§ 124.1. =The Wittenberg Fanaticism, A.D. 1521, 1522.=--In A.D. 1521 an Augustinian, Gabriel Didymus or Zwilling, preached a violent tirade against vows and private masses. In consequence of this sermon, thirteen of the brethren of his order at once withdrew. Two priests in the neighbourhood married. Carlstadt wrote against celibacy and followed their example. At the Wittenberg convent, secessions from the order were allowed at pleasure, and mendicancy, as well as the sacrifice of the mass, was abolished. But matters did not stop there. Didymus, and still more Carlstadt, spread a fanatical spirit among the people and the students, who were encouraged in the wildest acts of violence. The public services were disturbed in order to stop the idolatry of the mass, images were thrown out of the churches, altars were torn down, and a desire evinced to put an end to theological science as well as to clerical orders. A fanatical spirit began now also to spread at Zwickau. At the head of this movement stood the tailor Nicolas Storch and a literate Marcus Stübner, who boasted of Divine revelations; while Thomas Münzer, with fervid eloquence, proclaimed the new gospel from the pulpit. Restrained by energetic measures taken against them, the Zwickau prophets wandered abroad. Münzer went to Bohemia, Storch and Stübner to Wittenberg. There they told of their revelations and inveighed against infant baptism as a work of Satan. The excitement in Wittenberg became greater day by day. The enemies of the Reformation rejoiced; Melanchthon could give no counsel, and the elector was confounded. Then could Luther no longer contain himself. Against the elector’s express command he left the Wartburg on 3rd March, A.D. 1522, wrote him a noble letter, availed himself of his knight’s incognito on the way, and appeared publicly at Wittenberg. For a week he preached daily against fanaticism, and got complete control of the wild revolutionary elements. The prophets of Zwickau left Wittenberg. Carlstadt remained, but for a couple of years held his peace. Luther and Melanchthon now laboured to secure a positive basis for the Reformation. Melanchthon had already made a beginning in A.D. 1521 by the publication of his _Loci communes rerum theologicarum_. Luther now, in A.D. 1522, against the decided wish of his friend, published his _Annotationes in epist. t. Pauli ad Rom. et Cor._ In Sept. of the same year appeared Luther’s translation of the N.T. Besides these he also issued several treatises in defence of the Reformation.