20 Facts About Balthasar Hubmaier

Balthasar Hubmaier was an influential German Anabaptist leader.

Balthasar Hubmaier was one of the most well-known and respected Anabaptist theologians of the Reformation.

Balthasar Hubmaier returned to Freiburg in 1507 and received both a bachelor's and a master's degree in 1511.

Balthasar Hubmaier left the University of Ingolstadt for a pastorate of the Roman Catholic church at Regensburg in 1516.

Balthasar Hubmaier held that even where the Scriptures appear to contain contradictions, both truths are to be held simultaneously.

Balthasar Hubmaier initially went to Schaffhausen in order to find protection against the Prince.

Ten men, four of whom Balthasar Hubmaier requested, were present for the disputation.

Balthasar Hubmaier's criticism went further by placing Zwingli's reversal on the issue against Zwingli's reform against the Catholics.

Balthasar Hubmaier was then allowed to leave Switzerland and journeyed to Nikolsburg in Moravia.

In Nikolsburg, Balthasar Hubmaier's preaching soon made converts to Anabaptism out of the group of Zwinglians who lived in the area.

Political fortunes turned and Ferdinand, to whom Balthasar Hubmaier had already become an enemy while in Waldshut, gained control of Bohemia, thus placing Balthasar Hubmaier in Ferdinand's jurisdiction.

Balthasar Hubmaier was more conservative than some Anabaptists, such as Hans Denck and Leonhard Schiemer, who went on to deny the doctrine of the Trinity, or avoided emphasis of the doctrine similar to Menno Simons.

Much of Balthasar Hubmaier's work centered on the issue of baptism because of the polemical nature of the issue in distinguishing the emerging Anabaptist movement from Zwinglian or other magisterial reform movements.

The importance of this point in Balthasar Hubmaier's theology is demonstrated by the fact that the first half of his catechism is reserved for clarification of the issue.

Balthasar Hubmaier further rejected the Catholic doctrine of baptism insofar as it was ex opere operato and viewed the rite as a symbol of entrance into and accountability to the community of faith.

Balthasar Hubmaier believed that Jesus the Christ was the only sinless being without an earthly Father.

Balthasar Hubmaier's writings dealt a little with the subject of women.

Balthasar Hubmaier compared God's discipline of his children with a teacher whipping a student, or a man beating his wife.

Balthasar Hubmaier believed that restored men and women had a free spirit, which was not affected by the Fall of Adam.

Balthasar Hubmaier made reference to the Church Fathers frequently in his works, often to show the historical nature of his arguments.