Ludwig Hetzer

c.1500-1529. Anabaptist reformer, translator, and hymnwriter. Born at Thurgau, he matriculated at Basle (1517). From the chaplaincy at Wädenswil he came to Zurich, and wrote advocating an iconoclasm like that of Carlstadt. Disillusioned with Zwingli's caution, Hetzer, Grebel, and Manz established their own conventicles. Hetzer was expelled from Zurich (1525), led a group of Anabaptists at Augsburg, was banished to Basle, then stayed with Capito in Strasbourg (1526), where he was joined by Hans Denck. The three were gifted Hebraists, and Hetzer busied himself translating the Prophets. Expelled again, he went to Worms, and there published with Denck's help Alle Propheten verdeutscht (1527), the earliest Protestant version of the Prophets in German. By this time tending to anti-Trinitarian spiritualism, he was accused of adultery (1528) and beheaded at Constance. He composed hymns which were highly prized by the Hutterite* tradition.