In the aftermath of the Diet of Worms and Luther's exile at Wartburg Castle the Reformation that he had begun slowly spun into chaos. Among the common people, Luther had become somewhat of a messenger of hope. His ideas appealed to the people because his struggles mirrored their own which meant that the answers he offered, were, to a great extent, the same answers that the people were longing for. Others found in Luther a patriot and hero, willing to stand up to the advances and aggression of a foreign Pope. Still, others, who were scholars and northern humanists, embraced Luther's ideas of Sola Scriptura.
Then there were the German Princes who were inspired by Luther's willingness to stand up to the Papacy and Papal authority. This gave them a sense of empowerment as they considered how they too might push off the Roman yoke of bondage and take back their territories and churches. All this meant fewer taxes and less papal interference into the affairs of the German states.
Back home in Wittenberg, Luther's absence created a vacuum that a few within his inner circle attempted to fill. Foremost among these was Andrea von Karlstadt. Karlstadt took Luther's teachings to an unforeseen extreme and began leading mobs in violence against priests, the destruction of churches and images, and a blatant refusal to attend mass.
Another group, claiming to believe in Luther's teachings and calling themselves the Prophets of Zwickau engaged in acts of violence similar to Karlstadt and they claimed divine revelation as justification for their actions. Luther's painstaking and well-thought-out journey of faith, which up to this point had been based on Scripture was now, in his absence spiraling into fanaticism and chaos.