could never have acquired.

Risings of the peasantry took place in various parts of Germany,
notably in Swabia, Thuringia, the Rhine Provinces, and Saxony (1524).
Thomas Munzer, the leader of the Anabaptists, encouraged them in their
fight for freedom. At first the attack was directed principally
against the spiritual princes. Many monasteries and churches were
plundered, and several of the nobles were put to death. Soon the lay
princes of Germany, alarmed by the course of the revolutionaries and
fearing for the safety of their own territories, assembled their
forces and marched against the insurgents. The war was carried on
mercilessly on both sides, close upon 100,000 peasants being killed in
the field, while many of their leaders, amongst them Thomas Munzer,
were arrested and condemned to death. In nearly every important
engagement the peasants, as might be expected, suffered defeat, so
that before the end of 1525 the movement was, practically speaking, at
an end. Luther, who had been consulted by both sides, and who had
tried to avoid committing himself to either, frightened by the very
violence of the storm he had been instrumental in creating, issued an
appeal to the princes calling upon them to show no mercy to the forces
of disorder,[25] and even Melanchthon, gentle and moderate as he
usually was, did not hesitate to declare that the peasants of Germany
had more liberty than should be allowed to such a rude and uncultured
people. The Peasants' War, disastrous as it was, did some good by
opening men's eyes to the dangerous consequences of Luther's
extravagant harangues, and by giving some slight indications as to the
real character and methods of the man, who was posing as a heaven-sent
reformer and at the same time as a champion of popular liberty.

But though Luther lost ground in many quarters owing to the part he