This page has been validated.
78
Balthasar Hübmaier
[1524
Therefore I openly confess before God and all men, that I then became a Doctor and preached some years among you and elsewhere, and yet had not known the way unto eternal life. Within two years has Christ for the first time come into my heart to thrive. I have never dared to preach him so boldly as now, by the grace of God. I lament before God that I so long lay ill of this sickness. I pray him truly for pardon; I did this unwittingly, wherefore I write this. I wonder if your preachers now will say, I am now of another disposition than formerly, that I confess and condemn all doctrine and preaching, such as were mine among you and elsewhere, that is not grounded in the divine word. And if they cast at you the holy councils, believe it not; men will deceive you, as they have taunted us a year and a day, by promising to hold a council, but it does not appear. They know well that a single woman—such as the pious Christian woman, Argula von Stauff[1]—knows more of the divine word than such red-capped ones will ever see and lay hold of. Yield yourselves to God, trust him, build on his word, and he will not forsake you. Whether he gives a short life or a long, you will have eternal life yonder. And should men call you heretics, be joyful, for your reward will be great in heaven. The sophist-heads at once called us heretics, but since they make us heretics in their writings, they let the stone lie
- ↑ Of Argula von Grumbach, born Freiin (baroness) von Stauff, little is known save what may be gathered from several references to her in Hübmaier's writings, and a single entry in the Chronicles of Regensburg. She was evidently a pious woman of high rank, well read in the Scriptures, and an ardent promoter of the new evangelical doctrine. She rebuked the Regensburg council for their lukewarmness in the work of reformation, though Cardinal Campeggio praised them highly for their course.
