George Blaurock
Priest from Chur who, according to the Hutterite chronicle, received the first adult baptism at Zurich; the council’s records place it early in 1525. He was whipped and banished from Zurich in 1527 and burned in Tyrol about 1529.
The chronicle of the Hutterian Brethren calls him George of the house of Jacob, a priest from Chur, and says that he got the name Blaurock from the blue coat he wore. It tells that he came to Zurich and talked first with Huldrych Zwingli, was told of men more zealous than Zwingli, sought out Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz, asked Grebel to baptise him, and then baptised the others (Hutterite Chronicle pp. 34–35). A witness told the council in February 1525 that at a gathering in his house at Zollikon Blaurock had shared bread and wine with those who believed (Zurich council records hearing of early February 1525 (Egli no. 636; Kidd no. 212, p. 454)).
On 5 January 1527 the Zurich court had him whipped through the city and banished on oath, on pain of drowning if he returned (Zurich council records sentence of 5 January 1527 (Egli no. 1110, pp. 530–531)). The Martyrs Mirror reports under the year 1529 that he was seized in Tyrol and burned not far from Klausen, charged with leaving the priesthood, rejecting infant baptism, the mass and confession, and teaching that the mother of Christ is not to be invoked (Martyrs Mirror p. 430). See the First Anabaptists.
In the timeline
- 21 January 1525, firm dateThe First Anabaptists
In January 1525 former followers of Zwingli at Zurich begin to baptise adults on confession of faith. The council answers with banishment and, from 1526, with death by drowning; Felix Manz is drowned in 1527. The Schleitheim articles of that year state what they believed.