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Balthasar Hübmaier
[1481–

transformation since his coming to Waldshut—he is now an evangelical, in the fullest significance of the term. Once for all he has taken his stand on the principle that for him the voice of Scripture is the only voice of authority, and consequently the only voice that he will obey.

A careful reading of the account of the disputation[1] confirms the idea that Zwingli did not at any time differ so much in doctrine from Grebel and Hübmaier, as in policy. He was in favour of proceeding slowly with the reform in Zürich, for many reasons. He had no objection to the radical programme as an ultimate goal,—he only objected to the attempt to realise it at once. He was probably calculating carefully just how fast the council could be persuaded to go, and just what changes the Zürich people would approve. The difference between them lay in the sphere of politics rather than in the domain of theology, but this the radicals could not see.


Excursus on the Spelling of Hübmaier's Name

It is no easy matter to decide how the name of the subject of this biography should be spelled. He lived


  1. The full account of this second disputation may be found in Zwingli's Op. i., 481 sq.