Luther was shocked by the mess he had inspired. He frantically published a new pamphlet, Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants, and urged princes to “smite, slay and stab” the rebellious peasants like “mad dogs.”54 Luther’s incitement to mass murder found a new readership—this time among the embattled German princes. They took his suggestions to heart, and according to some estimates, as many as a hundred thousand peasants were slaughtered as the princes put the uprising down.
