The peasant leaders believed that the Final Judgement was imminent. Both sides committed atrocities and burned castles, monasteries, villages and farms. On Easter Day 1525, a group of peasants learned that Count von Helfenstein, governor of Weinsberg, had gone into the town to persuade the citizens not to join the rebels. The peasants captured his wife and children, burned the castle and entered the town to seize the count and his noble followers. A nobleman hid in the church tower and offered money in exchange for his life but he was shot. The count offered the rebels a barrel of money if they would let him live but he was killed with 23 others in a nearby field.