In Zurich, when a baby was baptized, he or she was considered to be member of the state church and a citizen of the city. After reading and studying the Bible, Grebel and Manz discovered that this practice was unbiblical. They argued that baptism was was believers in Jesus, and it symbolizes a commitment to Christ. I agree with them. Zwingli kept insisting on infant baptism. Finally, a day of testing came. Grebel's wife gave birth to a baby, which set the stage for public debate in Zurich. On this day in history in 1525, the Zurich City Council met to have the debate, and Grebel and Manz lost.
A few days later, twelve men braved darkness and snow to visit Manz at his home. One man, George Blaurock, asked Grebel (who was with them) to baptize him because of his confession of personal faith in Christ. Blaurock was a priest, so after being baptized he baptized all the others.
Of course, this course of action made Zwingli spitting mad. The radicals were soon kicked out of Zurich. They went to a nearby town called Zollikon, and there they established a church. This church was different because it wasn't a part of the state church. It was a "free" church. Actually, it was the first one of its kind in modern times.
Zwingli and the hounds of Zurich persisted in persecuting them. Grebel was put in prison. He died of the plague there. Blaurock was burned at the state. As for Manz, because he was such a proponent of baptism, the leaders of Zurich decided that if he wanted baptism, then they would give him a baptism. They took him from prison, tied his arms and legs together, and threw him into the middle of Lake Zurich. His mother, watching the tragic scene from the shore, shouted for Manz to stay true to Christ. Manz's last words were "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."
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