598 Outlines of European History chose to stay should give up begging and earn their living like other people. He predicted that if no one gave any money to the Church, popes, bishops, monks, and nuns would in two years' vanish away like smoke. Revolt of the But his counsel was not heeded. First, the German knights ki^ght? organized a movement to put the new ideas in practice. Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten, admirers of Luther, at- tacked the archbishop of Treves and proclaimed that they were going to free his subjects from " the heavy unchristian yoke of the ' parsons ' and lead them to evangelical liberty." But the German princes sided with the archbishop and battered down Franz von Sickingen's castle with cannon, and Franz was fatally injured by a falling beam. Twenty other castles of the knights were destroyed and this put an end to their revolt ; but Luther and his teachings were naturally blamed as the real reason for the uprising. Luther's rash The conservative party, who were frankly afraid of Luther, the princes received a new and terrible proof, as it seemed to them, of the noxious influence of his teachings. In 1525 the serfs rose, in and nobles serves to en- courage the the name of " God's justice," to avenge their wrongs and estab- revolt of the j ' o & peasants hsh their rights. Luther was not responsible for the civil war which followed, though he had certainly helped to stir up dis- content. He had asserted, for example, that the German feudal lords were hangmen, who knew only how to swindle the poor man. " Such fellows were formerly called rascals, but now must we call them ' Christian and revered princes.' " Yet in spite of his harsh talk about the princes, Luther really relied upon them to forward his movement, and he justly claimed that he had greatly increased their power by attacking the authority of the Pope and subjecting the clergy in all things to the - government. The demands Some of the demands of the peasants were perfectly rea- of the peas- u i -m i • r i • , , ants in the sonable. i he most popular expression of their needs was the Artkiel^' dignified "Twelve Articles."^ In these they claimed that the 1 The " Twelve Articles " may be found in Readings^ Vol. II, No. 6.
