Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 11.djvu/662

 PEASANTS

598

PEASANTS

however, grew worse. The increase of popiilsition due to prosperity coincided in point of time with the de- velopment of the economic use of inonej- and its injuri- ous influences. The city overshadowed the country, and at times e\en exerted dominion over the countrj' districts. International economic conditions also were detrimental to the peasant class. Large quanti- ties of precious metals were drawn from the mines of Peru, Alexico, and Germany, so that the value of money sank about fifty per cent, while prices rose; thus in Thuringia the price of w-ool was doubled, and the price of merchandise was increased fivefold. On the other hand leases were not reduced or wages raised, but the lords of the land sought to make up their losses by unusually heavy taxation. They ex- tended their authority, increased the services and bur- dens of the serfs, sought to annul the rights of the market associations, and to do away with the peas- ants' hereditary lease of their farms, only granting the use of woodland, water, and pasture on condition of heavy rents. Roman law favoured these exactions. Moreover, the military needs and the growing costs of the local governments led to an increase of the taxes. This caused great bitterness of feeling, especially in Wiirtemberg and Bavaria. To the burdens imposed by the landlord and the territorial sovereign were added imperial taxes, regardless of the economic con- dition of the poorer classes. The position of the peas- ants was at its worst in the very small German states, where the landlord was also the sovereign and desired to live like a prince.

Not only peasants but also cities and nobles took part in the great uprising that is known as the War of the Peasants. Of the cities only the smaller were eco- nomicall)- connected with the peasants. Large cities, like Frankfort, Wilrzburg, and Mainz, joined the up- rising; but economic conditions do not fully e.xplain their action. It must be assumed, therefpre, that external reasons induced the nobility and the cities to combine temporarily with the peasants in the great uprising and that the causes of discontent, which were numerous, varied in the different States. From the end of the fifteenth century great movements for polit- ical reform had been in progress, but on account of the Belfish policy of the territorial princes all attempts to strengthen the x;entral power had failed, and the Nureinberg Diet of 1524 had completely paralyzed the imperial administration. Part of the rebels desired to reform the empire. Political disorders were intensified by religious. For eight years Luther's attitude had disquieted the people and shaken their religious con- victions to their foundations. His declamations about Christian liberty, even if meant in a different sense, increased the ferment. The opponents of the new doctrine regarded Luther, and in part still regard him, as the real instigator of the revolt; the rebels them- selves appealed to him in the conviction that they were only carrying out his teachings. It is not sur- prising that the outbreak took place just at the end of the year 1524. The hope of a national settlement of ecclesiastical reform had come to nought, and the emperor had countermanded the national council, which had been called to meet at Speyer, 1 Sept., 1524. The failure of the efforts for political and ecclesiastical reform must also be included among the causes of the outbreak. Before it is possible to pass a final judg- ment upon the causes, there must be a wider and more thorough investigation of the religious and intellectual life of the German people before the Reformation.

During the years 1492-1.500 there had been sporadic outbreaks in Algau, Alsace, and in the Diocese of Speyer, but they had been betrayed and suppressed. The revolt of "poor Conrad" aga'.nst the extortionate taxation of Duke IHrich of WUrtemberg, and the con- federation of the Wendic peasants in Carinthia, Carni- ola, and Styria had also been crushed by the rulers and nobility of these states. The great uprising of the

peasants in the second decade of the sixteenth century began in the southern [lart of the Black l-'orcst. The revolt was under the daring and clear-sighted guidance of Hans iMiiller of Bulgenhacli and, a.s the rebellion spread over Swabia, Franconia, and Alsace, the power of the rebels steadily grew. They stirred up the peo- ple to disorder by means of promises contained in the so-called "Twelve Articles", of which the author is uncertain. They have been ascribed to Pastor Schap- pler of Memmingen, to Sebastian Lotzcr, and to the Pastor of Waldshuli, Balthasar Hubmaicr, who was under the influence of MUnzer. Their demands were economic, social, and religious. The rate of interest, compulsory service to the lord of the manor, and legal penalties they wished mitigated. Other articles de- manded the restoration of old German economic con- ditions, such as the unions of the old marches and the free right of pasturage, fisliing, and hunting. Social reform was to culminate in the abolition of serfdom, because Christ made all men free, but obedience to the authorities appointed by God was to be maintained. As regards religion they demanded the right to choose their pastors and to guarantee that the clergy should preach the pure and true Gospel. Thus the moderate element that had a share in preparing these articles had no thought of a radical overthrow of all existing conditions. But in this case, as in all great popular upheavals, the moderation expressed in theory was not carried out.

The mobs that were commanded by the tavern- keeper George Metzler, by Florian Geyer, Wendel Hip- ler, Jacklein Rohrbach, and even by the knight, Gotz von Berlichingen, often indulged in an unbridled lust of murder and destruction. The best known of these outrages is the horrible murder of Count von Helfen- stein on 16 April, 1525. Early in May, 1525, the peas- ants were everywhere victorious over the nobility. The Bishops of Bamberg and Speyer, the Abbots of Hersfeld and Fulda, the Elector of the Palatinate, and others made concessions of all kinds to their demands. The revolt, however, was at its height and its leaders thought themselves able to carry out their political aims. Several cities joined the uprising, which was to be under the direction of a vigorous and well-organized board of peasants; at Heilbronn a common chancery was to be established for all the rebel bands ; the great majority of the rebels under arms were to go home and only a select body was to keep the field. The peasants sought to overthrow their real political opponents, the territorial princes. They planned to reorganize the entire constitution of the empire, a scheme that had been repeatedly discussed since the fourteenth cen- tury. 'The object of their plans of reform was to strengthen the empire and to weaken the power of the territorial princes. The property of the Church was to be secularized, and then used to compensate the feudal lords for the abolition of the feudal burdens. The reforms were then to be carried out under the au- thority of the empire, such as uniformity of weights and coinage, suppression of custom-duty, restoration of the German law in the courts, etc.

The petty sovereigns now combined and Luther encouraged their intention to crush the rebellion. In April he had advocated peace and had distinguished between justifiable and unjustifiable demands. He now took a different view of the matter. The fanatical mobs directed by Thomas Miinzer and Heinrich Pfei- fer were spreading destruction in Thuringia by fire and sword, and had destroyed the monasteries of the Harz district and theThuringian Forest (Michaelstein, Ilsenburg, Walkenried, Kelbra, Donndorf, Rossleben, Memleben, and Reinhardsbrunn). Luther now fore- saw the overthrow of State and Church, property and family. Accortlingly on 6 May he violently and pas- sionately urged the princes to smite the "murdering and robbing band of the peasants". The hordes com- manded by Miinzer were defeated on 15 May, 1525,