others on his behalf during the early years of his revolt contributed
not a little to his final success. But as it became evident that his
object was the overthrow of the Church and of doctrines accepted as
dogmas of faith by the whole Christian world, his former allies fell
away one by one. On the question of free-will Erasmus, who had long
played a double role, found it necessary to take the field openly
against him.[24] Luther's answer, full of personal abuse and
invective, drew a sharp reply from Erasmus, and all friendly
intercourse between them was broken off for ever.

But it was on the mass of the people, the peasants and the artisans,
that Luther relied mainly for support, and it was to these he
addressed his most forcible appeals. The peasants of Germany, ground
down by heavy taxes and reduced to the position of slaves, were ready
to listen to the revolutionary ideas put forward by leaders like
Sickingen and von Hutten, and to respond to the call of Luther to rise
against their princes whether they were secular or ecclesiastical. In
the imagination of the peasants Luther appeared as the friend of human
liberty, determined to deliver them from the intolerable yoke that had
been laid upon them by their masters. His attacks were confined at
first to the prince-bishops and abbots, but soon realising the
strength of the weapon he wielded, he attacked the lay princes in the
pamphlets entitled /Christian Liberty/ and /The Secular Magistracy/,
and advocated the complete overthrow of all authority. It is true,
undoubtedly, that many of the peasants were already enrolled in the
secret societies, and that had there never been a Luther a popular
rising might have been anticipated; but his doctrines on evangelical
freedom and his frenzied onslaughts on the ecclesiastical and lay
rulers, turned the movement into an anti-religious channel, and
imparted to the struggle a uniformity and bitterness that otherwise it