Almost all their measures were repealed, including those on divine service which was again restored almost to the Catholic form.
Not until 1525 were a simple communion service and the use of German again introduced.
[Sidenote: Rebellion of the knights, 1522-3] It soon became apparent that all orders and all parts of Germany were in a state of ferment.

The next manifestation of the revolutionary spirit was the rebellion of the knights.

This class, now in a state of moral and economic decay, had long survived any usefulness it had ever had.

The rise of the cities, the aggrandizement of the princes, and the change to a commercial from a feudal society all worked to the disadvantage of the smaller nobility and gentry.

About the only means of livelihood left them was freebooting, and that was adopted without scruple and without shame.