Hans Hut

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Hans Hut (c. 1490–1527-12-06) was a very active Anabaptist in Southern Germany and Austria.

[edit] Life

Hut was born in Haina near Römhild, south Thuringia and became a travelling bookseller. Took part in the decisive battle of Thuringia during the Peasants' War on 1525-05-15 at Bad Frankenhausen. After the battle he managed to flee and traveled throughout the region.

On Pentecost 1526 he was baptized in Augsburg by Hans Denck, who had previously been baptized by Balthasar Hubmaier. He expected the 1528 coming of the Kingdom of God in the form of a violent apocalyptic imposition of the rule of Christ. Therefore he curtailed his extensive missionary activity to await Pentecost 1528 and be among the 144,000 elect. He baptised not only with water, but sealed the baptism with a sign of the cross on the forhead.

His mission activity extended from the Thuringian-French border in the north to Tyrol and Moravia and in his mission journeys he often seemed to seek former Peasants' War participants. His preaching was strongly influenced by Thomas Muentzer's mysticism. Gottfried Sebaß, an expert on Hut's biography and theology, calls him simply "Muentzer's heir."

In August 1527 Hans Hut was a key participant at the Martyrs' Synod in Augsburg, a gathering of 60 Anabatists from the surrounding region, trying to come to a common understanding about various teachings. When the Augsburg town council learned of the meeting, they attempted to arrest the group. Hut was arrested along with the major Augsburg Anabaptists. Though the arrest did not end Hut's teaching, after a trial he and the others were sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. Hans Hut was tortured horribly, and accidentally died as a result of a fire which caused his asphixiation in the Augsburg prison on 1527-12-06. The next day, the authorities sentenced his dead body to death and burned him.

[edit] Works

• Von dem geheimnis der |tauf, baide des zaichens und des Wesens, ein anfang eines rechten wahrhaftigen christlichen Lebens (1527)

• Ein christlicher Underricht, wie göttliche geschrift vergleicht und geurtailt solle werden. Aus kraft des heiligen geists und zeuknus der dreitail christlichen Glaubens sambt iren verstand (1527)

[edit] Further reading

• Gottfried Sebaß: Müntzers Erbe. Werk, Leben und Theologie des Hans Hut. Gütersloh 2002.
• Werner O. Packull: Mysticism and the Early South German - Austrian Anabaptist Movement. Scottdale 1977.
• Hans-Jürgen Goertz: Die Täufer. Geschichte und Deutung. München 1988, 2. Auflage
• Gottfried Sebaß: Das Zeichen der Erwählten : zum Verständnis der Taufe bei Hans Hut- in: Umstrittenes Täufertum : 1525 - 1975; neue Forschungen(Hrsg. Hans-Jürgen Goertz) , 1975, S. 138 - 164.