Absurd Endings – Sonny Bono and Felix Manz – Today in History

On this day in 1998, Sonny Bono, the pop singer-turned-politician, was killed when he struck a tree while skiing in South Lake Tahoe, California. A sad and absurd end.

And in an another absurd ending, the Swiss Anabaptist reformer Felix Manz was drowned in punishment for preaching adult (re-)baptism by immersion at the age of 29 in the year 1527. In other words, he was drowned because he believed that only adults ahould be baptised by fully immersing them in water.  Amazing.  Manz’s death made him the first Protestant in history to be martyred at the hands of other Protestants.  Wikipedia’s account of his death follows.

On 7 March 1526, the Zürich council had passed an edict that made adult re-baptism punishable by drowning. On 5 January 1527, Felix Manz became the first casualty of the edict, and the first Swiss Anabaptist to be martyred at the hands of other Protestants. While Manz stated that he wished “to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, obey the Word, and follow in His footsteps, to unite with these by baptism, and to leave the rest in their present conviction”, Zwingli and the council accused him of obstinately refusing “to recede from his error and caprice”. At 3:00 p.m., as he was led from the Wellenburg to a boat, he praised God and preached to the people. A Reformed priest went along, seeking to silence him, and hoping to give him an opportunity to recant. Manz’ brother and mother encouraged him to stand firm and suffer for Jesus’ sake. He was taken by boat onto the River Limmat. His hands were bound and pulled behind his knees and a pole was placed between them. He was executed by drowning in Lake Zürich on the Limmat. His alleged last words were, “Into thy hands, O God, I commend my spirit.” His property was confiscated by government of Zürich, and he was buried in the St. Jakobs cemetery.

Felix Manz left written testimony of his faith, an eighteen-stanza hymn, and was apparently the author of Protestation und Schutzschrift (a defense of Anabaptism presented to the Zürich council).