In Frankenhausen, Thuringia, 1525, a mercenary army levied by German princes smashed the peasant mass lead by Thomas Munzer, an Altstadt middle-class-born former follower of Martin Luther, who refused to sacrifice the commoner interests to secular-princely demands in order to gain protection against papal excommunication as heresy. This worldly sequel to the ecclesiastic Reformation was Germany's first true social revolution, preaching liberty and equality as Biblical values. Munzer also found a safe harbor in Saxony, where he introduced 'vulgar' liturgy even before Luther. But his rejection of the entire social order couldn't be tolerated when his followers started using violence, plundering Catholic church property and Munzer himself failed in 1524 to convince the Saxon ruling aristocracy. The Memmingen 'peasant parliament' phrased 12 articles, rendering a bloodbath inevitable, as recommended by moderate 'rival' Luther. Over 100,000 peasants were crushed by well-armed professionals before Munzer himself was decapitated.