There were a number of lay preachers, the most celebrated being the physician Hans Maurer, who took the sobriquet "Karsthans." This name, "the man with the hoe," soon became one of the catch-words of the time, and made its way into popular speech as a synonym for the simple and pious laborer.

Hutten took it up and urged the people to seize flails and pitchforks and smite the clergy and the pope as they would the devil.

[Sidenote: 1521] Others preached hatred of the Jews, of the rich, of lawyers.

Above all they appealed to the Bible as the devine law, and demanded a religious reform as a condition and preliminary to a thorough renovation of society.

Although Luther himself from the first opposed all forms of violence, his clarion voice rang out in protest against the injustice of the nobles.