Let not your swords be cold from blood.

Smite bang, bang on the anvil of Nimrod; cast his tower to the ground!" Other leaders took up the message and called for the extirpation of the tyrants, including both the clergy and the lords.
Communism was demanded as in the apostolic age; property was denounced as wrong.

Regulation of prices was one measure put forward, and the committing of the government of the country to a university another.
The propaganda of deeds followed close upon the propaganda of words.
During the spring of 1525 in central Germany forty-six cloisters and castles were burned to the ground, while violence and rapine reigned supreme with all the ferocity characteristic of class warfare.

On Easter Sunday, April 16, one of the best-armed bands of peasants, under one of the most brutal leaders, Jaecklein Rohrbach, attacked Weinsberg.
The count and his small garrison of eighteen knights surrendered and were massacred by the insurgents, who visited mockery and insult upon the countess and her daughters.

Many of the cities joined the peasants, and for a short time it seemed as if the rebellion might be successful.
[Sidenote: Suppression of the rising] But in fact the insurgents were poorly equipped, untrained, without cooeperation or leadership.