First then, because already, at sundry times, whole troops of these
deluded creatures from Zollikon and the neighboring country, had come
into the city, clad in sackcloth and ashes, and girt about with ropes,
and cried out in the public squares: "Wo to Zurich!" and because a
so-called confession of one of their number, a former monk, who usually
went by the name of George Blaurock (Bluecoat) and whom his disciples
hailed as a second Paul, was spread far and wide and made a great
noise, the government ordered a conference to be held with them at the
council-house. The following are the literal contents of Blaurock's
Confession: "I am a door. He who enters by me will find pasture, but he
who enters elsewhere, is a thief and a murderer, as it is written: I am
a good shepherd; a good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep; so I
also give my body and life and soul for my sheep, my body to the tower
and my life to the sword, or fire, or the wine-press, where it will be
pressed out of the flesh as the blood of Christ on the cross. I am a
beginner of baptism and the bread of the Lord, along with my chosen
brethren, Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz. Therefore, the Pope with all
his followers is a thief and a murderer; in like manner, Luther with
all his followers is a thief and a murderer; Zwingli also and Leo Judæ
with all their followers are thieves and murderers, until they make
this same confession also. I have asked my gracious Lords of Zurich,
and still ask them, for leave to dispute with Ulrich Zwingli and Leo
Judæ; I may not obtain it, but yet I await the hour, which my Heavenly
Father has ordained therefor."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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