Balthasar Hubmaier

German church reformer and religious scholar

• Born: c. 1480
• Birthplace: Friedberg, near Augsburg, Bavaria (now in Germany)
• Died: March 10, 1528
• Place of death: Vienna, Austria

As an evangelical reformer, Hubmaier played a significant role in influencing Anabaptist beliefs, which include the believer’s baptism, the refusal to baptize infants, and the role of free will as a catalyst for salvation. He also wrote one of the earliest pleas for religious tolerance.

Early Life

Balthasar Hubmaier (BAHL-tah-zahr HEWP-mi-ehr) was born five miles east of Augsburg. Scholars assume that his social class originated with the peasantry, yet he was well educated. After attending the Latin school in Augsburg, he entered the University of Freiburg in May of 1503, where he received his master’s degree under theologian Johann Eck around 1505.

Ordained a priest in 1510, Hubmaier received his doctorate in theology from the University of Ingolstadt in 1512. He then became vice-rector of the university and then a preacher at the cathedral of Regensberg, playing a role in the expulsion of the city’s Jews and promoting the cathedral as a pilgrimage center for local miracles.

Life’s Work

With his adult baptism by Swiss religious leader Konrad Grebel in 1525, Hubmaier established himself as a radical Protestant reformer. His retreat from Catholicism emerged around 1522, after he began to study Paul’s epistles in detail, conversed with other theologians, and witnessed the early stages of the Reformation.

Hubmaier was influenced by other reformers, such as Desiderius Erasmus, Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, and the circle of early Anabaptists. Yet Hubmaier remained firmly individualistic, clearly differing from his peers on some issues. Having taken a position as a priest in the small town of Waldshut, near Zürich, Hubmaier forged a friendship with Zwingli and others, who had already begun to implement religious reform. Within this circle of friends, he privately debated the primacy of infant baptism, and at this point both Zwingli and Hubmaier began to express doubts about its efficacy. They criticized publicly the veneration of Catholic images and the sacrament of the Eucharist, especially at the Zürich disputation held in October of 1523.

Written in 1524 for a dispute among Waldshut clergymen, Hubmaier’s “Eighteen Theses” (1976) reveals the evolution of his theology. His work sits squarely with that of other Protestant reformers of the era, particularly Zwingli. Hubmaier argued that faith alone brought salvation, that the Eucharist was a ceremony of remembrance, that church ceremony should be abandoned, and that promises of chastity likely were not kept. For his role in a 1524 peasant uprising and the Austrian attempt to re-Catholicize the community, Hubmaier left Waldshut.

At Schaffhausen in the Swiss confederacy, Hubmaier wrote his theses against Johann Eck, his former teacher, and wrote his well-known plea for tolerance, “Concerning Heretics and Those Who Burn Them” (1976). In this work he referred to inquisitors as heretics and condemned the practice of killing Turks and so-called heretics by sword and fire rather than patience and prayer. Even to a blind person, he argued, the burning of heretics was an invention of the devil. Still on the run, he chose Zürich as a possible safe haven. By this time, however, Zwingli had expressed his distaste for Hubmaier’s disavowal of infant baptism, as it had “destroyed the peace of all Christians.” Arrested soon after his arrival in Zürich, Hubmaier not only was forced to debate Zwingli but also was tortured on the rack and deprived of food, except bread, and water. He renounced his beliefs to save his life, but recanted after having left Zürich: “I may err I am man but heretic I not be.” His wife, Elisabeth Hügline, played an important role in his struggle against those who sought to persecute him. Hubmaier was known for concluding his writings with the phrase “truth is immortal.”

Hubmaier’s most influential portion of his life was spent at Nikolsburg, a town in Moravia (now in the Czech Republic) that was well known for its religious diversity and toleration by the Moravian noblemen, the lords of Liechtenstein. It was here in 1526 that Hubmaier wrote more than seventeen major pamphlets and participated in large-scale adult baptisms.

Among his more important treatises, written in 1525, was “On the Christian Baptism of Believers” (1976), which described the believer’s baptism as “a public confession and testimony of an inner faith.” Hubmaier held that baptism should never come before faith, and, therefore, he argued against the baptism of infants, a practice he believed to be a harmful deception and one that was without biblical support. Although he considered baptism important, as it reflected one’s commitment to Christ and as it was a promise to God to live according to his word, he believed that it did not save the individual or improve one’s standing before God. In fact, Hubmaier argued that before and after baptism humans were poor and miserable sinners. Not being baptized did not damn a Christian, according to Hubmaier; much worse was not believing. His 1527 treatise “On Free Will” (1976) established his clear differences from Zwingli and Luther as he argued for the human role in salvation and the freedom of human choice in dictating one’s salvation. According to Hubmaier, the responsibility for salvation rested in humans, not in God, as only humans decide whether to sin or not.

In comparison with some religious reformers in Moravia, his theology might be considered moderate; unlike Hans Hut, a radical reformer, he did not deny civic authority or disavow arms and taxes. He held a positive view on the role of government in society, and his 1527 tract “On the Sword” (1976) argued against “certain brothers” who held that “Christians should not sit in judgment, nor bear the sword.” Unlike some Anabaptists, he rejected the doctrine of nonresistance and the notion of community of goods, although he advocated sharing one’s wealth with the less fortunate.

Hubmaier died a martyr in the sixteenth century reform movement. Disliked by the secular authorities for his thwarting of political authority as well as his religious protests against Catholicism, and spurned by numerous Protestants who found his views on infant baptism disarming, Hubmaier was considered a potent enemy of religion. Ferdinand I of Austria began the formal process of condemnation, and Hubmaier was brought to Vienna in early July on charges of “doctrine mischief, ill-will, disturbance and rebellion.” Hubmaier was held at a local castle and interrogated by old colleagues, including theologian Johannes Faber, the vicar-general to the archbishop of Constance and called the hammer of heretics. Hubmaier’s words survive in the lengthy interview notes recorded over the course of several days. In these notes, Hubmaier thanks the king and argues that this was a great chance for him to be proved wrong.

In January of 1528, Hubmaier sent a formal statement of his beliefs to Ferdinand, hoping to show that he was “not stiff-necked.” Scholars debate whether this statement reflected his actual beliefs or whether it was an attempt to appear conciliatory in the face of possible death. Scholars have argued that Hubmaier recanted when persecuted by Zwingli earlier. Although Hubmaier did not appear heretical on issues of purgatory, free will, justification of faith, and the saints, and he made every effort to align himself with Catholicism, even offering to put off debate of his two controversial articles until a Church council could be called, he differentiated himself from orthodoxy with respect to infant baptism and the nature of the Eucharist. On March 10, 1528, Hubmaier was burned at the stake in Vienna, Austria. His wife was drowned three days later in the Danube River.

Significance

Hubmaier was a prolific author and one of the few evangelical reformers who received a doctorate in theology. His theological message spread down the Danube into Moravia, where the Moravian Brethren, later known as the Hutterites, emerged. Although Anabaptism was still in its infancy and scholars debate whether Hubmaier was an Anabaptist, his theology clearly influenced Anabaptist doctrines, especially with respect to believers’ baptism and the voluntary church in which humans dictate their role in salvation.

Although Hubmaier himself did not practice perfect toleration, his pleas for toleration and his untimely death provide ample opportunity to reflect on the ways in which government and society dictated religious orthodoxy in the sixteenth century.

Bibliography

Bergsten, Torgsten. Balthasar Hubmaier: Anabaptist Theologian and Martyr. Translated by Irwin J. Barnes and William R. Estep. Edited by William R. Estep. Valley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press, 1978. An excellent, detailed biography of Hubmaier, with critiques of scholarship and original research.

Estep, William R., ed. Anabaptist Beginnings (1523-1533): A Source Book. Bibliotheca Humanistica & Reformatorica 16. Nieuwkoop, the Netherlands: B. de Graaf, 1976. Contains translations of Hubmaier’s major works. Includes a bibliography.

Mabry, Eddie Louis. Balthasar Hubmaier’s Doctrine of the Church. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1994. Explores Hubmaier’s understanding of Church doctrines, including salvation, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.

Mabry, Eddie Louis. Balthasar Hubmaier’s Understanding of Faith. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1998. Addresses Hubmaier’s understanding of faith and how it is reflected in medieval theological traditions and Anabaptist traditions.

Pipkin, H. Wayne, and John H. Yoder, eds. Balthasar Hubmaier: Theologian of Anabaptism. Scottdale, Pa.: Herald Press, 1989. Thorough collection of Hubmaier’s writings, with introductory essays that prove especially useful.

Vedder, Henry C. Balthasar Hubmaier: The Leader of the Anabaptists. 1905. Reprint. New York: AMS Press, 1971. An older biography of Hubmaier that presents still-useful and interesting analysis and photographs from the surrounding area.