t was to act like heathens; that the
duty of a Christian is to be patient, not to fight; that if they
persisted in revolting against the Gospel in the name of the Gospel, he
should look upon them as more dangerous enemies than the Pope. "The Pope
and the Emperor," continued he, "combined against me; but the more they
blustered, the more did the Gospel gain ground. And why was this?
Because I have never drawn the sword or called for vengeance; because I
never had recourse to tumult or insurrection: I relied wholly on God,
and placed everything in his almighty hands. Christians fight not with
swords or arquebuses, but with sufferings and with the Cross. Christ,
their captain, handled not the sword. He was hung upon a tree."

But to no purpose did Luther employ this Christian language. The people
were too much excited by the fanatical speeches of the leaders of the
insurrection to listen, as of old, to the words of the reformer. "He is
playing the hypocrite," said they; "he flatters the nobles. He has
declared war against the Pope, and yet wishes us to submit to our
oppressors."

The revolt, instead of dying away, became more formidable. At Weinsberg,
Count Louis of Helfenstein and the seventy men under his orders were
condemned to death by the rebels. A body of peasants drew up with their
pikes lowered, while others drove the count and his soldiers against
this wall of steel. The wife of the wretched Helfenstein, a natural
daughter of the emperor Maximilian, holding an infant two years old in
her arms, knelt before them, and with loud cries begged for her
husband's life, and vainly endeavored to arrest this march of murder; a
boy, who had been in the count's service and had joined the rebels,
capered gayly before him, and played the dead march upon his fife, as if
he had been leading his victims in a dance. All perished; the child was
wounded in its mother's arms, and she herself thrown upon a dung-cart
and thus conveyed to Heilbronn.

At the news of these cruelties, a cry of horror was heard from the
friends of the Reformation, and Luther's feeling heart underwent a
terrible conflict. On the one hand the peasants, ridiculing his advice,
pretended to receive revelations from heaven, made an impious use of the
threatenings of the Old Testament, proclaimed an equality of rank and a
community of goods, defended their cause with fire and sword, and
indulged in barbarous atrocities. On the other hand, the enemies of the
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