HETZER, LUDWIG

born c. 1500, , Bischofszell, Thurgau, Switz. died Feb. 4, 1529, Constance Hetzer also spelled Hatza controversial Anabaptist, iconoclast, and colleague of Protestant Reformers. After studies at Freiburg im Breisgau, Hetzer published Judicium Dei (1523; "The Judgment of God"), in which he condemned the use of images, and Ein Beweis (1524; "One Proof "), a work on the conversion of the Jews. The first work became a major part of the Reformed effort to combat the pictorial element in religion. In early 1525 Hetzer was expelled from Zrich for his role as a leader of the Swiss Brethren, an anti-Lutheran group. He soon moved to Augsburg but was again expelled and traveled to Basel, where he received a favourable reception from the Swiss Reformer John Oecolampadius. After a brief return visit to Zrich, where he provoked the opposition of the Swiss Reformer Huldrych Zwingli, Hetzer went to Strassburg. There in 1526 he met Hans Denck, a German Anabaptist leader, who collaborated with him in the production of his major work, a translation of the Hebrew prophets (1527) that preceded Martin Luther's edition by five years. In 1528 Hetzer was arrested and imprisoned in Constance on a charge of adultery, though his opposition to the Trinitarian concept of God was the more likely cause, and was condemned to death by decapitation.