was inscribed; Lord Arkleb of Boskowitz, Chancellor of Moravia, to whom was dedicated the treatise On the Sword; Lord Burian, of Kornitz, whose name heads The Form of the Supper; Frederick of Silesia, the patron of The Second Book on the Will; Jan Dubcansky, to whom the preface of The Form of Baptism is addressed in such terms as to make it certain that Hübmaier had great hopes of his adhesion to Anabaptism.
Here was a new experience indeed for the Anabaptists! Everywhere they had been despised, persecuted, counting themselves fortunate if barely permitted to live: here they not only found themselves tolerated, but saw their rulers actually embracing their faith, publicly avowing it, and using their wealth and power to promote the preaching of a pure gospel. The golden age seemed to have come for them—pity it should have endured for so short a time! Little more than a twelvemonth was Hübmaier permitted to carry on this work, but into that space he condensed the labours of many a lifetime. So great was the progress of the Anabaptists that within this single year not fewer than six thousand persons were added to
