oned date it
gathered revolutionary force year by year. But this was the turning
point.

With the crushing of the peasants' revolt and the decisively
anti-popular attitude taken up by Luther, the religious movement
associated with him ceased any longer to have a revolutionary
character. It henceforth became definitely subservient to the new
interests of the wealthy and privileged classes, and as such
completely severed itself from the more extreme popular reforming
sects.

Up to this time, though by no means always approved by Luther himself
or his immediate followers, and in some cases even combated by them,
the latter were nevertheless not looked upon with disfavour by large
numbers of the rank and file of those who regarded Martin Luther as
their leader.

Nothing could exceed the violence of language with which Luther
himself attacked all who stood in his way. Not only the
ecclesiastical, but also the secular heads of Christendom came in for
the coarsest abuse; "swine" and "water-bladder" are not the strongest
epithets employed. But this was not all; in his _Treatise on Temporal
Authority and how far it should be Obeyed_ (published in 1523), whilst
professedly maintaining the thesis that the secular authority is a
Divine ordinance, Luther none the less expressly justifies resistance
to all human authority where its mandates are contrary to "the word of
God." At the same time, he denounces in his customary energetic
language the existing powers generally. "Thou shouldst know," he says,
"that since the beginning of the world a wise prince is truly a rare
bird, but a pious prince is still more rare." "They" (princes) "are
mostly the greatest fools or the greatest rogues on earth; therefore
must we at all times expect from them the worst, and little good."
Farther on, he proceeds: "The common man begetteth understanding, and
the plague of the princes worketh powerfully among the people and the
common man. He will not, he cannot, he purposeth not, longer to suffer
your tyranny and oppression. Dear princes and lords, know ye what to
do, for God will no longer endure it? The world is no more as of old
time, when ye hunted and drove the people as your quarry. But think ye
to carry on with much drawing of sword, look to it that one do not
come who shall bid ye sheath it, and that not in God's name!"

Again, in a pamphlet published the following year, 1524, relative to
the Reichstag of that year, Luther proclaims that th