History: The Heritage of Our Baptist Faith

but the townspeople refused to permit this, He was fearful that the people might be punished for defending him so he withdrew from the town. When fleeing from the Austrian army in 1525 , he sought refuge in Zurich with Zwingli who had at one time been his friend. Now, however, he was his enemy. By the end of 1527 he was seized by the order of the Emperor and conveyed to Vienna. He was kept in prison for three months while some of the Roman theologians tried to get him to recant. On March 10, 1528, he was takers through the streets of the city in a wagon and red hot pincers were thrust in his flesh on the way to the scaffold. On the public square in Vienna, he was burned, meet­ ing his death with a martyr steadfastness. His faithful wife who encouraged him to remain true was drowned in the Danube a few days later. It will be of interest to note that as an Anabaptist, Hubmaier insisted on, and paid a price for his teachings, including: (1) the separation of church and state; (2) the authority of the Bible; and (3) the baptism of believers. Roger Williams came to Boston in 1631 to escape persecution by Archbishop Laud. His hope for freedom in this land did not materialize as he was banished from the Massachusetts colony because of his views on the separation of church and state. When he was banished by the Christians, he was accepted by the heathen Indians who took him in. Williams, though only a Baptist for a short time, eventually became a "seeker". He was opposed to the theocratic government of the Puritans in New England. Following his banishment from the colony and his acceptance by the Indians, he interceded for the colonists when the Indian nations of New England banded together to destroy the colonists. He bought Rhode Island from the Indians and established a colony there in 1638 and became the author of religious liberty in the United States. Josh Billings is reported to have said "The Puritans sought their own freedom, but they saw to it that others did not have theirs." Especially be­ tween 1642 and 1649, those who dared to be Baptists in New England suffered extreme persecution. Many of them were haled before the Salem court for refusal to baptise infants. There are three men who particularly stand out as stalwarts for the faith in those days.