them of the duty of obedience to the ruling powers (Rom. 13: 1), and of the passage, that "They that take the sword shall perish with the sword" (Matt. 26: 52). He advised both parties to submit the quarrel to a committee of arbitration. But it was too late; he preached to deaf

ears.

When the dark cloud of war rose up all over Germany, and obscured the pure light of the Reformation, Luther dipped his pen in blood, and burst out in a most violent manifesto "against the rapacious and murderous peasants." He charged them with doing the Devil's work under pretence of the gospel. He called upon the magistrates to "stab, kill, and strangle" them like mad dogs. He who dies in defence of the government dies a blessed death, and is a true martyr before God. A pious Christian should rather suffer a hundred deaths than yield a hair of the demands of the peasants.2

So fierce were Luther's words, that he had to defend himself in a public letter to the chancellor of Mansfeld (June or July, 1525). He did not, however, retract his position. "My little book," he said, "shall stand, though the whole world should stumble at it." He repeated the most offensive passages, even in stronger language, and declared that it was

1 "Kurzum, eitel Teufelswerk treiben sie, und insonderheit ists der Erzteufel, der zu Mühlhausen regiert [Münzer], und nichts denn Raub, Mord, Blutvergiessen anricht, wie denn Christus von ihm sagt, Joh. 8:44, dass er sei ein Mörder von Anbeginn." Erl. ed., XXIV. 288.

2 "Darum, lieben Herren, löset hie, rettet hie, erbarmet euch der armen Leute [i.e., not the peasants, but the poor people deluded by them]; steche, schlage, würge hie wer da kann. Bleibst du darüber todt: wohl dir, seliglicheren Tod kannst du nimmermehr überkommen. Denn du stirbst im Gehorsam göttlichs Worts und Befehls, Rom. 13: 1." . . . "So bitte ich nun, fliche von den Bauern wer da kann, als vom Teufel selbst." Ibid., xxiv. 294. In his explanatory tract, p. 307, this passage is repeated more strongly. "Der halsstarrigen, verstockten, verblendeten Bauern erbarme sich nur niemand, sondern haue, steche, würge, schlage drein, als unter die tollen Hunde, wer da kann und wie er kann. Und dus alles, auf dass man sich derjenigen erbarme, die durch solche Bauern verderbt, verjagt und verführt werden, dass man Fried und Sicherheit erhalte."

useless to reason with rebels, except by the fist and the sword.'

Cruel as this conduct appears to every friend of the poor peasants, it would be unjust to regard it as an accommodation, and to derive it from selfish considerations. It was his sincere conviction of duty to the magistrate in temporal matters, and to the cause of the Reformation which was threatened with destruction.

Defeat of the Rebellion.

The advice of the Reformer was only too well executed by the exasperated princes, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, who now made common cause against the common foe. The peasants, badly armed, poorly led, and divided among themselves, were utterly defeated by the troops of the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Duke Henry of Brunswick, the Elector John, and the Dukes George and John of Saxony. In the decisive battle at Frankenhausen, May 25, 1525, five thousand slain lay on the field and in the streets; three hundred were beheaded before the court-house. Münzer fled, but was taken prisoner, tortured, and executed. The peasants in South Germany, in the Alsace and Lorraine, met with the same defeat by the imperial troops and the forces of the electors of the Palatinate and Treves, and by treachery. In the castle of Zabern, in the Alsace (May 17), eighteen thousand peasants fell. In the Tyrol and Salzburg, the rebellion lasted longest, and was put down in part by arbitration.

The number of victims of war far exceeded a hundred thousand. The surviving rebels were beheaded or mutilated.

1 Ibid., 298, 303, 307. See preceding note.

2 Bishop Georg of Speier estimated the number of the killed at a hundred and fifty thousand. This does not include those who were made prisoners, beheaded, and hanged, or dreadfully mutilated. A hangman in the district of Würzburg boasted that he had executed by the sword three hundred and fifty in one month. Margrave George of Brandenburg had to remind his brother Casimir, that, unless he spared some peasants, they would have nothing to live on. Janssen, II. 563.

Their widows and orphans were left destitute. Over a thousand castles and convents lay in ashes, hundreds of villages were burnt to the ground, the cattle killed, agricultural implements destroyed, and whole districts turned into a wilderness. "Never," said Luther, after the end of the war, "has the aspect of Germany been more deplorable than now."1

The Peasants' War was a complete failure, and the victory of the princes an inglorious revenge. The reaction made their condition worse than ever. Very few masters had sufficient humanity and self-denial to loosen the reins. Most of them followed the maxim of Rehoboam: "My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions (1 Kings 12:14). The real grievances remained, and the prospect of a remedy was put off to an indefinite future.

The cause of the Reformation suffered irreparable injury, and was made responsible by the Romanists, and even by Erasmus, for all the horrors of the rebellion. The split of the nation was widened; the defeated peasantry in Roman Catholic districts were forced back into the old church; quiet citizens lost their interest in politics and social reform; every attempt in that direction was frowned down with suspicion. Luther had once for all committed himself against every kind of revolution, and in favor of passive obedience to the civil rulers who gladly accepted it, and appealed again and again to Rom. 13: 1, as the popes to Matt. 16:18, as if they contained the whole Scripture-teaching on obedience to authority. Melanchthon and Bucer fully agreed with Luther on this point; and the Lutheran Church has ever since been strictly conservative in politics, and indifferent to the progress of civil liberty. It is only in the nineteenth century that

66

1 Letter of Aug. 16, 1525, to Brismann (in De Wette, III. 22): Rusticorum res quievit ubique, cæsis ad centum millia, tot orphanis factis, reliquis vero in vita sic spoliatis, ut Germaniae facies miserior nunquam fuerit. Ita sæviunt victores, ut impleant suas iniquitates."

serfdom has been entirely abolished in Germany and Russia, and negro slavery in America.

The defeat of the Peasants' War marks the end of the destructive tendencies of the Reformation, and the beginning of the construction of a new church on the ruins of the old.

CHAPTER V.

THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF THE REFORMATION FROM THE PEASANTS' WAR TO THE DIET OF AUGSBURG, A.D. 1525–1530.

§ 76. The Three Electors.

G. SPALATIN: Friedrich d. Weise, Lebensgeschichte, ed. by Neudecker and Preller, Jena, 1851. TUTZSCHMANN: Fr. d. W., Grimma, 1848. RANKE, vol. II. KOLDE: Friedrich der Weise und die Anfänge der Reformation, Erlangen, 1881. KÖSTLIN in the Studien u. Kritiken, 1882, p. 700, (vers. Kolde). Comp. §§ 26 and 61.

SHORTLY before the close of the Peasants' War, Frederick III., surnamed the Wise, Elector of Saxony (1486-1525), died peacefully as he had lived, in his sixty-third year, May 5, 1525. His last hours at the castle of Lochau form a striking contrast with the stormy and bloody scenes around him. He hoped that the common people would not prevail, but admitted that they had reason to complain of harsh treatment. "Dear children," he said to his servants, "if I have wronged any one of you, I beg you to forgive me for God's sake; we princes do many naughty things to the poor people." Shortly before his death, he partook of the holy communion in both kinds. This is the only distinct Protestant act in his life. His body was removed to Wittenberg, and buried in the castle church at which Luther had posted his Ninety-Five Theses. Melanchthon delivered a Latin oration; Luther wrote letters of condolence to his brother and nephew, who succeeded him, and praised his wisdom, his kindness to his subjects, his love of justice and hatred of falsehood. Aleander, the Pope's legate at Worms, called him the old fox of Saxony, but in history he bears the name of the Wise. He had charge of the German Empire after the death of