As yet, however, Luther felt himself sufficiently secure under his own sovereign at Wittenberg. He maintained an attitude of reserve towards a party which might have compromised him, and delayed giving his answer. The revolutionary spirit which inspired the nobility throughout the Empire, so far as we can judge from the sources at our disposal, was not approved of by Luther save in so far as the efforts of these unscrupulous men of the sword were directed against the power of Rome in Germany, and against the payments to the Holy See. His own appeals to the national feeling of the Germans against the “Italian Oppression,” as he styled it, were in striking agreement with the warlike proclamations of the Knights against the enslaving and exploitation of Germany. Thus sympathy, as well as a certain community of interests, made the Knights heralds of the new Evangel. In February, 1520, Hutten, through the intermediary of Melanchthon, again called the attention of Luther, “God’s Champion,” to the refuge offered him by Sickingen.[3] Luther did not reply until May, nor has the letter been preserved; neither do we possess the three following letters which he wrote to Hutten. Cochlæus, his opponent, says, he had seen “truly bloody letters” written by Luther to Hutten.[4] He does not, however, give any further particulars of their contents; how the words “bloody letters”--probably an unduly strong expression--are to be understood may be gathered from some statements of Luther’s regarding another offer made him about the same time. The Knight Silvester von Schauenberg, a determined warrior, at that time High Bailiff of Münnerstadt, declared he was ready to furnish one hundred nobles who would protect him by force of arms until the termination of his “affair.”[5] Luther made Schauenberg’s letter known amongst his friends and adherents. He informs Spalatin, that “Schauenberg and Franz von Sickingen have insured me against the fear of men. The wrath of the demons is now about to come; this will happen when I become a burden to myself.”[6] “A hundred nobles,” he repeats in another letter, “have been promised me by Schauenberg in the event of my fleeing to them from the menaces of the Romans. Franz Sickingen has made the same offer.”[7] He had already, several months before this, spoken openly in his sermon “On Good Works” (March, 1520) of the intervention of the worldly powers which he would like to see, because the spiritual powers do nothing but lead everything to ruin.[8]