wantonness: to love the Lord our God, and in our neighbours to recognise Him; to do to them all we would have done to ourselves, as our God in the Supper has commanded us in a parting word."
By the fourth it is affirmed to be contrary to justice and charity that the poor should have no right to take game or catch birds or fish in the streams. They add, that in conformity with the Gospel, those who have bought such rights ought to receive an indemnity. The fifth claims the woods and forests as the property of the commune; the sixth complains of the aggravation of the services demanded—the peasants would serve as their fathers according to the Word of God; the seventh requires strict maintenance of the agreements having reference to rent and taxes; the eighth suggests a tribunal of arbitration to settle differences between the lords and the peasants; the ninth demands impartiality in justice and the maintenance of old customs; the tenth, that fields and pasture-lands taken unjustly from the commune be restored; that the tax on the goods of deceased persons should cease, as weighing heavily on widows and orphans; and, finally, the twelfth declares that they will give up any of the Articles proved not to accord with the Gospel and the Word of God.
This manifesto appealed so directly to the Christian conscience of the land, which Luther had done more than any before him to awaken, that all Germany—kings, nobles, peasants, friends, and enemies—looked to him to take the position of arbiter.
He cannot be accused of wanting courage at this supreme moment, or of being untrue to his calling. He rebuked the tyranny of the lords, affirming that they had no one to thank for the terrible eruption which threatened Germany but their own luxury and pride. "You are," he said, "as secular authorities, butchers and blood-suckers of the poor people. You sacrifice everything to your outrageous pride, until the people cannot and will not endure you any longer." To the people he spoke more tenderly, admitting the justice of many of their claims, but assuring them that they would be terribly in the wrong if in the name of the Gospel and as Christian men they thought of revolt. "The Christian," he said, "is a martyr; it is his business to endure all wrongs; cease, then, to talk about Christian right, and say rather
