Nevertheless, then as always, the council gave the victory to Zwingli.
The formal hearing seems to have been held January 13, 1526, when (according to Zwingli) the council took the ground that Hübmaier should either depart from the city or recant his doctrine. The official record represents him as declaring that he accepted the validity of infant baptism and promised thereafter to abstain from rebaptising.[1] In the meantime (January 3rd) messengers had arrived from the Emperor and Ferdinand, demanding that Hübmaier be delivered to them for punishment, but twice the council had refused to grant this request. Zwingli boasts of this as an evidence of extreme liberality, and he is probably entitled to make much of the fact; but possibly it was not an exceptional liberality in this case, so much as the pursuance of the regular policy of the Swiss cantons. It may be conjectured that knowledge of these demands, and fear that he might be surrendered, had much to do with inducing Hübmaier to moderate his statements.
At this time he seems to have been treated with
- ↑ Egli, Actensammlung, p. 431.
