g the reforms which had already gone too far {83} for him. His
personal ascendency was so great that he found no trouble in doing so.
Not only the Zwickau prophets, but Carlstadt and Zwilling were
discredited. Almost all their measures were repealed, including those
on divine service which was again restored almost to the Catholic form.
Not until 1525 were a simple communion service and the use of German
again introduced.

[Sidenote: Rebellion of the knights, 1522-3]

It soon became apparent that all orders and all parts of Germany were
in a state of ferment. The next manifestation of the revolutionary
spirit was the rebellion of the knights. This class, now in a state of
moral and economic decay, had long survived any usefulness it had ever
had. The rise of the cities, the aggrandizement of the princes, and
the change to a commercial from a feudal society all worked to the
disadvantage of the smaller nobility and gentry. About the only means
of livelihood left them was freebooting, and that was adopted without
scruple and without shame. Envious of the wealthy cities, jealous of
the greater princes and proud of their tenure immediately from the
emperor, the knights longed for a new Germany, more centralized, more
national, and, of course, under their special direction. In the
Lutheran movement they thought they saw their opportunity; in Ulrich
von Hutten they found their trumpet, in Francis von Sickingen their
sword. A knight himself, but with possessions equal to those of many
princes, a born warrior, but one who knew how to use the new weapons,
gold and cannon, Sickingen had for years before he heard of Luther kept
aggrandizing his power by predatory feuds. So little honor had he,
that though appointed to high military command in the campaign against
France, he tried to win personal advantage by treason, playing off the
emperor against King Francis, with whom, for a long time, he almost
{84} openly sided. In 1520 he fell under the influence of Hutten, who
urged him to espouse the cause of the "gospel" as that of German
liberty. By August 1522 he became convinced that the time was ripe for
action, and issued a manifesto proclaiming that the feudal dues had
become unbearable, and giving the impression that he was acting as an
ally of Luther, although the latter knew nothing of his intentions and
would have heartily disapproved of his methods.

Sickingen's first march was against Treves. The archbishop's