and religious. One of his most zealous disciples
and co-operators was Hans Schmidt, a blind
monk. The Teutonic Order in Rothenburg,
as in other towns, possessed an establishment,
but in this case the preacher Deuschlin suc-
ceeded in gaining over certain of their number
to the Reformation, and indeed Melchior, one
of the heads of the order, had even ventured
to marry publicly with the usual festivities, and
as fate had it, to marry the sister of Hans
Schmidt, the blind monk. The two preachers
had severely attacked the Commenthur, or
supreme head of the order, and had so far
carried their point as to get him deposed and
another Commenthur, Christen, established in
his place. These things, of course, did not go
on without friction with the Episcopal authori-
ties at Würzburg, but for the moment the
revolutionary party remained victorious.

By the end of March, the peasant population
in the territory belonging to Rothenburg had
begun to assemble with' a view to revolu-
tionary action, whilst inside the town the ex-
BU +00FCrgermeister, Ehrenfried Kumpf, the Church
reformer, had inaugurated an iconoclastic
campaign, in the course of which priests and

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