Page:Outlines of European History.djvu/703

 TJie Revolt of Germany against the Papacy 597 to write for the great German public in its own language. The common man began to raise his voice, to the scandal of the learned. Hundreds of pamphlets, satires, and cartoons have come down to us which indicate that the religious and other ques- tions of the day were often treated in somewhat the same spirit in which our comic papers deal with political problems and discussions now. We find, for instance, a correspondence between Leo X and the devil, and a witty dialogue between a well-known knight, Franz von Sickingen, and St. Peter at the gate of heaven. Hitherto there had been a great deal of talk of reform, but Divergent as yet nothing had actually been done. There was no sharp how^t'he^ line drawn between the different classes of reformers. All ^y^^f?" should actu agreed that something should be done to better the Church ; ally be few realized how divergent were the real ends in view. The rulers listened to Luther because they were glad of an excuse to get control of the church property and keep money from flowing to Rome. The peasants listened because he put the Bible in their hands and they found nothing there that proved that they ought to go on paying the old dues to their lords. While Luther was quietly living in the Wartburg, translating The revolt the Bible, people began to put his teachings into practice. The ^^'"^ monks and nuns left their monasteries in his own town of Wittenberg. Some of them married, which seemed a very wicked thing to all those that held to the old beliefs. The students and citizens tore down the images of the saints in the churches and opposed the celebration of the Mass, the chief Catholic ceremony. Luther did not approve of these sudden and violent changes Luther and left his hiding place to protest. He preached a series of vioffi'^^^^^ sermons in Wittenberg in which he urged that all alterations reform in religious services and practices should be introduced by the gover7ime?it and not by the people. He said, however, that those who wished might leave. their monasteries and that those who