This spring, Plough Publishing House proudly presents BY WATER: THE FELIX MANZ STORY, the first of a three-volume graphic novel series that dramatically and creatively evokes a little-known chapter in the history of Europe’s Reformation.
Five hundred years ago, in an age marked by war, plague, inequality, and religious coercion, there were people across Europe who dared to imagine a society of sharing, peace, and freedom of conscience. These radicals were ready to die for their vision.
They were executed by the thousands—by water, by fire, and by sword—in both Catholic and Protestant states.
Written by Jason Landsel and featuring art by Sankha Banerjee and research/scriptwriting by Richard Mommsen, BY WATER is a compelling and timely and action-packed story of young people standing up against corruption during Europe’s Reformation.
Felix Manz was the son of a Catholic priest who became an unlikely leader and ultimately the very first martyr of the Radical Reformation,” said writer Jason Landsel. “BY WATER chronicles the real life conflict between Manz and his mentor, the establishment reformer Ulrich Zwingli. Manz revered Zwingli as a father figure, but ended up being drowned on Zwingli’s orders for insisting that only believers should be baptized.”
“This trilogy tells the story of the radicals from the Reformation period who tried to build an alternative society inspired by Gutenberg’s Bible and Thomas More’s Utopia,” said Plough Publishing House Editor Sam Hine. “These graphic novels skillfully combine historical figures and events with imagined scenes and encounters to create an ambitious, action-packed and historically accurate account of young people standing up for their convictions.”
Below is a powerful personal essay by writer Jason Landsel –
Courage and Conviction by Jason Landsel
Flocks of gulls hover and soar as we cross the Rathausbrücke, the pedestrian bridge spanning the Limmat River in Zürich, Switzerland. I have traveled here with my wife and eldest son to research and collect information so I can write a graphic novel on a little known Zürich native – Felix Manz, the illegitimate son of a priest who on January 5, 1527, at the age of 29 was executed by the city council for sedition and insurrection. He was drowned – a form of execution reserved for women –as a final humiliation.
The life of Felix and his group of young, radical friends who founded the first church of the Radical Reformation in 1525 intrigues and inspires me 497 years later. My wife is also the descendant of these radical reformers and we want to bring their stories alive for our children.
The book is titled ‘By Water’, which comes from one of the Reformerscredos promising faithfulness until death: “Each should first count the cost carefully as to what he has to give up, but he should not counsel with flesh and blood. For those who would enter God’s service must be prepared to be attacked and to die for the truth and for the name of Christ, if it be God’s will, by water, fire or the sword.”
As we look down into the unusually clear, blue-green waters of the Limmat, I tell my son how on that day Felix mother Anna called out encouragement to him as the executioner rowed him out into the river. How in midstream, a pole was run between his bound arms and legs by the executioner and how those gathered on the bank to watch heard himloudly sing “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum“ as he was he was pressed into the water.
After crossing the bridge, we head along Schipfe to the Täufer-Gedenktafel – a memorial plaque on the Limmat River wall for Felix Manz and other radical reformers executed by the Zürich city government in the early 16th century. The plaque is in a small public park and we clear away empty bottles and cigarette ash from someone’s party the night before so we can take a moment to sit and reflect.
I look down river to the Grossmünster church and explain to my son howin 1519 a scholar and enthusiastic preacher by the name of Ulrich Zwingli was appointed the peoples priest there. Zwingli’s revolutionary ideas for reforming the Catholic Church and translating the entire Bible into German attracted radical thinkers – one of whom was Felix Manz. With his knowledge of Latin, Greek, and Hebrew Felix became Zwingli’s coworker and a friend, looking to Zwingli as a mentor.
However, disagreements soon arose between Zwingli and Felix and his radical friends. While Zwingli preached about a reformed church based only on what was written in the Bible – Zwingli was in reality makingcompromises and submitting to the rulings of the Zurich city council over key issues for the reformers like the abolition of tithes, the Mass, and Infant Baptism. Felix and his friends argued that because there was no mention of these in the Gospels they should be eradicated.
Felix did not just want to just preach, he wanted to act. Defying a ruling by the city council upholding the practice of infant baptism that threatened banishment to any who refused to comply, on January 21 1525, Felix and his comrades met in his house on a street adjacent to the Grossmünster. Here they baptized each other because they believed baptism was for freethinking adults, not something to be imposed on a child.
Emboldened by this split with Zwingli and the state church Felix and his friends began preaching and baptizing in the surrounding villages. Slandered by Zwingli, harassed, arrested (and escaping) repeatedly Felix continued undauntedly to baptize adults who requested it and preach in the surrounding area until his final capture.
Looking out over the river to the spot where Felix would have met his end, I tell my son how I hope the story of Felix is one he can draw inspiration from. Felix saw something that was wrong, had the courage to speak truthfully to that and worked to resolve it knowing there would beconsequences. He bravely faced the slanderous attacks of his adversaries, refusing to compromise his convictions for a life of comfort and safety. Heultimately gave his whole life in a cause he truly believed in.
That is a life courageously lived and one more people should know about.
BY WATER: THE FELIX MANZ STORY is on sale now and will be followed by subsequent volumes titled BY FIRE and BY SWORD.
All Art -Plough Publishing