WI: Martin Luther merely neutral toward "Peasants' War"?


Martin Luther wrote, "A Christian is a free lord over all things and subject to none."

Maybe he meant merely the spiritual side of life, but in either case, within a couple of years people in the situation of peasantry were applying it to the material side as well.
 
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The American Catholic Quarterly Review, Volume 8
edited by James Andrew Corcoran, Patrick John Ryan, Edmond Francis Prendergast, Philadelphia: Hardy and Mahony, Jan. to Oct. 1883.

https://books.google.com/books?id=o..., give them stripes and musket-balls"&f=false

"Give the ass his fodder, burdens and the cudgel, says the wise man; give the peasants their oat-straw, and if they are not satisfied, give them stripes and musket-balls."
It probably did not help things that Martin's protectors were princes.

But this was definitely his harsh side.
 
Well, he would need a different protector. Since the role of the peasantry was highly controversial at that time, few German-speaking polities fit that role. Maybe a (league of) free city/ies?
 
Protestants: The Faith That Made The Modern World, Alec Ryrie, 2017.

https://books.google.com/books?id=Z...lldocumented fondness for Saxon beer"&f=false

' . . . He was grouchy, obstinate, and an unabashed sensualist, from his boisterous, flirtatious, and deeply affectionate marriage to his well-documented fondness for Saxon beer. . . '
Mmm, I would have pegged Martin differently, more as a super nerd.

And I'm glad he had a happy marriage. And incidentally, a person can be a sensualist and still monogamous. I would guess that about a (?) third of people are somewhat naturally monogamous. And yes, even though this is a clear minority, they should be treated with equal respect. How's that for turning things around! ;)
 
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Protestants: The Faith That Made The Modern World

https://books.google.com/books?id=V...stasies with brutal street fighting."&f=false

' . . . But in 1518, Luther discovered that he could write: accessibly, pungently, mixing soaring ecstasies with brutal street fighting. He had a knack for unforgettable images and analogies and a sense of paradox that made his arguments seem almost irrefutable. . . . he could also do it wonderfully in German, seizing his readers by the throat and pulling them into the debate. The new technology of print had found its first master. . . '

' . . . Luther alone was responsible for over a fifth of the entire output of pamphlets by German presses during the 1520s. . . '
The guy was the Stephen King of his time!

It would be as if for a ten year period the Beatles had an average of 8 songs in the top 40.
 
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http://www.christianitytoday.com/hi...uthers-later-years-recommended-resources.html

• Luther wrote three main treatises on the Peasants’ Revolt: Admonition to Peace [AE 46, (3) 17–43], Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants [AE 46 (45) 49Ä55], and An Open Letter on the Harsh Book against the Peasants [AE 46, (57) 63–85].
Now, a big part of early disputes of the Reformation pertained to infant vs. adult baptism. Maybe Luther could have stayed involved in this.
 
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Now, a big part of early disputes of the Reformation pertained to infant vs. adult baptism. Maybe Luther could have stayed involved in this.
Seems a bit risky. Suggesting that being a Christian and being baptized should be a conscious choice could get a guy killed back then. Though lots of things could. I imagine if someone said that 'no, you don't go to Hell if you aren't baptized because you died as an infant' and enough people believed it then there would be Moreno openness. Come to think of it, baptism for Europeans back then was kind of treated like circumsicion (spellcheck isn't showing up the correct spelling, and I have no intention to google it) for Jews and Muslims. Though much harder to check.
 
Baptism, Brotherhood, and Belief in Reformation Germany: Anabaptism and Lutheranism, 1525-1585, Kat Hill, Oxford University Press, 2015.

https://books.google.com/books?id=A...on infant baptism in central Germany"&f=false


' . . . The process of reform in the Saxon lands was enlivened by the more vituperative attacks on infant baptism in central Germany in particular, by groups such as the Zwickau Prophets—Nicholas Storch, Thomas Drechsel, and Marcus (Thomae) Stübner—who came to Wittenberg from Zwickhau over the Christmas of 1521. . . '


It certainly could get a person killed. I think these three guys made it, but lower on the same page, it says that some of their former associates were arrested.

I think a lot depended on locale. And at times, it probably helped being past a certain threshold of fame; other times it probably worked against you.

Seems a bit risky. Suggesting that being a Christian and being baptized should be a conscious choice could get a guy killed back then. . .
 
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It certainly could get a person killed. I think these three guys made it, but lower on the same page, it says that some of their former associates were arrested.

I think a lot depended on locale. And at times, it probably helped being past a certain threshold of fame; other times it probably worked against you.
Indeed. Would have edited my post if I hadn't had internet troubles after posting the above, as I found they also had some other beliefs that were rather against the state. What with their following the Bible in certain aspects of not serving in the military or taking oaths. Not that it should matter in an age of liars of mercenaries.
 
and Wittenberg, Saxony was on the eastern side of what would become the nation of Germany and maybe about a hundred miles from the Poland border. I think of Poland as having a higher percentage of Jewish citizens, I might be mistaken about this.
 
Maybe hiring mercenaries starts falling out of fashion?

What system do they move to then (in the 16th c. with 16th c. economics?) The Reichslaufer/Landsknecht bands hired themselves out because the alternative was disbanding in peacetime. Same with the Swiss. No German lords could really afford to pay for more than a household guard year-round.
 
I think the Peasants' Revolt is getting crushed anyhow. So the real effects of this POD will be the effects on Lutheranism. A lot of powerful sympathizers with him might be turned off by Luther refusing to condemn it.
 
I think the Peasants' Revolt is getting crushed anyhow. So the real effects of this POD will be the effects on Lutheranism. A lot of powerful sympathizers with him might be turned off by Luther refusing to condemn it.

I mean, there is a way for the Swabian league to technically lose: they had real issues with money until they secured loans and their initial forces were very small. But there is no real way for the peasants to win: they don't have means of securing loans, they don't have a centralized command, they don't even have an exit strategy. Even if the Swabian league is defeated, the peasant movement will be a threat to other nobles around who might want to expand into now-vacant Swabian estates.
 
. . . they don't even have an exit strategy. . . .
Well, then, they need to come up with an exit strategy! :)

Maybe their primary methods become boycott and symbolic protest. And maybe their primary demand is less work service during lean years when they're likely to be malnourished? (don't know enough about the times to know which reforms would make a real difference)
 
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