So, what happened to Hubmaier? I pick up his story here.
”After escaping the torturous punishment of Protestant reformer Ulrich Zwingli in Zurich, Hubmaier was invited to pastor a Baptist church in Nikolsburg, Moravia (modern-day Mikulov, Czech Republic. Within fourteen months of his arrival, the pastor-theologian had baptized between six and twelve thousand candidates who voluntarily professed their faith in Jesus Christ and desired membership within the local body of believers. In essence, Hubmaier proved his belief in an open society true. Nikolsburg, led by Lichtenstein nobility, was known for its religious freedom within the borders of the town. Catholics, Lutherans, Anabaptists, and other groups all co-existed peacefully.
The Roman Catholic hierarchy had seen enough as King Ferdinand called for the prompt arrest of the arch-heretic. If the Lichtenstein family did not comply, they would be removed from power and lose any hope of continuing some vestige of religious toleration. They thus acquiesced to the request and handed Hubmaier over to the Austrian authorities. His end was inevitable.
Repeatedly placed on the torture rack, Hubmaier never gave in to recantation, but instead, as an eyewitness expressed, was ‘fixed like an immovable rock in his heresy.’ On March 10, 1528, Hubmaier was brought to the place of execution where he was to be burned at the stake. While his wife of three years , Elsbeth, encouraged her husband to stand firm, Hubmaier was stripped of his clothes and his beard was laden with sulphur and gunpowder. The fire was lighted, his beard and hair was set ablaze, and he died.
Hubmaier was put to death on the formal charge of heresy and sedition. The former charge had to do with his repudiation of Roman Catholic doctrine, the latter with the supposed rejection of civil authority. But Hubmaier unquestionably believed in the right of the state to defend itself and the right of Christians to serve in positions of political prominence, as can be seen in his work On the Sword, published the same year as his arrest. However, Hubmaier denied that the state has any right to interfere in religious matters. To the Catholics in power, this one lapse was seen as a referendum on the entire constitution of the Empire and thetefore must be publicly suppressed. Hubmaier paid the ultimate price for a belief that today is considered foundational to much of Western society. The road to religious liberty was largely paved through a small town on the Austrian-Czech border by a little-known theological giant.”
(Christian Jihad, pp. 177-178)
