Causes Of The German Peasant Revolt

In 1517, Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses on a Church in Germany and began a change Europe. Many people second guessed how the Catholic Church was practicing religious teachings and this grew in Germany. After years of battling for religious reforms, a new religion was formed named Lutheranism. Between 1524 and 1526, German peasants began to revolt the Holy Roman Empire. The peasant revolts were caused by greed and wanting to get rid of serfdom and corrupt leaders in the Holy Roman Empire, and both positive and negative responses were seen. Most positive responses were seen by peasants while most negative responses were shown by some religious leaders and Holy Roman Empire leaders.

He also declared that monks and nuns were not obligated to uphold their vows. Luther not only acted revolutionarily towards political religious issues, but towards the social issues of the time as well. The most well known was the Peasants’ Revolt. Some religious leaders twisted and perverted Luther’s ideas to benefit their own causes, with the most prominent being Thomas Müntzer. They wrote the “Twelve Articles”: a petition of peasant demands and sent it to the Swabian League that called upon the Holy Roman Emperor to help the peasantry deal with economic and religious issues. When Charles V ignored the “Twelve Articles,” preachers led by Müntzer stirred the masses to revolt against the nobles. Luther believed the peasants were way out of line, as he was adamantly against mixing religious reformation with political and social revolution. He disassociated himself with Müntzer and the revolting peasants. He urged the princes to work together to “slaughter the swine,” or the peasants. He argued that religious subjects must be subordinate to their secular authorities. Luther proved himself a revolutionary over and over through many acts throughout his religious life.

Inhabiting the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century, the upper class considered peasants a mere subhuman. Conversely, Martin Luther, a German professor of theology, influenced reformation to the German state. This reformation focused on the peasants, especially the peasant revolt of 1524. As the revolution continued, the Peasant Parliament formed to coordinate activates and strive for optimistic results of the revolt. Consequently, peasants offered moderate reforms that were supported by the towns, but condemned by the nobility and the leading Protestant reformer, Martin Luther. This would be known as the largest uprising in Europe before the

The German Peasants’ Revolts were a series of revolts occurring from 1524-1526 in which peasants ran amok throughout the German states, with some groups converging on the town of Memmingen, Swabia, to form a Peasant Parliament and voice their grievances in the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants. The revolts were caused by religious teachings and abuse inflicted by lords, and were responded to with support, as well as condemnation.

Through different inspirations, the Protestant Reformation and Age of Enlightenment sought to change the stagnant traditions of European thinking in the 15th and 16th centuries. Began by German priest named Martin Luther in 1517, he was one of the first people to publicly call out the Catholic Church and their bargaining of indulgences by pasting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church for everyone to see. The 95 Theses was a short list of the 95 flaws of the Catholic Church revolving around the use of their indulgences. Luther believed that people should not be scammed by the church and pay for fake indulgences for salvation, but rather come to a new understanding of salvation that came through faith alone. The other change of tradition was not getting your source of beliefs from the Catholic Church, but solely the Bible, which was a

The Reformation was a split in the Catholic Church during the fifteen-hundred. This schism had major economic, political, and religious implications and caused the creation of Protestant Christianity. It began when Martin Luther wrote the Ninety-Five Theses, where he argued for reform of the Catholic Church. One of the issues that bothered Luther the most, was the sale of indulgences. Church officials sold forgiveness for people's’ sins. While this was just the beginning, there were many factors which led to the beginning of the Reformation.

A major 16th century movement initially aimed at reforming the beliefs and practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Reformation was begun by a German monk named Martin Luther who challenge the Catholic Church’s doctrine by posting his 95 Theses on a church door. He did this because he was appalled that the church was selling indulgences, which were written letters that assured people’s salvation, in order to build a new Basilica in Rome under Pope Leo X. Martin Luther argued that the Bible, not the pope, was the central means to discern God’s word and was the only thing capable of giving salvation.

The protestant reformation was a significant turning point during the 16th century that completely revolutionized the Roman Catholic Church. The “reformation” was launched in 1517 when a German monk by the name of Martin Luther posted his “95 Theses” on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg. The main ideas of this publication was that selling and buying indulgences was wrong and that the pope has no power over purgatory. These 95 revolutionary opinions formed the basis for the protestant reformation which revolutionized western civilization over the next three centuries. Although most people believe these reforms only affected religion, the reformation also impacted political life. Politics played an enormous role in the reformation due to the fact that political rulers wanted to extend their power and control using the church. Throughout the course of the protestant reformation, political authorities such as Emperor Charles V and Henry

In the early 1500s religious reforms were constant throughout all of Germany, including the ideas of Martin Luther. Martin Luther brought the idea of equality to the peasants (1,3,6) , which in term started the revolts. In document 1 Leonhard van Eck states that the peasants were

More specifically, a special decree was included in the Imperial Diet of Speyer in response to the rebellion (Document 7).  This decree ordered an examination of the revolt so that it could be prevented in the future.  Also, the decree included allowing those who “surrendered unconditionally” to return back to their estates despite their violent actions.  On the other hand, Martin Luther took a very different approach in his criticisms in Document 5.  He states that the peasants are acting like “raging dogs” in their violent revolts.  Also, he condemns their use of God was a motivation since instead they are merely trying to get others to join their devilish ways. Martin Luther, as the creator of Lutheranism, is an extremely credible source of criticism for the use of the will of God to inspire and justify the revolts since he is the actual creator of the religion the peasants now follow. At the same time, the German princes also reacted to the revolt by going to the aid of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire.  He used his armies to assist the princes in shutting down the

5. Ninety-five Theses- Luther’s list of 95 grievances posted on the door of the church against the Church a. Regarded as the greatest factor of the Protestant Reformation. In it, Luther protested against the Church’s abuses of power, as John Huss did during the Great Schism, except Luther focused on the sale of indulgences. Generated a belief of justification by faith alone and dependence only on the Bible, leading to the formation of Anabaptism and Protestantism. Papal rule began to be rejected throughout Europe, primarily Northern Europe.

Martin Luther was one of the most influential people in Christian history, when he began the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century. He questioned some of the basic beliefs and principles of the Roman Catholic church and his followers split from the Roman Catholic to begin the protestant tradition. Martin Luther spent a few years at the monastery and finally became an Augustinian monk. Martin Luther gained religious enlightenment through the studies of the scriptures. Martin Luther believed that the key to spiritual salvation was not the fear of God but the believe that faith alone will bring salvation. This thinking set the motion for the reformation. It led to one event after another and also peasant revolts. The following paragraph explain how Martin Luther influenced peasant revolts.

Germany during 16th century was a petri dish of religious reformation. The small independent states that comprised Germany began to move away from the catholic church towards the belief of Lutheran ideals. This change in religion and ideals towards everyone being equal in the eyes of God and the dissatisfaction towards their place in society caused the peasants’ revolt of 1524-1526, which was met with force by nobles because they under minded the peasants’ and saw them as an economic transaction who were witless, outliers and middle men attempted to save their own skins and would say anything that might help them.

The Peasants’ War in Germany is widely accepted as one of the most influential rebellions in European history. As of 1524, peasants began to gather together in order to break social norms and regulations that were highly looked after in society. Lords, princes, and governments in the Roman Empire were overtaken, which created a possibility for huge revolutionary changes, especially if the rebel’s intentions had been fully realized. The Peasants’ War was made up of five smaller, related rebellions in the region of Upper Swabia in southern Germany. In 1525, over 40,000 peasant soldiers had gathered together and controlled the Upper Swabia region. Numerous conflicts along with a strong religious influence caused the rebellion at the time. Political

The Peasant Wars were regional rebellions pertaining to ownership of land, agriculture and rural matters, and the Reformation had a major influence. Common people began to question the Catholic Church after Martin Luther translated the Bible into German. Church reformers such as Huldrych Zwingli and Thomas Muntzer further convinced them they had equal rights