"Therefore, we pray you, gracious Lords, to permit one or two men at our cost to enter your city with a sufficient assurance of a safe return, since they durst not travel every road for the sake of the Divine Word, because Master Ulric himself has not hitherto shown them much favor. These shall point out on our behalf all the Scriptures, so that every man may thoroughly perceive whether he has been right or wrong in his views of them. Oh God! we desire nothing else than truth and righteousness, in which by the grace of God we wish to continue till death. Then, as we have always declared to you, gracious Lords, we will pledge our bodies and lives to Your Worships and to the Word of God and Divine righteousness, gracious Lords! Let the matter, for God's sake, come before a public conference, as in the case of images and the mass. Believe us truly; we wish to do what is right. May God help us thereto! We hope and know that the truth of the Divine Word will come clearly to light, and Your Worships will be content with us. Give us, therefore, for the sake of God and his mercy, a favorable answer."
Upon this, Zwingli himself requested the government to institute a public conference, and the order for it was drawn up on Monday, November 6th, 1525, with a full and free safe-conduct for all those, who thought themselves in a condition to defend their variant doctrines. Zwingli, Leo Judæ and Caspar Grossman, people's priests at the Dominican church, were selected as champions to make reply; and Wolfgang Joner, abbot at Cappel, the Commander Schmied, Sebastian Hofmeister of Schaffhausen, and Vadianus of St. Gall, as presidents for the occasion. The Anabaptists appeared in numbers under their leaders, Manz, Grebel and Blaurock; many of them had come from distant countries; the department of Grueningen, at the command of the government, sent thither twelve deputies. Scarcely had the conference opened at the Council House, in presence of the Two Hundred and a crowd of hearers, who filled up all the chamber, when a newly arrived troop of fanatics pressed in with the cry: "O Zion! O Zion! Rejoice O Jerusalem!" and threw everything into confusion. To prevent such disturbances and to obtain more room, the assembly removed to the church of the Great Minster. Here the battle continued for three days, from morning till late in the evening. Speech was denied to no one: access to none, who wished to hear. Public opinion grew more favorable to the people's priests. On the third day the attacks of the Anabaptists became weaker; their self-confidence vanished. Only one of them, who had repeatedly asserted that he could end the contest with one word, but had still been held back by his associates, who themselves thought him too wild, broke through at last and placed himself, with an inflamed visage, and all the motions of a conjurer, before the people's priest, and cried out: "Zwingli, I conjure thee, by the living God, to tell us the truth." The latter answered very calmly: "That shalt thou hear. Thou art as clownish and seditious a peasant, and as simple as any Our Lords have in the canton." A universal roar of laughter followed, and the act was closed.
The government then issued a public statement concerning the events of this controversy, which, along with other things, concluded with the following words: "After the Anabaptists and their followers have disputed three days, from morning till evening, in our Council House and the Great Minster, in our presence and that of a large crowd of men and women, and every Baptist has spoken all he had to say, without let or hindrance, it has at last been found from the most powerful arguments, based upon the Word of God, that Master Ulric Zwingli and his associates have fairly conquered the Anabaptists, annihilated re-baptism, and upheld the baptism of infants. It has also been clearly evident, during the entire conference, that the creators, defenders, sectarians and wranglers of Anabaptism have played their part in a wicked, bold, and shameless spirit, in that they, a sect and conspiracy against the commandment of God, have undertaken and devised means to bring us over to them, in their contempt of all temporal authority and planting of disobedience, and destruction of love toward our fellow-men; for they think themselves better than other Christians and without sin, as all their words and works, and even their behavior plainly show." Subjoined was an order forbidding any further cases of re-baptism on pain of a fine, or threats of severer punishment, if that did not prove sufficient. Manz, Grebel, Blaurock and the other leaders of the sect were brought before the Council and earnestly exhorted to confess their errors, but in vain. They were thrown into the Tower. Whilst there, means were found to compose an address, which was soon widely spread and roused up the most stubborn of their followers to new resistance. Hence, when the landvogt Berger made known the edict of the government in Grueningen, many of the inhabitants publicly declared they would not submit to it. He then summoned more than a hundred of the most zealous men and women to the castle. Here the twelve deputies, who were at the conference in Zurich assured them with one accord, that Zwingli had conquered, begged them to renounce their errors, reasoned with them, along with the landvogt, the whole day, and when at last each was asked for his decision, thirteen yielded; all the others persevered in their opposition.
Meanwhile, the prisoners in Zurich led the government to hope, that if their liberty were restored, they would behave peacefully. It was granted; but immediately they scattered themselves through the canton, and the flame broke out anew. This was also increased by Hubmeyer, who after the taking of Waldshut by the Austrians in December, 1525, came to Zurich as a fugitive, and, having likewise held a conference with Zwingli, Leo Judæ and Myconius, in presence of the Councils, declared himself overcome and ready for a recantation from the pulpit of the Frauminster Church. Instead of which, to the great surprise of the congregation, he began again to advocate rebaptism. Zwingli, who occupied the second pulpit, on the opposite side, interrupted him at once and brought him to silence.[8] He excused himself afterwards by saying, that he knew not what he did, the devil must have been in him, and then once more recanted in the Frauminster and the church at Gossau, in the department of Grueningen.
But now the lovers of order and quiet were everywhere fully aroused. The government was universally censured for its forbearance, and most of all in the department of Grueningen itself. The landvogt was importuned for severer measures. "It is truly a great thing"--he wrote to the Council--"that you, gracious Lords, have for the third time caused a conference to be held with these people, who speak openly of all the conferences and your desire to do justice, in the most insolent fashion, in spite of your edict, and are not willing to acknowledge they have done wrong. Hence the magistracy have written and prayed the Council and advised, that they come together again on Tuesday, to take the business boldly in hand, for it is publicly declared: 'I hear indeed, if My Lords only receive five pounds, it matters little what the Baptists talk or say concerning all the conferences and edicts; they do no wrong.' In this way great injustice will be done you. Therefore do not take this amiss from me; for the magistracy with your assistance would have passed a far different judgment on the Baptists, and plans would have been formed, which would have produced peace, quiet and obedience. The fines would have been laid on the great disturbers, strife-makers, hedge-preachers and baptisers, and not on poor, simple, miserable men, not on women and children, of whom many have been deluded; yet these are fined as heavily as the chief actors in the play. Henceforth the business must be taken in hand boldly; you will not find me wanting."
In fact the government was now fully alive to the emergency. As soon as any one was convicted of having repeated baptism, he was seized and thrown into prison. The prisons became crowded; Manz, Grebel, Blaurock and fifteen others were confined in the so-called New Tower.[9] Their sentence was severe: "Nothing shall be given them but bread and water, and they shall lie on straw and thus be left to die in the Tower. Let it then be the business of every one to forsake his projects and errors and be obedient."
The extravagances of the Anabaptists of St. Gall, which were then carried to the maddest extreme, might really have contributed to the severity of this sentence. Grebel, during an earlier sojourn there, had sown the seed, of which these were the ripened fruits. They burnt the Bible, because it said: "The letter kills." They sported with puppets; led about dancing apes tied to a string; wept childishly, and were comforted with apples, and cast off all their clothes, because they must become like little children, of whom alone was the kingdom of heaven. Yea, in the end, one of them, Leonard Schucker, desired the death of his brother, because God had commanded it. He drew his sword and struck off his head in the presence of his father and all his sisters.
Thus, at last, the fruits showed, in a more lively manner than all the learned conferences, what was to be thought of the dogmas of this sect; and yet the prisoners in Zurich still had secret friends. An opportunity was given them to escape by night, which they used, and once more spread through the canton, pretending that the Angel of the Lord had delivered them from prison, as he formerly had Paul and Silas. But now the pious jugglery came to a close. A law was passed, that whoever, belonging to the canton, would hereafter rebaptise an adult, he should be drowned without mercy. Nevertheless it was done by Blaurock and Manz, as well as by Filk and Raimann, two natives of the department of Grueningen They were all apprehended. Blaurock, because a foreigner, was whipped with rods and banished from the canton; the other three were drowned in the Limath on the 5th of January, 1525. They persevered to the last in their stubbornness, or constancy, to maintain which Manz was even encouraged by his aged mother. Their behavior left no impression on the people, who were sick of these foul doings.
The great length of the sentence delivered shows how anxious the government was to be justified in its acts, and in deed the public weal seemed, after what had gone before, to demand such an issue. Of Grebel's end no report has reached us. But to later times has been left the problem of the thorough instruction of the people, toleration in matters of faith, contempt where morals, and punishment, sore punishment, where the sanctity of the law has been invaded.