The Labor enquirer., 1884-01-12

-f1 p SO aAt ~ asV ~ aeo eVssA4e
| people, eager 10 he1. lin; swhence comes,
then, this distincs Ia rank and fortune
which tyranny has fntroduced between
Us and the great psonle Of the world
Why should we sissn in poverty and be
overwhelmed BY evils, while they swim
in delights? Havt We not right to an
equality Of the soods which by their
nature are made u Be shared without
distinction among aIl men7 Restore to
Ms. rich men Of tho century, greedy
usurpers, restore to u the goods which
You hold back With p much injustice; It
is not only as men that We have right
70 an equal distribution Of the advan-
tages Of fortune, it Is e Christians"
The effect produced by these words
was marvellous. Germany was imme-
diately sgitated BY secret ferment Of
which the center waslat Oldstadt, where
Munxer lived.
The lords, dukes end bishops began to
II , y
think of taking measures against the
terrible events which were preparing.
At first they parleyed, trying to gain
time in order to gather sufficient force.
Luther, for his part, BY voice and pen,
urged all the princes to rise against the
peasants. The latter then began to get
excited in their confidence. They de-
molished castles, burned monastries,
amusing themselves by humiliating the
lords in a thousand ways, and making
them march in the rear of the army
dressed in rustic garments and bearing
no arms.
These manifestations, which kept in
creasing, inspired in Luther, who did
not understand them, terrible fright.
The great man was even guilty Of the
infamy of pointing out Munzer to the
court of SAKE as one Of the most dam
gerous of men who should be pursued
everywhere like wild beast.
Munzer did not lose courage. To
gather all his forces at single point, as
well as add still further to the moral in
tensity of the partisans of equality, he
first issued manifesto couched in ar
dent and violent terms.
\ Fear nothing he saidto thepeasants
in concluding; "be united and do not
fall back. AS soon as you fall back you
are lost; you, your wives, and your
children. Let those who fear death re-
main behind. Athousand men resolved
to die are stronger than fifty thousand
wavering men. If you do not come out
victorious from the struggle, unhappy
will it be for you and your descendants |
If you, were serfs before, after you will
be slaves. You will be sold like horses
in the market-place. At the slightest
breath you will be seized bodily as rebels
deprived of air and food, put to the
torture and finally empaled. Your
daughters will be the mistresses of your
lords, and your sons, their lackeys, will
hold the hands of their sisters that they
may be outraged and then cast aside,
like the rind of citron after the pulp
has been sucked from it. You see
there is nothing left to you but to con-
quer. Such life is thousand times
worse than death, death preferable to
life" .'.
Then directly rebuking Luther, he
added
Never listen to the voice of those
men who prove to you by. the gospel
that you have the right to be free and
end by exhorting you to bend the head
under slavery. They are half men who,
through fear to die, prefer to make
themselves unworthy to live. *-* \
"A people which is not free is not
Christian
"Be first free; then we may be
Christians to live according to the law
of God"
Several times Munzer gathered regi-
ments of peasants numbering five to. ten
thousand men; they fought victorious
battles with the princes; but the enemy
with its innumerable forces, was stronger
and Munzer was taken prisoner. The
princes submitted him to torture, and
amused themselves over the contortions
and grimaces which the instruments of
torment imprinted upon his dislocated
body and martyrs face. Once, after the
torture, such an attack of fever seized
him that he drank twelve pitchers Of
water without succeeding in quenching
his thirst. These acts of barbarism were
repeated at intervals of six months, and,
when the princes discovered that they
could draw nothing from him, they had
him beheaded.
And Luther7
| He appIanded at the defeat of the
peasants, and at the torture of his rival,
Munzer.
And that is why the bourgeoise cele-
brate the four hundredth anniversary OF
the birth of the favorite reformer.
Without loss of man or agun, another
great national question has been settled.
President Arthur settled it on New
Years day, by taking in Mrs. Speaker
Carlisle on his arm," and placing her on
the right of the line among the ladies
receiving at the White House. It ap-