The cities of Lower Saxony were the first to be touched by the light which proceeded from electoral Saxony. Magdeburg, where Luther had been at school and had personal friends, had early shown itself friendly to evangelical principles. One day, an old clothier came and stood at the foot of the monument erected in this town to the illustrious Emperor Otto the Great, in memory of his conquests in the tenth century; and the zealous partisan of the spiritual conqueror of the sixteenth century began to sing one of Luther's hymns and to sell copies of it. People were at the time coming out of a neighboring church, where mass had been said. Many had received the leaf, but the burgomaster who was passing with others of the faithful had the seller arrested. This caused the fire which was smouldering under the embers to flame forth. The parishioners of St. Ulrich assembled in the cemetery, elected eight good men to undertake the government of the church. The parish of St. John took part in the movement; and all declared that they attached themselves to their sovereign pastor, bishop, and pope, Jesus Christ, and were ready to fight bravely under this glorious captain. On June 23, 1524, the citizens met together in the convent of the Augustines with seven evangelical pastors, and determined to request the Council that nothing but the Word of God should any longer be preached, and that the Lord's Supper should be administered regularly in both kinds. On July 17, the communion was thus celebrated in all the churches; and the town council, on the 23d of the same month, informed the elector that 'the immutable and eternal Word of God, hitherto obscured by thick shadows, now shone forth, by God's mercy, more brightly than the sun, for the salvation of sinners, the happiness of the faithful, and the glory of God.'[485] They requested the elector at the same time to send Amsdorff to them. [Sidenote: REFORMATION AT BRUNSWICK.] Brunswick followed next. The Reformation was introduced into this town chiefly by means of Luther's hymns, which were sung alike in private houses and in the streets. Incumbents of benefices were in the habit of paying young ecclesiastics to preach in their stead. These deacons, usually called 'hireling priests' (_Heuer-pfaffen_), generally embraced evangelical doctrines, and induced their flocks to do so too. Sometimes one of them would strike up, instead of the hymn to the Virgin Mary, one of these new German hymns, and all the congregation would sing it with him. The clergy endeavored to maintain the Scholastic doctrine; but if the people heard from the lips of their old pastors false quotations from the Holy Scriptures, voices were raised in all directions to correct them. The ecclesiastics in office then summoned to their aid Doctor Sprengel, a preacher highly esteemed in those parts. But at the close of his sermon, a townsman rose and said: 'Priest, thou liest.' He then struck up the hymn of Luther beginning--