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Euro History

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Peasant revolts in the 1500's Germany were largely caused by the peasant belief that religion

stated no man should have absolute power over another when that power is used as irresponsibly as the

nobility was using it. This was compounded by the refusal of the nobility to give any freedom

whatsoever to the peasantry claiming they fought and paid for the right of absolute power over them

and deserved to do whatever they want with it.

Document 3 seems to suggest that the majority of the reason Peasants revolted is that they

believe that religion empowers them to rebel against a nobility that they say as taking advantage of the

sacrifice that Jesus made for them. It is the same for doc 6 which is any open invitation for the people

of Germany to lay waste to the towers of princes also using the reasoning that this is directly gods will

and all must obey. This is interesting considering the writer of doc 6 is a theologian and a preacher.

Perhaps he wished to ride the tide of rebellion into a higher office of power that he did not have as a

simple preacher in a society dominated by the nobility. Document 3, 6 and 2 combine to make a group

that is strongly supportive of peasant revolts. Although there are other documents that support the

revolts these mostly support a stable compromise between the peasants and nobility while this would

seem easier and more likely the bad blood raging between the classes would prevent any such effort for

coming to fruition.

On the other side of the spectrum we have document 5 claiming that the council fairly and

legally bought the entire peasant class into serfdom but , they say, they would be willing to release

them for a reasonable sum of money . It is interesting that this is said after the reported successful

uprisings in several towns resulting in the loss of much power by the nobility. Perhaps this was a

desperate move by a body of power struggling to retain enough money and power to maintain control

over a peasant body that were struggling to overcome the yoke established on the working class. This

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forms a group with document 7 of documents strongly supporting the nobility to force the nobility into

a subservient role. While one of these is the council which would hold most of the power should the

peasants back down , but the other is written by Martin Luther who should he have deduced to could

probably have lead the revolt riding the wave of it into a new office at the head of a restored state.

Perhaps in Martin we see one of the first men who reacted the way they did simply in motivation of

doing purely what is right, of course it is also possible he correctly predicted that they would fail and

did not want to associate himself with this work of self destruction.

Next is a group of people who for whatever reason choose moderate responses as opposed to

the more extreme ones of their fellows, mainly this is docs 8 , 9 and 10. Document 8 is a report to the

Archbishop himself and is most likely stated in sch an ambivalent way to avoid giving more credit to

the peasants, which would most likely enrage the Archbishop. Document 9 is one of the few that

acknowledges that either group has wronged the other and that they most both repent. Of course this

would have been during the most extreme portion of the revolts and may have been an attempt to aline

himself with the rebels in a gambit to retain some of his power after the possible revolution. This tactic

is further addressed in doc 10 which reflects on the many nobles who have converted in an attempt to

save their lives and property. Although while the writer claims to have resisted strongly the oath that

was required of them, this may have was possibly just a claim to further his possibility of attaining

leniency for his charge of treason.

The major causes of this rebellion was simply too strong a hand on a large peasant population

who , after attaining a way of justifying their actions through religion had plenty of built up anger and

disdain for the nobility. They would unleash this in a violent string of battles and uprisings. The

response to this was, as tends to happen in uprising situation not responded to by a string leader , slow

and ineffectual. They policy of nobility of jumping ship should the conditions seem unfavorable would

slow a response and force the conflict into a far longer and bloodier battle than it should have been.