Within twenty-four hours Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen had mustered four hundred armed knights and eight thousand foot soldiers all ready to fight, or, if need be, to die for the principles Luther had advocated. The commotion continued until it culminated in a civil war, in A. D. 1525. The horrors of that war no tongue can tell. Nightly the papal party burned at the stake the prisoners they had taken. Amid the groans of wounded and dying peasants on the battle field around them, and the drunken revelry of the camp, might be heard the laughter of the nobles as they watched the struggles and heard the shrieks of their victims as they slowly roasted to death. But the revolution continued to spread. The rage of the peasants, who had so long been crushed by the iron heel of oppression, knew no bounds. A few extracts from the proclamation of their leader, Munzer, may not be out of place, as they indicate to some extent the nature of the conflict then going on!
"Arise and fight the battle of the Lord! On! on! on! Now is the time; the wicked tremble when they hear of you. Be pitiless! Heed not the groans of the impious! Rouse up ye townsmen and villagers; above all, rouse up ye free men of the mountains! On! on! on! while the fire is burning, while the warm sword is yet reeking with the slaughter! Give the fire no time to go out, the sword no time to cool! Kill all the proud ones! While they reign over you it is no time to talk of God! Amen.
"Given at Muhlhausen, 1525.
"THOMAS MUNZER,
"servant of God against the wicked."
Such was the character of the men with whom the pope had to deal. At length the emperor, Charles V., found it politic to side with his people. Meanwhile Clement VII., succeeded to the papal throne, in 1523. The emperor and the new pope soon quarrelled, and, in 1527, a German army acting under the direction of the German emperor captured and sacked the imperial city of Rome, and more pitilessly pillaged it than it had been a thousand years before by the Goths and Vandals. From this time Rome ceased to be the capital of the professedly Christian world.
But the revolution stayed not here. Its principles of reform passed over the Alps and found a hearty welcome among the hardy mountaineers of Switzerland. It reached the Rhine and with the current of that mighty river flowed onward to the sea. The sturdy sons of Holland received its teachings; and the patient peasantry of Denmark, Norway and Sweden accepted it as an improvement on the past.
Germany continued in the throes of revolution for more than thirty years, or until the peace of Augsburg, in 1555.
In the meantime England had revolted from Rome, in 1532; Denmark followed in 1538; Geneva in 1541; Norway and Sweden in 1550; Scotland in 1560; and Holland in 1581.
Never in the history of the world was fulfilled more literally the words that our Savior said in reference to the truth:
"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace but a sword," etc. (See Matt. x. 34, 38.) For more than a hundred years Europe continued to be the theatre of civil wars, until the nations were completely exhausted—in some cases their power and influence permanently weakened.
We might in view of its immediate results, be inclined to look upon the Reformation as producing more evil than good. Yet amid the wars, bloodshed, anarchy and persecutions, society made rapid steps in the path of progress.