Of their articles he approved of two only, that demanding the right to choose their pastors and that denouncing the heriot or death-duty.

Their second demand, for repeal of some of the tithes, he characterized as robbery, and the third, for freedom of the serf, as unjustified because it made Christian {98} liberty a merely external thing, and because Paul had said that the bondman should not seek to be free (I Cor.

vii, 20 f).
The other articles were referred to legal experts.
Hardly had this pamphlet come from the press before Luther heard of the deeds of violence of Rohrbach and his fellows.

Fearing that complete anarchy would result from the triumph of the insurgents, against whom no effective blow had yet been struck, he wrote a tract _Against the Thievish, Murderous Hordes of Peasants_.

[Sidenote: The peasants denounced] In this he denounced them with the utmost violence of language, and urged the government to smite them without pity.
Everyone should avoid a peasant as he would the devil, and should join the forces to slay them like mad dogs.