They sometimes had recourse to more expeditious proceedings than the scaffold itself. George Winkler, pastor of Halle, having been summoned before Archbishop Albert in the spring of 1527, for having administered the sacrament in both kinds, had been acquitted. As this minister was returning home along an unfrequented road in the midst of the woods, he was suddenly attacked by a number of horsemen, who murdered him, and immediately fled through the thickets without taking anything from his person.[116] "The world," exclaimed Luther, "is a cavern of assassins under the command of the devil; an inn, whose landlord is a brigand, and which bears this sign, _Lies and Murder_; and none are more readily murdered therein than those who proclaim Jesus Christ." [116] Mox enim ut interfecerunt, aufugerunt per avia loca, nihil prædæ aut pecuniæ capientes.--(Cochl. p. 152.) At Munich George Carpenter was led to the scaffold for having denied that the baptism of water is able by its own virtue to save a man. "When you are thrown into the fire," said some of his brethren, "give us a sign by which we may know that you persevere in the faith."--"As long as I can open my mouth, I will confess the name of the Lord Jesus."[117] The executioner stretched him on a ladder, tied a small bag of gunpowder round his neck, and then flung him into the flames. Carpenter immediately cried out, "Jesus! Jesus!" and the executioner having turned him again and again with his hooks, the martyr several times repeated the word Jesus, and expired. [117] Dum os aperire licebit, servatoris nostri nomen profiteri nunquam intermittam.--(Scultet. ii. p. 110.) [Sidenote: PERSECUTIONS--KEYSER.] At Landsberg nine persons were consigned to the flames, and at Munich twenty-nine were thrown into the water. At Scherding, Leonard Keyser, a friend and disciple of Luther, having been condemned by the bishop, had his head shaved, and being dressed in a smock-frock, was placed on horseback. As the executioners were cursing and swearing, because they could not disentangle the ropes with which he was to be bound, he said to them mildly: "Dear friends, your bonds are not necessary; my Lord Christ has already bound me." When he drew near the stake, Keyser looked at the crowd and exclaimed: "Behold the harvest! O Master, send forth thy labourers!" He then ascended the scaffold and said: "O Jesu, save me! I am thine." These were his last words.[118] "Who am I, a wordy preacher," exclaimed Luther, when he received the news of his death, "in comparison with this great doer?"[119] [118] Incenso jam igne, clara voce proclamavit: _Tuus sum Jesu! Salva me!_--(Seckend. ii. p. 85.) [119] Tam impar verbosus prædicator, illi tam potenti verbi operator.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 1214.)