d their agitation elsewhere. As long as their
propaganda was peaceful Luther was inclined to tolerate it. "Let them
teach what they like," said he, "be it gospel or lies." But when they
began to preach a campaign of fire and sword, Luther wrote, in July
1524, to his elector begging him "to act vigorously against their
storming and ranting, in order that God's kingdom may be advanced by
word only, as becomes Christians, and that all cause of sedition may be
taken from the multitude [Herr Omnes, literally Mr. Everybody], more
than enough inclined to it already."

When the revolt at last broke out Luther was looked up to and appealed
to by the people as their champion. In April 1525 he composed an
_Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants_,
[Sidenote: Exhortation to Peace] in which he distributed the blame for
the present conditions liberally, but impartially, on both sides,
aristocrats and peasants. To the former he said that their tyranny,
together with that of the clergy had brought this punishment on
themselves, and that God intended to smite them. To the peasants he
said that no tyranny was excuse for rebellion. Of their articles he
approved of two only, that demanding the right to choose their pastors
and that denouncing the heriot or death-duty. Their second demand, for
repeal of some of the tithes, he characterized as robbery, and the
third, for freedom of the serf, as unjustified because it made
Christian {98} liberty a merely external thing, and because Paul had
said that the bondman should not seek to be free (I Cor. vii, 20 f).
The other articles were referred to legal experts.

Hardly had this pamphlet come from the press before Luther heard of the
deeds of violence of Rohrbach and his fellows. Fearing that complete
anarchy would result from the triumph of the insurgents, against whom
no effective blow had yet been struck, he wrote a tract _Against the
Thievish, Murderous Hordes of Peasants_. [Sidenote: The peasants
denounced] In this he denounced them with the utmost violence of
language, and urged the government to smite them without pity.
Everyone should avoid a peasant as he would the devil, and should join
the forces to slay them like mad dogs. "If you die in battle against
them," said he to the soldiers, "you could never have a more blessed
end, for you die obedient to God's Word in Romans 13, and in the
service of love to free your neighbor from the bands of hell