George Blaurock: Image from Freeman Museem painting

Many people especially the Church leaders hated the Anabaptists, because they were rejecting their authority and were not submitting to their doctrine.  By October of 1525, Grebel, Manz and Blaurock had all been captured and sentenced to life in prison.  Weeks after their arrest they all escaped with a rope through a window, probably provided by a sympathetic friend. 

In 1526 Felix Manz was recaptured and executed by drowning in the Limmat River; because of all the severe persecution, the Anabaptists fled to Germany and Austria.

In 1529 Blaurock was recaptured and burned at the stake.  Grebel died of the plague.

In Austria a band of Tauferjäger (Anabaptist hunters) were sent out to capture Anabaptists.  So they fled to Moravia and by 1527 as many as 12000 Anabaptists had moved there. 

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