"O God, arise, avenge Thy slaughtered Saints, Whose bones lie bleaching on the Alpine mountains cold." The writings of Dante and Petrarch, Reuchlin and Erasmus, were already scattered in every direction, by means of the printing press, and wielded a mighty influence in society. The siege and capture of Mentz, in A. D. 1462, had the effect of scattering Guttenberg and his co-workers. Printing presses were established immediately afterwards in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Holland, France and England. In 1476, on the banks of the river Maine, in central Germany had appeared a strange character named Hans Boheim. He professed to be a prophet of God, to have received visions, and to have been sent to proclaim that the kingdom of heaven was at hand. More than forty thousand men flocked to his standard. At length the bishops of Mentz and Wurtzburg interfered, dispersed the crowd and burned the prophet. He was but a sign of the times--"a voice crying in the wilderness." His memory was not forgotten. In 1493, another movement took place, and again in 1501. Maximilian, the emperor of Germany, ordered the leaders to be quartered alive and their wives and children to be banished. But the fire was only slumbering. In 1512, it commenced again on a larger scale. It found a leader in Joss Fritz, a soldier of commanding presence and great natural eloquence, used to battle and above all to patience. He was one of those who had escaped being quartered. His banner was blue silk with a white cross, and underneath the motto, "O Lord, help the righteous." Fritz was the William Tell of his times. No wonder his name is a favorite one among the Germans. These conflicts, commonly known as the "Wars of the Peasants," had shown the masses that with more union and better information they were the real strength of the nation. Such was the condition of affairs in the very locality where, four years afterwards, burst forth the great religious revolution known as the Reformation. Society seemed waiting for a coming man of strong will and fervent religious nature, who should give something of organization {95} to those movements, and gather around him an irresistible phalanx of the noble, the learned and ardent spirits of the age. This man was Martin Luther. He came from his cell a shaven monk, in his hand no sceptre, on his head no crown. But he had a human heart within him; and it gushed out for human woe. Strong in the principles of right he hurled the firebrands of truth right and left and kindled such a flame that all the waves of error could never quench it. The immediate cause of the Reformation was when John Tetzel, in 1574, was sent into Germany to sell indulgences.