GERMANY AROUSED--PEASANTS' WAR--MUNTZER'S PROCLAMATION--EMPEROR QUARRELS WITH THE POPE--RESULTS IN OTHER COUNTRIES--GROWTH OF MODERN LANGUAGES--LUTHER'S CROWNING WORK--POWER OF SUPERSTITION--WITCHCRAFT--REFORMERS NOT INSPIRED--EXTRACTS FROM MOSHEIM--BATTLE-AX OF GOD--COPERNICUS--GALILEO--NEWTON--DEATH OF BRUNO--CHANGE IN COMMERCIAL AFFAIRS--SPANISH ARMADA--BLESSED BY THE POPE--DESTROYED BY A STORM--ITS EFFECT ON EUROPE--ENGLAND'S INFLUENCE AND POSITION--AMERICA THE LAND OF REFUGE. As the booming of cannon, announcing the beginning of battle echoes and re-echoes far and wide, so did the result of the council, or diet, in the city of Worms. The answer of Luther was repeated by thousands of sympathizing friends. Instead of growing fainter as it died away in the distance, it increased in intensity and power, till its echoes reverberated through every valley, and over every hill-top in central Germany. Within twenty-four hours Ulrich von Hutten and Franz von Sickingen had mustered four hundred armed knights and eight thousand foot soldiers all ready to fight, or, if need be, to die for the principles Luther had advocated. The commotion continued until it culminated in a civil war, in A. D. 1525. The horrors of that war no tongue can tell. Nightly the papal party burned at the stake the prisoners they had taken. Amid the groans of wounded and dying peasants on the battle field around them, and the drunken revelry of the camp, might be heard the laughter of the nobles as they watched the struggles and heard the shrieks of their victims as they slowly roasted to death. But the revolution continued to spread. The rage of {98} the peasants, who had so long been crushed by the iron heel of oppression, knew no bounds. A few extracts from the proclamation of their leader, Munzer, may not be out of place, as they indicate to some extent the nature of the conflict then going on! "Arise and fight the battle of the Lord! On! on! on! Now is the time; the wicked tremble when they hear of you. Be pitiless! Heed not the groans of the impious! Rouse up ye townsmen and villagers; above all, rouse up ye free men of the mountains! On! on! on! while the fire is burning, while the warm sword is yet reeking with the slaughter! Give the fire no time to go out, the sword no time to cool! Kill all the proud ones! While they reign over you it is no time to talk of God! Amen. "Given at Muhlhausen, 1525. "THOMAS MUNZER, "servant of God against the wicked."