinger describes him as wohl beredet

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