Jioctaf JSibe of f 0e (gef or mat ton in
THE PEASANTS WAR
IN GERMANY
^ocmf ^i&e of flje (Betman
(geformafton.
BY E. BELFORT BAX.
I. GERMAN SOCIETY AT THE CLOSE
OF THE MIDDLE AGES.
II. THE PEASANTS WAR, 15251526.
III. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ANA-
BAPTISTS. [In preparation.
LONDON: SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
1
THE PEASANTS WAR
IN GERMANY//
1525-1526
BY
E^BELFORT ':
AUTHOR OF " THE STORY OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION," " THE RELIGION OF
SOCIALISM," "THE ETHICS OF SOCIALISM," "HANDBOOK OF THE
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY," ETC., ETC.
WITH A MAP OF GERMANY AT THE TIME OF THE
REFORMATION
<&
LONDON
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO., LIM.
NEW YORK: THE MACMILLAN CO.
1899
54
ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS
PREFACE.
IN presenting a general view of the incidents of
the so-called Peasants War of 1525, the historian
encounters more than one difficulty peculiar to
the subject. He has, in the first place, a special
trouble in preserving the true proportion in his
narrative. Now, proportion is always the crux
in historical work, but here, in describing a more
or less spontaneous movement over a wide area,
in which movement there are hundreds of differ-^/
ent centres with each its own story to tell, it is
indeed hard to know at times what to include
and what to leave out. True, the essential ^
similarity in the origin and course of events
renders a recapitulation of the different local
risings unnecessary and indeed embarrassing
for readers whose aim is to obtain a general
notion. But the author always runs the risk of
being waylaid by some critic in ambush, who
will accuse him of omitting details that should
have been recorded.
vi PREFACE.
Again, the approximate simultaneity of the
risings over a wide extent of territory makes it
impossible to preserve chronological sequence
in the general survey. Yet again, here, even
more than elsewhere, discrepancies are to be
found in different accounts of the same event,
and the historian, writing for the general reader,
must either reconcile them to the best of his
power or choose between them. He cannot well
give a wealth of variorum versions or enter into
elaborate disquisitions justifying the view he
takes. To do either would change the character
of such a work as this from a volume designed
for the average reader of history to a disser-
tation for the benefit of a specialist student of
Reformation history.
I mention these difficulties as there is always
a field in a work of this nature for the ingenuity
of a hostile reviewer qui cherche les puces dans
la paille to hunt out minutid on which two
opinions may be held. By enlarging upon
them, he attempts to disparage the work as a
whole. A former volume, dealing with German
Society in Reformation times, received favour-
able recognition, I believe, in every quarter save
one. The one hostile review appeared anony-
PREFACE. vii
mously in a literary journal, which, if I mistake
not, was then making a special point of signed
reviews. Internal evidence identified the critic
as a gentleman who has been believed, rightly
or wrongly, to have been for some years pre-
paring material for a work on German Refor-
mation History. Of the somewhat laboured
attempts in the article in question to prove the
inadequacy of my book, I will only mention
one. Quoting a narrative passage, the reviewer
stigmatised it as in the style of Zimmermann,
which, he observes, " belongs to an obsolete
method of writing history ". Now, Zimmer-
mann's method was to bring an historical event,
as realistically as his power of language would
go, before the mind's eye of the reader. This
method our superfine and would-be up-to-date
critic describes as obsolete ! I need only point
out that, if so, the late Professor Freeman and
the late Mr. J. R. Green, not to speak of other
leading historians, English and foreign, must be
reckoned as exceedingly " obsolete " persons.
That Zimmermann possessed in an exceptional
degree the gift of such descriptive writing has
been remarked by all who have read him.
Personally, I make no claim to the power, and
viii PREFACE.
do not wish to excuse my own shortcomings,
but I can only say that if such writing be
obsolete, the sooner it be revived the better.
Surely the faculty of reproducing the past as
a living present remains the ideal of historical
literary style !
The literature of the Peasants War is con-
siderable in German-speaking countries. An
immense amount of exceedingly careful research
has been applied to the collection and elucidation
of documents relating to the movement in differ-
ent places and districts. Just as in Paris there
are many retired scholars whose hobby it is to
spend their lives in collecting every scrap of
information concerning the French Revolution
and the lives of the actors in it, so here, although
perhaps on a smaller scale, there are many
German bibliophiles who have devoted years to
investigating in elaborate detail the facts in con-
nection with the events and persons of the 1525
revolt. Instead of cumbering the text with a
multitude of footnotes, I give here a list of some
principal authorities consulted :
Zimmermann's Allgemeine Geschichte des
grossen Bauernkrieges.
Do., 1891 edition, edited by Wilhelm Bios.
PREFACE.
IX
Bezold's Geschichte der deutsc hen Re formation.
Janssen's Geschichte des deutschen Volkes.
Egelhaafs Deutsche Geschichte im i6ten.
Jahrhundert.
Lamprecht's Deutsche Geschichte.
Ranke's Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der
Reformation.
Weill's Der Bauernkrieg.
Hartfelder's Geschichte des Baiiernkrieges in
Siiddeutschland.
Amongst the collection of contemporary docu-
ments and early sources that have been found
useful may be mentioned :
Schreiber's Der deutsc he Bauernkrieg gleich-
seitige Urkunden.
Baumann's Akten zur Geschichte des deutschen
Bauernkrieges aus Oberschwaben.
Zimmersche Chronik.
Villinger Chronik.
Rothenburger Chronik.
Schwdbisch Hall, Chronika, etc.
Sebastian Franck's Chronik.
Melancthon's pamphlet on Thomas Miinzer,
and other documents in Luther's Sdntmt-
liche Werke.
b
PREFACE.
Tagebuch des Her olds Hans Lutz von Augs-
burg, published from the original manu-
script in Zeitschrift filr die Gesckichte
des Oberrheins.
Lorenz Fries's Gesckichte des Bauernkrieges
in Ostfranken.
Gotz von Berlichingen's Lebensbeschreibung.
Haarer's Eigentliche Warhafftige Beschrei-
bung dess Bawrenkriegs.
The various pamphlets by Thomas Miinzer.
Amongst monographs on special subjects
connected with the events of 1525 may be
mentioned :
The chapters relating to the revplt in Thur-
ingia, by Kautsky, in the Geschichte des
Sozialismus, Band i.
Seidemann's Thomas Munzer.
Blos's Pater Ambrosius.
Barthold's Georg von Frundsberg.
I give the above partial list to obviate the
inconvenience of crowding up the text with
references. Of all the works on the Peasants
War, that of Zimmermann still holds the first
place, alike for comprehensiveness of view and
accuracy. Many details, it is true, have been
corrected and expanded by later research, but
PREFACE. xi
for sympathetic understanding of the movement,
combined with historical insight, Zimmermann
has yet hardly been equalled and certainly not
surpassed.
To render the present volume complete, a
map of Reformation-Germany (from Spruner-
Menke's Historisc her Atlas) has been included.
E. B. B.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE SITUATION DURING THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE
SIXTEENTH CENTURY I
II. THE OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR ... 36
III. DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES OF THE MOVEMENT. 59
IV. THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY .... 96
V. THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA .... 154
VI. THE MOVEMENT IN THE EAST AND WEST . . . 187
VII. THE THURINGIAN REVOLT AND THOMAS MUNZER . 231
VIII. THE SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION THROUGHOUT
GERMANY . . 275
IX. THE ALPINE GLOW IN THE AUSTRIAN TERRITORIES . 326
X. CONCLUSION 349
THE PEASANTS WAR.
CHAPTER I.
THE SITUATION DURING THE FIRST QUARTER
OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
IN a former volume 1 we considered at length
the condition of Central Europe at the close
of the period known as the Middle Ages. It
will suffice here to recapitulate in a few para-
graphs the general position.
The time was out of joint in a very literal
sense of that somewhat hackneyed phrase.
Every established institution political, social,
and religions wns Rhn ken and shewed the rents
and fissures ransed hy time, and hy thp growth
of a new life underneath it. The empire the
Holy Roman was in a parlous way as re-
garded its cohesion. The power of the princes,
the representatives of local centralised authority.
1 German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages, by E.
Belfort Bax (Swan Sonnenschein & Co., London, 1894).
THE PEASANTS WAR.
- was proving itself too strong for the power of
jhe emperor, the recognised representative of
"tentralised authority for the whole German-
speaking world. This meant the undermining
and eventual disruption of the smaller social
and political unities, 1 the knightly manors with
the privileges attached to the knightly class
generally. \ The knighthood, or lower nobility,
had acted as a sort of buffer hefween_Jtke
princes of the empire and the imperiaJ pnwnr
.lQ__Hdlicil tripy often looked for protection
against their immediate overlord nr their power-
ful neighbour the prinre^ The imperial power,
in consequence, found the lower nobility a
bulwark against its princely vassals. Economic
changes, the suddenly increased demand for
money owing- to the rise of the ^world-market,"
new inventions in the art of war, new methods
of fighting, the rapidly growing importance of
jirtillery and the increase of the__mercenary
soldiery, had rendered the lower nobility, as an
1 It should be remembered that Germany at this time
was cut up into feudal territorial divisions of all sizes, from
the principality, or the prince-bishopric, to the knightly
manor. Every few miles, and sometimes less, there was a
'fresh territory, a fresh lord, and a fresh jurisdiction.
\
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 3
Itution, a factor in the political situation
which was fast becoming negligible. The
abortive campaign of Franz von Sickingen in
1523 only showed its hopeless weakness. The
"Reicksregiment" or imperial governing council,
a body instituted by Maximilian, had lamentably
failed to effect anything towards cementing
together the various parts of the unwieldy
fabric. Finally, at the " Reichstag " held in
Niirnberg, in December, 1522, at which all the
estates were represented, the " Reicksregiment"
to all intents and purposes, collapsed.
The Reichstag in question was summoned
ostensibly for the purpose of raising a subsidy
for the Hungarians in their struggle against the
advancing power of the Turks. The Turkish
movement westward was, of course, throughout
this period, the most important question of
what in modern phraseology would be called
" foreign politics". The princes voted the 1
proposal of the subsidy without consulting
the representatives of the cities, who knew
the heaviest part of the burden was to fall
upon themselves. The urgency of the situa-
tion, however, weighed with them, with the
result that they submitted after considerable
THE PEASANTS WAR.
remonstrance. The princes, in conjunction with
\x^ their rivals, the lower nobility, next proceeded
to attack the commercial monopolies, the Jirst
fruits of the rising capitalism, the appanage
mainly of the trading companies and the mer-
chant-magnates of the towns. This was too
much for civic patience. The city represen-
tatives, who of course belonged to the civic
^--aristocracy, waxed indignant. The feudal orders
went on to claim the right to set up vexatious
tariffs in their respective territories whereby
to hinder artificially the free development of
the new commercial capitalist. This filled up
the cup of endurance of the magnates of the
cities. The city representatives refused their
consent to the Turkish subsidy and withdrew.
The next step was the sending of a deputation
to the young Emperor Karl, who was in
Spain, and whose sanction to the decrees of
the Reichstag was necessary before their pro-
mulgation. The result of the conference held
on this occasion was a decision to undermine
the "Reithsrcgiment? and weaken the power of
the princes, by whom and by whose tools it
was manned, as a factor in the imperial con-
stitution. As for the princes, while some of
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR K 5
their number were positively opposed to it,
others cared little one way or the other. Their
chief aim was to strengthen and consolidate
their power within the limits of their own
territories, and a weak empire was perhaps
better adapted for effecting this purpose than
a stronger one, even though certain of their
own order had a controlling voice in its ad-
ministration. As already hinted, the collapse
of the rebellious knighthood under Sickingen,
a few weeks later, clearly showed the political
drift of the situation in the haute politique of
the empire.
The rising capitalists of the cities, the mon
polists. merchant princes and syndicates, are
the theme of universal invective throughout this
period^ To them the rapid and enormous rise
in prices during thf parly years of the sixteenth
century, the scarcity of money consequent on
the increased demand for it, and the iirLpoverish-
f large sections of the population, were
attributed by noble and peasant alike. The
whole trenc^of public opinion, in short, outside
thVwealthier burghers ^f the larger cities the
class immediately interested was adverse to
the condition of things created by the new
THE PEASANTS WAR.
world-market, and by the new class embodying
it. At present it was a small class, the only
one that gained by it, and that gained at the
expense of all the other classes.
Some idea of the class-antagonisms of the
period may be gathered from the statement of
Ulrich von Hutten, in his dialogue entitled
41 Predones," that there were four orders of
robbers in Germany the knights, the lawyers,
\htpriests, and the merchants (meaning especially
the new capitalist merchant-traders or syndi-
cates). Of these, he declares the robber-knights
to be the least harmful. This is naturally only
to be expected from so gallant a champion of
his order, the friend and abettor of Sickingen.
Nevertheless, the seriousness of the robber-
knight evil, the toleration of which in principle
was so deeply ingrained in the public opinion of
large sections of the population, may be judged
from the abortive attempts made to stop it, at
the instance alike of princes and of cities, who
on this point, if on no other, had a common
interest. In 1502, for example, at the Reich-
stag held in Gelnhausen in that year, certain of
the highest princes of the empire made a
representation that, at least, the knights should
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 7
permit the gathering in of the harvest and the
vintage in peace. But even this modest demand
was found to be impracticable. The knights
had to live in the style required by their status,
as they declared, and where other means were
more and more failing them, their ancient right
or privilege of plunder was indispensable to
their order. Still Hutten was right so far in
declaring the knight the most harmless kind of
robber, inasmuch as, direct as were his methods,
his sun was obviously setting, while as much
could not be said of the other classes named ;
the merchant and the lawyer were on the rise,
and the priest, although about to receive a
check, was not destined to speedily disappear,
or to change fundamentally the character of his
activity.
The feudal orders saw their own position^
seriously threatened by the new development
of things economic in the cities. The gui 1 ds
were becoming crystallised into close corpora-
tions of wealthy families, constituting a kind of
second Ehrbarkeit
or town patriciate ; the num-
p landless ana~j^npnyjjegeii r l^atk a^
most a bare footing in the town constitution,
were increasing_Jn_ an alarming^p^roportion ;
THE PEASANTS WAR.
-~ the journeyman-workman was no longer a stage
between apprentice and master-craftsman, but
a permanent condition embodied in a large and
growing class. All these symptoms indicated
an extraordinary economic revolution, which
wasjiaking itself at first directly felt onlyin
the larger cities,_but the results of which were
dislocatin the social relations of the Middle
Perhaps the most striking feature in this
dislocation was the transition from direct barter
to exchange through the medium n_money T and
the consequent suddenly increased importance
of the role played by usury jnj:he social life of
the time. The scarcity of money is ajperennial
theme of complaint JoLJvhich the new large
made responsible.
The class in question was itself only a symptom
of the general economic change. The seeming
scarcity of money, though but the consequence
of the increased demand for a circulating
medium, was explained to the disadvantage
of the hated monopolists by a crude form of
the " mercantile " theory. The new merchant,
in contradistinction to the master-craftsman
working en famille with his apprentices and
SIT UA TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 9
assistants, now often stood entirely outside the
processes of production as speculator or middle-
man ; and he, and still more the syndicate who
fulfilled the like functions on a larger scale
(especially with reference to foreign trade), came
to be regarded as particularly obnoxious robbers,
because interlopers to boot. Unlike the knights,
they were robbers with a new face.
The lawyers were detested for much the
same reason (cf. German Society at the Close
of the Middle Ages, pp. 219-228). The pro-
fessional lawyer-class, since its final differentia-
tion from the clerk-class in general, had made ^-
the Roman or civil law its speciality, and had
done its utmost everywhere to establish the
principles of the latter.._.in place of the old
feudal law of earlier mediaeval Europe. The^^
Roman law was especially favourable to the
j2retp.nsinn_s_ of the princes, and, from an eco-
nomic, point of view, of the nobility in general, -~N
jnasmuch as land was on the new legal principles
lreajted^aLSJLhe__private prorjetty^of^hejord^over f
^whdcjijhejiad full power of ownership, and_not,
as under feudal and canon law, as_ji trust
^ duties as well as rights. The class
of jurists was itself of comparatively recent
io THE PEASANTS WAR.
growth in Central Europe, and its rapid increase
in every portion of the empire dated from less
than half a century back. It may be well
understood, therefore, why these interlopers,
who ignored the ancient customary law of the
-country, and who by means of an alien code
deprived the poor freeholder or copyholder of
his land, or justified new and unheard-of exac-
tions on the part of his lord on the plea that
the latter might do what he liked with his own,
were regarded by the peasant and humble man
as robbers whose depredations were, if any-
thing, even more resented than those of their
old and tried enemy the plundering knight.
riest] especially of the regular orders,
was indeed an old foe, but his offence had. n pw
Jbecome vejry_j^nk. From the middle _of the^
fifteenth^century onwards the stream of anti-
_clerical literature_jyaxes alike in volume and,
intensity. The " monk " had become the_object^
^fjiatred and scorn throughout the whole lay
world __ This view of the "regular " was shared,
moreover, by not a few of the secular clergy
themselves. Humanists, who were subsequently
ardent champions of the Church against Luther
and the Protestant Reformation men such as
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 1 1
Murner and Erasmus had been previously
the bitterest satirists of the " friar" and the
"monk". Amongst the great body of the
laity, however, though the religious orders came
in perhaps for the greater share of animosity,
the secular priesthood was not much better off
in popular favour, whilst the upper members^oT
the ^hierarchy were naturally regarded_as the
chief blood-suckers of the German people ii
the interests of Rome, The vast revenues
which both directly in the shape of '^pallium ^\
(the price of " investiture ")[annates\ (first year's
-r II
revenues of appointments), Peter ^ pence, and
recently of \indulgences\- the latter the Ipy no
means most onerous exaction, since it was
voluntary, though proving as it happened the
proverbial "last straw " all these things, taken
together with what was indirectly obtained from
Germany, through the expenditure of German
ecclesiastics on their visits to Rome and by the
crowd of parasites, nominal holders of German
benefices merely, but real recipients of German
substance, who danced attendance at the
Vatican .obviously constituted an enormous
v drain on the resources of the country from
all the lay classes alike, of which wealth the
12 THE PEASANTS WAR.
papal_chair could be_plajnly seeru to be the
_receptacle.
- If we add to these causes of discontent the
vastness in number of the _regular_clergy, the
." already referred to, who
consumed, but were only too obviously unpro-
ductive, it will be sufficiently plain that the
Protestant Reformation had something very
much more than a purely speculative basis to
work upon. Religious reformers there had
been in Germany throughout the Middle Ages,
but their preachings had taken no deep root.
The powerful personality of the Monk of
Wittenberg found an economic soil ready to
hand in which his teachings could fructify, and
hence the world-historic result. As we saw in
the former volume of this history, thefpeasant
revolts, sporadic the Middle Ages through, had
~~ for the half-century preceding the Reformation
been growing in frequency and importance, but
it needed nevertheless the sudden impulse, the
powerful jar given by a Luther in 1517, and
the series of blows with which it was followed
during the years immediately succeeding, to
crystallise the mass of fluid discontent and
social unrest in its various forms and give
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 13
it definite direction. The blow which was
primarily struck in the region of speculative
thought and ecclesiastical relations did not stop
there in its effects. The attack on the domi-
nant theological system at first merely on
certain comparatively unessential outworks of
that system necessarily of its own force de-
veloped into an attack on the organisation
representing v it, and on the economic basis of
the latter. iThe battle against ecclesiastical
abuses, again, in its turn, focussed the ever-
smouldering discontent with abuses in general ;
and this time, not in one district only, but
simultaneously over the whole of Germany.
The movement inaugurated by Luther gave to
the peasant groaning under the weight of
baronial oppression, and the small handicrafts-
man suffering under his Ehrbarkcit, a rallying
point and a rallying cry^
In history there is no movement which starts
up full grown from the brain of any one man, or
even from the mind of any one generation of
men, like Athene from the head of Zeus. The
historical epoch which marks the crisis of the
given change is after all little beyond a pro-
minent landmark a parting of the ways led
i 4 THE PEASANTS WAR.
up to by a long preparatory development. This
is nowhere more clearly illustrated than in the
Reformation and its accompanying movements.
The ideas and aspirations animating the social,
political and intellectual revolt of the sixteenth
century can each be traced back to, at least,
the beginning of the fifteenth century, and in
> many cases farther still. The way the German
of Luther's time looked at the burning questions
of the hour was not essentially different from
the way the English Wycliffites and Lollards
or the Bohemian Hussites and Taborites viewed
them. There was obviously a difference born
of the later time, but this difference was not, I
repeat, essential. The changes which, a century
previously, were only just beginning, had,
meanwhile, made enormous progress. The
disintegration of the material conditions of
mediaeval social life' was now approaching its
completion, forced on by the inventions and
discoveries of the previous half-century. But
the ideals of the mass of men, learned and
simple, were still in the main the ideals that
had been prevalent throughout the whole of
the later Middle Ages. Men still looked at the
world and at social progress through mediaeval
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 15
spectacles. The chief difference was that now
ideas which had previously been confined to
special localities, or had only had a sporadic
existence among the people at large, had be-
come general throughout large portions of the
population. The invention of the art of printing
was of COIirS^ Isrg^ly inQfmmp n fq1 in
The comparatively sudden popularisation of
doctrines previously confined to special circles
was the distinguishing feature of the intellectual
life of the first half of the sixteenth century.
Among the many illustrations of the foregoing'
which might be given, we are specially con-
cerned here to note the sudden popularity
during this period of two imaginary constitu-
tions_dating from early irT the~previous century.
From the fourteenth century we find traces,
perhaps suggested by the Prester John legend,
of a deliverer in the shape of an emperor who
should come from the East, who should be the
last of his name ; should right all wrongs ;
should establish the empire in universal justice
and peace ; and, in short, should be the fore-
runner of the kingdom of Christ on earth.
This notion or mystical hope took increasing
,6
THE PEASANTS WAR.
root during the fifteenth century, and is to
be found in many respects embodied in the
spurious constitutions mentioned, which bore
respectively the names of the Emperors Sig-
mund and Friedrich. It was in this form that
the Hussite theories were absorbed by the
German mind. First of all, it was the eccenjf ic
and romantic Emperor Friedrich II. who was
conceived of as playing the role in question.
Later, the hopes of the Messianists of the
" Holy Roman Empire" were centred in the
Emperor Sigmund._ Later on still the role of
the former Friedrich was carried over to his
successor, Friedrich III., upon whom the hopes
of the German people-^vere cast.
The Reformation of Kaiser Sigmund, origin-
ally written about ijj,8,_went through several
editions before the end of the century, and
was many times reprinted during the open-
ing years of Luther's movement. Like its
successor, that of Friedrich, the scheme at-
tributed to Sigmund proposed the abolition
- of the recent abuses of feudalism, of the new
lawyer class, and of the symptoms already
making themselves felt of the change from
barter to money payments. It proposed, in
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 1 7
short, a return fn primitive ^nHi'i-ir^c:, It was
a scheme of reform on a Biblical basis, embrac-
ing many elements of a distinctly communistic
character, as communism was then understood.
It was pervaded with the idea of equality in
the spirit of the Taborite literature of the
age, from which it dated its origin. The so-
called Reformation of Kaiser Sigmund dealt
especially with the peasantry the serfs and
villeins of the time ; that attributed to Friedrich
was mainly concerned with the rising population
of the towns. All towns and communes w
to undergo a constitutional transformation.
Handicraftsmen should receive just wages ; -
all roads should be free ; taxes, dues and levies
should be abolished ; trading capital was to be
limited to a maximum of 10,000 gulden; all
surplus capital should fall to the imperial
authorities, who should lend it in case of need
to poor handicraftsmen at five per cent. ; uni-
formity of coinage and of weights and measures
was to be decreed, together with the abolition
of the Roman and Canon law. Legists, priests
and princes were to be severely dealt with.
But, curiously enough, the middle and lower
nobility, especially the knighthood, were more
1 8 THE PEASANTS WAR.
tenderly handled, being treated as themselves
victims of their feudal superiors, lay and
ecclesiastic, especially the latter. In this con-
- nection the secularisation of ecclesiastical fiefs
was strongly insisted on.
As men found, however, that neither the
Emperor Sigmund, nor the Emperor Friedrich
III., nor the Emperor Maximilian, upon each
of whom successively their hopes had been
cast as the possible realisation of the German
Messiah of earlier dreams, fulfilled their expecta-
tions, nay, as each in succession implicitly belied
these hopes, showing no disposition whatever
to act up to the views promulgated in their
names, the tradition of the imperial deliverer
gradually lost its force and popularity. By the
opening of the Lutheran Reformation the opinion
had become general that a change would not
. come from above, _but that the initiative must
rest with the people themselves with the classes
""specially oppressed by ~ existing conditions,
Apolitical, economic and. ecclesiastical to effect
by their own exertions such a transformation as
was shadowed forth in the spurious constitutions.
These, and similar ideas, were now everywhere
taken up and elaborated, often in a still more
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR V. 19
radical sense than the original; and they every-
where found hearers and jidherents. _
The "true inwardness" of the change, of
which the Protestant Reformation represented
the ideological side, meant the transformation
of society from a basis mainly corporative and
co-operative to one individualistic in its essential
character. The whole polity of the middle
ages, industrial, social, p^litiralj ecd^siastira]
was based on the principle of the group r>r_th
ranging in hierarchical order* from
the i-rar^-ornj]H_j-n the town rorporation ; from
the town corporation through the feudal orders
to the imperial throne itself; from the single
monastery to the order as a whole ; and from
the order as a whole to the complete hierarchy
of the Church as represented by the papal chair.
The principle ofthis^social organisation was now
hreajdng down. The modern and bourgeois con-
ception of the autonomy of the individual in all
Spheres of life was beginning to afHrm~Ttself.
The most definite expression of this new
principle asserted itself in the religious sphere.
The Individualism which was inherent in
early Christianity, but which was present as
a speculative content merely, had not been
20 THE PEASANTS WAR.
strong enough to counteract even the remains
of corporate tendencies on the material side of
things, in the decadent Roman Empire ; and
infinitely less so the vigorous group-organisation
and sentiment of the northern nations, with their
tribal society and communistic traditions still
mainly intact. And these were the elements
out of which mediaeval society arose. Naturally
enough the new religious tendencies in revolt
against the mediaeval corporate Christianity of
the Catholic Church seized upon this individual-
istic element in Christianity, declaring the chief
end of religion to be jij3ej^Qj2aL_salvatkin, for
the attainment of which the individual, -himself^
was suf6jcing r --apar4-^em---Ghurch organisation
jtnd Chqrrh tradition This served as a valuable
destructive weapon for the iconoclasts in their
attack on ecclesiastical privilege ; consequently,
% - - in religion, this doctrine of Individualism rapidly
made headway. But in more material matters
the old corporative instinct was still too strong
and the conditions were as yet too imperfectly
ripe for the speedy triumph of Individualism.
The conflict of the two tendencies is curiously
exhibited in the popular movements of the
Reformation-time. As enemies of the decaying
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 2-.
and obstructive forms of Feudalism and Church
organisation, the peasant and
nn the side of \\\r n^w T
ualism. So far as negation and destruction
were concerned, they were working apparently
for the new order of things that new order of
things which longo intervallo has finally landed
us in the developed capitalistic Individualism of
the nineteenth century. Yet when we come to
consider their constructive programmes we find
the positive demands put forward are based
either on ideal conceptions derived from reminis-
cences of primitive communism, or else that
they distinctly postulate a return to a state
of things the old mark-organisation upon
which the later feudalism had in various ways
encroached, and finally superseded. Hence,
they were, in these respects, not merely not in
the trend of contemporary progress, but in
actual opposition to it ; and therefore, as Lasalle
has justly remarked, they were necessarily and
in any case doomed to failure in the long
run. This point should not be lost sight of
in considering the various popular movements
of the earlier half of the sixteenth century.
The world was still essentially mediaeval ; men
itsmanvr
ndivid^T^
rii^firm *
THE PEASANTS WAR.
^ were still dominated by mediaeval ways of
looking at things and still immersed in mediaeval
conditions of life. It is true that out of this
mediaeval soil the new individualistic society
was beginning to grow, but its manifestations
were as yet not so universally apparent as to
force a recognition of their real meaning. It was
still possible to regard the various symptoms
^of change, numerous as they were, and far-
reaching as we now see them to have been, as
sporadic phenomena, as rank but unessential
overgrowths on the old society, which it was
possible by pruning and the application of other
suitable remedies to get rid of, and thereby to
restore a state of pristine health in the body
political and social.
Biblical phrases and the notion of Divine
J Justice now took the place in the popular mind
formerly occupied by Church and Emperor. All
the then oppressed classes of society the small
>easant. half villein, half free-man ; the landless
[journeyman and town-proletarian ; the beggar
>y the wayside ; the small master, crushed by
isury or tyrannised over by his wealthier col-
iague in the guild, or by the town-patriciate ;
iven the impoverished knight, or the soldier of
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 23
fortune defrauded of his pay ; in short, all with
whom times were bad, found consolation for
their wants and troubles, and at the same time
an incentive to action, in the notion of a Divine j
Justice, which should restore all things, ancTtKe"
advent of which was approaching. All had
Biblical phrases tending in the direction of
their immediate aspirations in their mouths. As
bearing on the\development and propaganda of
the new ideas, the existence of a new intel-
lectual class, rendered possible by the new
method of exchange through money (as opposed
to that of barter), which for a generation past
had been in full swing in the larger towns,
must not be forgotten. Formerly land had
been the essential condition of livelihood ; now/
it was no longer so. The "universal equivalent/
money, conjoined with the printing press, was
rendering a literary class proper, for the firsft
time, possible. In the same way the teacher,
physician, and the small lawyer were enabled tOI
subsist as followers of independent professions, \
apart from the special service of the Church
or as part of the court-retinue of some feudal /
potentate. To these we must add a fresh and
very important section of the intellectual class
24 THE PEASANTS WAR.
which also now for the first time acquired an
independent existence to wit, that of the public
al or functionary. This change, although
only one of many, is itself specially striking
as indicating the transition from the barbaric
civilisation of the Middle Ages to the beginnings
of the civilisation of the Modern World. We
have, in short, before us, as already remarked,
a period in which the Middle Ages, whilst still
V dominant, have their force visibly sapped by
the growth of a new life.
To sum up the chief features of this new
life : Industrially, we have the decline of the
old system of production in the countryside
jn which each manor or, at least, each district,
< was_Jbr the most ^part self-sufficing and self-
supporting, where production was almost entirely
for immediate use, and only the surplus was
(exchanged, and where such exchange as existed
took place exclusively under the form of barter.
^In_jplace_pf this, we find now something more
han the beginnings of a national-market and
distinct traces of that of a world-market. In the
^towns the change was even still more marked.
Here we have a sudden and hothouse-Tike
nf fV>^ inflnprtrg^nrTnone. The
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 25
guild-system, originally designed for associa-
jMnns..nf firafV.snien. for which the chief object
was, the, man andjthe work, and not the mere
acquirement of profit, was changing its character?^
Trie guilds were becoming close corporations *-
capitalists, while a commerciaT
capitalism, as already indicated, was raising its
head in "alTthe "larger centra llUQnsequence
ot this state of things^the rapid
of the towns and of commerce, national and
tnTer national, and the economic backwardness
"of the countryside, a landless proletariat was
^ """ """^"""^ZIZII
formed, which meant on the one hancl art
increase in n
jTiendicancy of all kinds, __
arid on the other the creation of a permanent
c 1 ass of only casually-employed persons, who m
the towns absorbed indeed, but for the most
part with a new form of citizenship involving '
only the bare right of residence within the
[s. Similar social phenomena were of course
manifesting themselves contemporaneously in
other parts of Europe ; but in__Germany thej
change was more sudden than elsewhere, and_j .
was complicated by special political circum- '
stances.
The political and militarv functions of that
26 THE PEASANTS WAR.
for the mediaeval polity of Germany, _ so im-
portant class, the knighthood, or lower nobility,
had by this time become practically obsolete,
mainly owing to the changed conditions of
warfare. But yet the class itself was numerous,
and still, nominally at least, possessed of most
of its old privileges and authority. The extent
of its real power depended, however, upon the
absence or weakness of a central power, whether
imperial or state-territorial. The attempt to
reconstitute the centralised power of the empire
under Maximilian, of which the Reichsregiment
was the outcome, had, as we have seen, not
proved successful. Its means of carrying into
effect its own decisions were hopelessly inade-
quate. In 1523 it was already weakened, and
became little more than a " survival " after the
Reichstag held at Niirnberg in 1524. Thus this
body, which had been called into existence at
the instance of the most powerful estates of
the empire, was " shelved " with the practically
unanimous consent of those who had been
instrumental in creating it. But if the attempt
at imperial centralisation had failed, the force
of circumstances tended partly for this very
reason to favour state-territorial centralisation.
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 27
The aim of all the territorial magnates, the
higher members of the imperial system, was to
consolidate their own princely power within the
territories owing them allegiance. This desire
played a not unimportant part in the establish-
ment of the Reformation in certain parts of the
country for example, in Wiirtemberg, and in
the northern lands of East Prussia which were
subject to the Grand Master of the Teutonic
knights. The time was at hand for the trans-
formation of the mediaeval feudal territory, with
its local jurisdictions and its ties of service, into
the modern bureaucratic state, with its centralised
administration and organised system of salaried
functionaries subjecttp a central authority.
s Z
.The' religious^movement inaugurated by
AithejNnet and was~a5sorbed by all these ele-
ments of change. It furnished them with a
religious flag, under cotfer of which they could
work themselves out. This was necessary in an
age when the Christian theology was unques-
tioningly accepted in one or another form by
well-nigh all men, and hence entered as a
practical belief into their daily thoughts and
lives. The Lutheran Reformation, from its in-
ception in 1517 down to the Peasants War of
28 THE PEASANTS WAR.
^X~~
1525, at once absorbed, and was absorbed by,
11 the revolutionary elements of the time. Up
:o the last-mentioned date it gathered revolu-
tionary force year by year. But this was the
urning point. With the crushing of the
peasants' revolt and the decisively anti-popular
attitude taken up by Luther, the religious move-
ment associated with him ceased any longer to
have a revolutionary character. It henceforth
-became definitely subservient to the new inter-
ests of the wealthy and privileged classes, and
as such completely severed itself from the more
extreme popular reforming sects. Up to this
time, though by no means always approved by
Luther himself or his immediate followers, and
in some cases even combated by them, the
latter were nevertheless not looked upon w r ith
disfavour by large numbers of the rank and file
of those who regarded Martin Luther as their
leader. Nothing could exceed the violence of
language with which Luther himself attacked all
who stood in his way. Not only the ecclesiastical,
but also the secular heads of Christendom came
in for the coarsest abuse ; " swine " and " water-
bladder "are not the strongest epithets employed.
But this was not all ; in his Treatise o
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 29
Authority and how far it should be Obeyed
(published in 1523), whilst professedly main-
taining the thesis that the secular authority is
a Divine ordinance, Luther none the less ex-
pressly justifies resistance to all human authority
where its mandates are contrary to " the word
of God ". At the same time, he denounces in
his customary energetic language the existing
powers generally. " Thou shouldst know," he
says, "that since the beginning of the world a
wise prince is truly a rare bird, but a pious
prince is still more rare." " They (princes) are
mostly the greatest fools or the greatest rogues
on earth ; therefore must we at all times expect
from them the worst, and little good." Farther
on, he proceeds : " The common man begetteth
understanding, and the plague of the princes
worketh powerfully among the people and the
common man. He will not, he cannot, he pur-
poseth not, longer to suffer your tyranny and
oppression. Dear princes and lords, know ye
what to do, for God will no longer endure it ?
The world is no more as of old time, when ye
hunted and drove the people as your quarry.
But think ye to carry on with much drawing of
sword, look to it that one do not come who
THE PEASANTS WAR.
shall bid ye sheath it, and that not in God's
name ! " Again, in a pamphlet published the
following year, 1524, relative to the Reichstag
of that year, Luther proclaims that the judgment
of God already awaits " the drunken and mad
princes". He quotes the phrase: " Deposuit
potentes de sede " (Luke i. 52), and adds " that is
your case, dear lords, even now when ye see it
not " ! After an admonition to subjects to refuse
to go forth to war against the Turks, or to pay
taxes towards resisting them, who were ten times
wiser and more godly than German princes, the
pamphlet concludes with the prayer : " May
God deliver us from ye all, and of His grace
give us other rulers " ! Against such utterances
as the above, the conventional exhortations to
Christian humility, non-resistance, and obedi-
ence to those in authority, would naturally not
weigh in a time of popular ferment. So, until
the momentous year 1525, it was not unnatural
that, notwithstanding his quarrel with Munzer
and the Zwickau enthusiasts, and with others
whom he deemed to be going " too far," Luther
should have been regarded as in some sort the
central figure of the revolutionary movement,
political and social, no less than religious.
\ -
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 3 1
But the great literary and agitatory forces
during the period referred to were of course
either outside the Lutheran movement prop*
or at most only on the fringe of it. A mass o!
broadsheets and pamphlets, specimens of some
of which have been given in a former volume
(German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages,
pp. 114-128), poured from the press during these
years, all with the refrain that things had gone
on long enough, that the common man, be he
peasant or townsman, could no longer bear it.
But even more than the revolutionary literature
were the wandering preachers effective in work-
ing up the agitation which culminated in the
Peasants War of 1525. ThjeJatter^comprised
men of all classes, from the impoverished
jmight, the poor priest, the escaped monk^or
the travelling scholar, to the_rjeasant, the
"mercenary soldietM3ut_o^mpkTyrn^^
handicraftsman, or even_the__begga^. Learned
and simple, they wandered about from place to
place, in the market place of the town, in the
common field of the village, from one territory
to another, preaching the gospel of discontent.
Their harangues were, as a rule, as much
political as religious, and the ground tone of
THE PEASANTS WAR.
them all was the social or economic misery of
f the time, and the urgency of immediate action
\ to bring about a change. As in the literature,
so in the discourses, Biblical phrases designed
to give force to the new teaching abounded.
The more thorough-going of these itinerant
apostles openly aimed at nothing less than the
establishment of a new Christian Common-
wealth, or, as they termed it, "the Kingdom of
God on Earth ".
/This vast agitation throughout Central Europe
Vreached its climax in 1524, in the autumn and
/ winter of which year definite preparations were
\ in many places made for the general rebellion
which was to break out in the following spring.
\ In describing the course of the movement
known as the Peasants War, since there is no
concerted campaign throughout the whole of
the districts affected, to be recorded, it is im-
possible to preserve complete chronological
order. The several outbreaks, though the result
of a common agitation working upon a common
\ discontent, engendered by corLrliHrm^ ^Aiery-
where essentially the same, ha4_eachofjthem
its own local history and its own local colour.
There^jvvas_nQ_general preconcerted plan of
SITUATION IN SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
/ampaign, and this, as we shall see, was the
main cause of the comparatively speedy and sig-
nally disastrous collapse of the movement. _Xhe
outbreaks occurred for the most part simul-
taneously or within a few days of each other,
T)ut the immediate cause was often some local
circumstance, and no sufficient communication [
was kept up, even between districts wHere this
would not have been^ difficult, while any con-
certed actionbetween the peasant forces of ^
north and central, or of central and southern
Germany, was scarcely everTThought of.
~Like all other movements of the^time, that \
of the peasants and small townsmen had a
strong infusion of religious sentiment based
on Christian theology. <lt was, it is true, (
primarily a social and economic agitation, but I
it had a strongj^gjifnous colouring. JTheJiivo- <
cation of Christian doctrine and Biblical senti-
ments was no mere external flourish, but formed
part of the essence of the movement. It must
also be Temembered that there was more than
one_side to the agitation ; for example,
_communism of Thomas IMunzer, whose name-
is popularly most prominently~lTssocTated ' witff"
the social revolution of 1525, was confined to
THE PEASANTS WAR.
one^town, and it is doubtful whether it wa
really accepted by all the insurrectionary ele-
ments, even in Muhlhausen^ not_to speak of
the rest oTThuringia. There was undoubtedly ^
a sub-conscious communistic element underlying /
the whole uprising, but for the most part it was
little more than a sentiment which took no
definite shape. While partially successful in
impressing his teaching on the Thuringian
revolt, Mtinzer it seems had little success in
Franconia or in southern Germany. Indeed,
the south Germans appear to have been actually
averse to anyjctehmte utopistic idealism such^as
that of Thomas Miinzer. and to have tended to
~
confine themeh^ g ctnVHy tr> t nf > \\m\t* of t-frp
celebrated " twelve articles **. It is, moreover, in
the latter document, which certainly comes from
a south German soiirre, that we find formulated
_the definite demands which constituted the
^tactical basis of the movement generally^ In
the "^twelve articles" we have expressed^un^
doubtedly the ideas and aspirations of the
average man throughout J^ermany who jook
parf in the movement. What went beyond
tjiese dema.nds was^merejvague sentiment, in
which possibly the average man shared but
SITU A TION IN SIXTEENTH CENTUR Y. 35
I
ich did not take definite shape in his mind.
In this jgmarkable document, the precise author-
ship of which is matter of conjecture only, we
have unquestionably the best expression of the
average publJCL npininn nf tVip " peasant" of
Central Europe, in the f\r^ half nf
'S
CHAPTER II.
THE OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR.
HE growing discontent among the peasantry
had led to many an attempt to curtail the right
of assembly in the rural districts throughout
Germany! These attempts were specially aimed
at the popular merry-makings and festivals
which brought the inhabitants of different
parishes together. Weddings, pilgrimages,
church-ales (kirchweihen), guild-feasts, etc.,
were sought to be suppressed or curtailed in
many places. Even the ancient right of the
village assembly was entrenched upon, or, in
some cases, altogether withdrawn. But it was
all of no avail. The fermentation continued to
grow. From the spring of 1524 onwards,
sporadic disturbances took place on various
manors throughout the country. In many places
tithes l were refused.
l The tithe was of two kinds, the so-called great tithe
1 the little tithe. The great tithe consisted usually of
(36)
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 37
The first serious outbreak occurred in August. *-
1 524, in the Rhine valley, in the Black Forest, at
StiiKhfigen, on the domains of the Count of
Lupfen, and the immediate cause is said to have
been trivial exactions on the part of tlfev
countess. She required her tenants on someU
church holiday to gather strawberries and tol
collect snail shells on which to wind her skeins 1 1
after spinning. 1 This slight impost evoked a I
spark that speedily became a flame running \
through all the neighbouring manors, where
the various forms of corvee and dues werej^
simultaneously refused. A leader suddenly^ ,
appeared in one Hans M tiller, a former soldier fer-
of fortune, who was a native of the village of
Bulgenbach, belonging to the monastery of
St. Blasien. A flag of the imperial colours,
black, red and yellow, was made, and on St.
Bartholomew's Day, the 24th August, Hans
Muller at the head of 1200 peasants marched
crops (of hay, corn, barley, etc.) ; the little tithe generally
of a head of cattle. This latter appears to have been
especially obnoxious to the peasantry.
1 This story represents the uniform tradition ; but although
not refuted, it is not authenticated, by any contemporary
documentary evidence.
38 THE PEASANTS WAR.
to Waldshut under cover of a church-ale which
was^being held in that town.
/Waldshut, which constituted the most eastern
of the four so-called " forest towns" the others
being Laufenburg, Sakingen and Rheinfelden
was, at this moment, in strained relations with
the Austrian authorities.
.x^
f The peasants fraternised with the inhabitants
of the little town, and the first "JE^augelical
Brotherhood " sprang into existence. 1 Every
member of this organisation was required to
contribute a small coin weekly to defray the
expenses of the bearers of the secret despatches,
which were to be distributed far and wide
throughout Germany, inciting to amalgamation
\a_nd a general rising. Throughout the districts
of Baden in the Black Forest, throughout Elsass,
the Rhein, the Mosel territories, as far as
Thuringia, the message ran : no lord should
\ there be but the emperor, to whom proper
lr This is the view taken by Zimmermann, the great
historian of the Peasants War, but it should be mentioned
that Bezold and other later authorities are of the opinion that
no formal association of this kind was constituted on this
occasion, although they admit that an informal fraternisation
took place, which was not without its results on the ensuing
agitation.
X {^
.
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 39
tribute should be rendered, on the guarantee of
their ancient rights. Jbut all castles ancLmonas-
teries should be destroyed together with their
charters and their jurisdictions.
As soon as the news of the agitation reached
the Swabian League, unsuccessful attempts at
pacification were made. The Swabian League,
it must be premised, was a federation of princes,
barons and towns, whose function was keeping
up an armed force for the main purpose of
seeing that imperial decrees were carried out,
and for preserving public tranquillity generally.
It was really the only effective instrument of
imperial power that existed. As we shall pre-
sently see, it was this Swabian League that
chiefly contributed to crushing the peasant
revolt throughout southern Germany. Mean-
while the forces of Hans Miiller were growing,
unTir5y""the middle of October well-nigh 5000
men were ranged under the black, red and gold
banner. At the same time, the troops at the dis-
posal of the nobility within the revolting area were
altogether inadequate to cope with the situation.
In the districts of the Black Forest and elsewhere,
the Italian War of Charles V. had drained off the
best and most numerous of the fighting men.
THE PEASANTS WAR.
After marching through the neighbouring
districts with his peasant army, whose weapons
consisted largely of pitchforks, scythes and axes,
proclaiming the principles and the objects of
the revolt, Hans Muller withdrew into a safe
retreat in the neighbourhood of the village of
Rietheim on learning that a small force of
about a thousand men had been got together
against him. The winter was now fast ap-
proaching, and it did not appear to the aristo-
cratic party desirable for the time being to
pursue matters any further in the direction of
open hostilities. Accordingly Hans von Fried-
ingen, the Chancellor of the Bishop of Constanz,
with three other gentlemen, proceeded to the
-camp of the peasants to attempt a negotiation.
They succeeded in persuading the insurgents
to disperse on the understanding that the lords
specially inculpated should agree to consider
proposals from their tenants, and that, failing
an agreement on this basis, the matters in
dispute should be referred to an independent
tribunal, the district court of Stockach being
suggested. A basis of agreement drawn up
between the Count of Lupfen and his tenants
-+* contains some curious provisions ; while fishing
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 41
*.
was prohibited, a pregnant woman having a
strong desire for a fish was to be supplied with
one by the bailiff. Bears and wolves were
declared free game, but the heads were to be
reserved for the lord, and in the case of bears
one of the paws as well. Meanwhile, the towns
of northern Switzerland, in whose territories an
agitation was also proceeding, began to get
alarmed and to warn the Black Forest bands
off their territories. Switzerland herself was
at this time in the throes of the Reformation,
and in the neighbouring lands of the St. Gallen
Monastery a vehement agitation was going on.
No attempt, however, was made by the German
peasants to pass over into Swiss territory, a\f
though it seems to have been more than once
threatened. Zurich, Schaffhausen, and other
Swiss cantons, indeed, in the earlier phases of
the Peasants War, endeavoured to effect a
mediation between the peasants and their
lords. They were partly afraid of the agitation
taking dangerous form with their own peasants
and partly regarded the movement as belonging
to the religious reformation, which had now
taken root in northern Switzerland.
The following articles were agreed upon as
42 THE PEASANTS WAR.
the basis of negotiation by the united peasants
of the Black Forest and the neighbouring- lands
of Southern Swabia, which were also now
involved in the movement :
1. The obligation to hunt or fish for the lord
was to be abolished, and all game, likewise
fishing, was to be declared free.
2. They should no longer be compelled to
hang bells on their dogs* necks.
3. They should be free to carry weapons.
4. They should not be liable to punishment
from huntsmen and forest rangers.
5. They should no longer carry dung for their
lord.
6. They should have neither to mow, reap,
hew wood, nor carry trusses of hay nor firewood
for the uses of the castle.
7. They were to be free of the heavy market
tolls and handicraft taxes.
8. No one should be cast into the lord's
dungeon or otherwise imprisoned who could
give guarantees for his appearance at the judicial
bar.
9. They should no longer pay any tax, due,
or charge whatsoever the right to which had
not been judicially established.
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 43
10. No tithe of growing corn should be
exacted, nor any agricultural corvee.
11. Neither man nor woman should be any
longer punished for marrying without the per-
mission of his or her lord.
12. The goods of suicides should no longer
revert to the lord.
13. The lord should no longer inherit where
relations of the deceased were living.
14. All bailiff rights should be abolished.
15 He who had wine in his house should be
at liberty to serve it to whomsoever he pleased.
1 6. If a lord or his bailiff arrested any one
on account of a transgression which he was un-
able to prove with good witnesses, the accused
should be set at liberty.
Such were the very moderate demands put
forward "By the peasants of the Black Forest
districts, of the Klettgau, of the Hegau, and of
the other manors associated with them. But
the object of the feudal lords, as appears from
the documents * which have subsequently come
to light, was not peace on the basis of a fair
1 C/. Archives of the Swabian League and the Weingarten
Archives in the Schmidt collection, the substance of which
given in Zimmermann.
THE PEASANTS WAR.
understanding, but simply to hoodwink their
tenants with the pretence of negotiations, until
such time as they should have got together
sufficient men to crush the rising, and compel
them to unconditional submission. The Arch-
duke Ferdinand writes expressly as regards
George Truchsess, Count of Waldburg, the
'7 L chief commander of the forces of the Swabian
League at this time, that he should " amicably
treat with the peasants till he had collected his
military forces together ". But it was not easy
to obtain fighting men at this time. The struggle
between the Emperor and Francis I., which was
being fought out in Italy, was reaching its most
critical stage, and nobles and soldiers of fortune
alike were being drafted off south. By the end
of 1524 Germany was almost denuded of the
usual supply of men-at-arms at the disposal
of constituted authority, and there seemed no
immediate prospect of their returning.
Meanwhile, the movement in the country
districts and the small towns was growing and
spreading on all sides. The leader of the Black
Forest peasants, Hans Mliller of Bulgenbach,
I in his red hat and mantle, was everywhere
i active. He succeeded in collecting together
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR.
/^another force of some 6000 men under his
\ flag, most of whom, however, shortly after-
j wards dispersed, leaving him with only a small
/ residue of their number and some free-lances.
[ The latter attacked and destroyed the castle of
the Count of Lupfen, where the outbreak in
August had originated. Other bands formed
also in neighbouring territories. Truchsess,
the generalissimo of the Swabian League, was
not inactive. With the comparatively small
force he had collected, he kept the peasants
under observation, alternately negotiating with
and threatening them. But as winter was near,
comparatively little was done on either side.
The peasant bands sacked a few monasteries ;
and the Austrian authorities at Ensisheim, be-
tween Colmar and Miihlhausen in Elsass the
official seat of the hereditary Hapsburg power
in the west succeeded in gathering a small
force, with which they attacked a body of the
insurgents, burning some homesteads and seizing
cattle. The day originally fixed for the opening
of the arbitration between the lords and their
tenants was the day of St. John the Evangelist,
the 2/th of December. When, however, the
peasant delegates found that the court was
46 THE PEASANTS WAR.
composed entirely of noblemen, they entered a
protest, and the proceedings had to be adjourned
until 6th January, 1525 ("Three Kings' Day").
But the matter continued to grow more serious
^for the nobility, many of whom withdrew from
their castles to Radolfzell and to other towns
whose loyalty and means of defence offered
sufficient guarantees of personal security. As
many as three hundred clergy, some of them
--disguised as Landsknechte, and most of them
with the tonsure covered, fled to Ueberlingen,
on the Lake of Constanz.
The 6th of January came, and with it the
delegations, not only of the peasants, but also,
as had been agreed upon, of various towns
lying within the disaffected districts ; but neither
the lords nor the representative of the Bishop
of Constanz appeared ; consequently no court
could be held, and matters remained in statu
quo. Finally, on the 2Oth of January, what
seems to have been a kind of informal meeting
took place between Truchsess and some other
representatives of the Austrian power on the
one side and delegates from a section of the dis-
affected population on the other. Truchsess, by
fair words and promises, succeeded in inducing
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 47
a portion of those present to capitulate, but
with the rest, notably with the inhabitants of
the district called the Hegau, neither his pro-
mises nor his threats availed to make them
consent to lay down their arms and disperse. \
They insisted upon their sixteen Articles, of
which they refused to abate a single one. But
he ruling classes now saw some prospect of
acquiring an army sufficient to quell the
threatened insurrection. The archduke had
negotiated a loan from the Welsers of Augs
burg, by means of which he was enabled to
scour the country in the search for men-at-arms
who might be willing to join the League's
forces under Truchsess. This was now being
done with partial success, and there seemed a
prospect of the League being able to take
the field against the insurgent populations, if
necessary, within a few weeks. On the i5th
of February, Truchsess sent the Hegau bands
an insolent and impossible ultimatum, with the
threat to pursue them without mercy on their
failing to accept his conditions. In a few days
the whole neighbouring country was up in
arms. But the instructions from Innsbruck,
from the archduke, who after all was timid
48 THE PEASANTS WAR.
and did not know how to act, considerably
impeded the operations of Truchsess.
An accidental circumstance at this time
caused a diversion favourable to the threatening
"Insurrection. Duke Ulrich of Wiirtemberg
was a fugitive from his ancestral domains
under the ban of the Empire. Compelled to
leave Wiirtemberg in 1519, on the grounds
of a family quarrel, which had been decided
against him by the imperial authorities, he had
in vain sought help from the Swiss Confedera-
tion to re-establish himself, and was now con-
strained to turn to the very peasants whom he
had driven out of his territories on the sup-
pression of the rising known as that of " the
poor Conrad " in 1514 (cf. German Society,
pp. 75-77). As he himself expressed it, he
was determined to come to his rights, " if not
by the aid of the spur, by that of the shoe," by
which was meant, of course, that on the failure
of the negotiations he was making with the
knights and nobles of various districts, extend-
ing even to Bohemia, he was prepared to enter
into a league with the rebellious peasants. In
fact, he now adopted the affectation of signing
himself " Utz Bur " (" Utz the Peasant ") Utz
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 49
being the short for Ulrich instead of " Ulrich,
Duke ". He had now established himself in his
stronghold of Hohentwiel in Wurtemberg, on
the frontier of Switzerland. Negotiations with
the disaffected had certainly been carried on
over a wide extent of territory ; and the
imperial chancellor was emphatic in accusing
Ulrich of fomenting the disorders.
Wurtemberg, whose inhabitants, for the most
part, detested the house of Austria, and, in spite
of exactions and oppression, retained a certain
feudal-patriotic affection for their hereditary
overlord, was favourably disposed to his return.
The opportunity seemed now to have arrived
for a successful invasion of his patrimonial
territory. His negotiations with the peasant
bands were not wholly successful, since he was
largely mistrusted by them. However, an
arrangement was come to with Hans Miiller
of Bulgenbach, who arrived with a body of
Black Forest and Hegau peasants to his assist-
ance. In addition, he had engaged a large *
number of mercenaries from the northern Swiss
cantons and elsewhere, so that by the end of
February he was enabled to start on his cam-
paign with an army of some 6000 foot and 200
4
50 THE PEASANTS WAR.
horse, besides a few pieces of artillery. But
the Swabian League was beforehand with
Duke Ulrich. At the instance of its com-
mander George Truchsess, Count von Helfen-
stein seized Stuttgart, leaving a garrison within
the walls, while the duke was slowly advancing.
Truchsess rightly saw that, as capital of the
duchy, Stuttgart was the key of the situation.
The fact was that Ulrich had allowed his men
to carouse too long on the way at the little
town of Sindelfingen. Had he proceeded on
to Stuttgart at once without stopping, he would
probably have succeeded in entering his capital
before Helfenstein. As it was, all he could do
was to lay siege to the town, To make matters
worse for him, the news of the issue of the
battle of Pavia, which was fought on the 24th
of February, arrived. The signal victory ob-
tained by the imperial forces decided the
struggle between Charles V. and Francis I.,
which had until then been hanging in the
balance. All whose interests, from whatever
cause, were contrary to that of the emperor,
Ulrich amongst the number, had naturally
placed their hopes on the French king. These
were now, of course, shattered. What was of
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR.
more immediate importance was that the Arch-
duke Ferdinand, as representing the victorious
house of Austria and imperial power, had just
seized the opportunity of insisting that the
Swiss cantons should immediately order the
return of their men, who were serving with the
duke, on pain of outlawry and confiscation of
goods. The cantons at this juncture did not
dare to refuse the demand, and accordingly
the order was issued ; the Swiss free-lances,
whose pay was in arrears, on its announce-
ment, accompanied, it is said, by Austrian gold,
promptly deserted and hurried back to their
fatherland.
Ulrich with his remaining forces was unable
to continue the siege ; indeed, he was glad
enough in his turn to hurry back to his strong-
hold his Hohentwiel as quickly as possible.^
The Wiirtemberg peasants had not risen to his
aid with the enthusiasm he had anticipated.
Little as they might care for the Austrian
regency in Wiirtemberg, the memory of " the
poor Conrad," and of their friends and relations
who had been driven from house and home on
the suppression of that movement eleven years
before, was too recent for them to be especially
52 THE PEASANTS WAR.
eager to sacrifice themselves to reinstate the
man primarily responsible for their troubles.
Thus ended this attempt of Duke Ulrich to
recover his territory by the aid of peasants and
mercenaries. The whole episode from first to
last occupied little more than three weeks, but
during this time it served to divert the attention
of the Swabian League.
The Swabian peasants, as already mentioned,
had begun to stir in the autumn of 1524, at
about the same time as those of the Black
Forest and the Lake of Constanz districts. In
Swabia, the first overt signs of disaffection
showed themselves in the lands of the abbey
of Kempten^ and the immediate occasion of
' them appears to have been the imprisonment
and harsh treatment by the abbot of an old
man, a tenant of the abbey, on the ground
of a disrespectful expression he had let fall
concerning him during the haymaking. The
abbot's despotic government of the manor had
everywhere incensed the peasantry. The prince
prelate, after having promised to consider the
grievances in conjunction with other high per-
sonages on a given day, appeared indeed, and
listened to the complaints laid before him, but
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 53
it was only to give a categorical refusal to make
any concession whatever. The result of his
action was that those immediately concerned
decided to call an assembly representing all the
subjects of the extensive abbey territory, to lay
the matter before them, and to consider what
further course should betaken. On the 2ist
of January, a numerous assembly met together
accordingly at a given place on the bank of
the little stream called the Luibas, to take
counsel as to further action. The little town of
Kempten was in a ferment, part of the burghers
sympathising with the peasants and part with K
the abbey.
The meeting, at which in addition to re-
presentatives of the whole countryside, some
members of the town council (RatK] attended,
kept its proceedings within the bounds of the
strictest moderation, repudiating any hostile
intentions with regard to the foundation, and
finally decided to lay the dispute before a
competent tribunal, all present pledging them-
selves and their respective villages to contribute
to the cost of carrying it through. Three days
later, the representatives met in Kempten
itself, and chose a committee of their number
54 THE PEASANTS WAR.
to take steps in the matter. This committee
immediately drew up a formal protest against
the wrongs suffered from the abbot, which was
forwarded to the council of the Swabian League
ajid to the emperor. In this document was
expressed the readiness of the villeins of the
abbey to furnish all dues and all service to
which the prince-prelate could establish his
right by charter. On the other hand, it ener-
getically protested against new and unjustifiable
exactions and arbitrary oppressions, and prayed
that the case might be laid before the supreme
u court of the district. The league, meanwhile,
undertook to prevent their lord, the abbot, from
taking any hostile steps against them pending
the decision. The latter, however, immediately
answered this protest by a letter addressed to
the Swabian League, in which he accused his
subjects of having entered into a conspiracy
against the foundation and demanded armed
intervention in his favour. The Councillors
of the League, who were sitting in permanence
at the imperial town of Ulm, temporised,
promising to consider the grievances of the
peasantry, and, should it prove impossible to
effect an informal compromise, to see that the
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS
matter was legally decided by a competent
authority.
By this time, the whole country ngrth and/ - "J
south of Ulm was in a state of nascent in-
surrection! From Kempten northwards to the
latter city, ecclesiastical foundations pressed v
hard on one another. Their tenants were
everywhere desperately angry. In the dis-
trict known from its swampy character as
the Ried, a blacksmith named Schmidt con-
stituted himself leader of the rising. In all the
village inns thereabouts bodies of peasants
daily came together to take counsel. On
the Qth of February, a camp of some 2000
peasants was formed at a place called Leipheim.
Another contingent was started which soon
rose to nearly 13,000 men. Armed bodies of
peasants were now forming themselves into
camps throughout Southern Germany. The
insurgents were divided into three main bodies
those of the Ried, of the Lake of Constanz/
districts, and of the Black Forest. In the course/
of the month, these divisions amalgamated into
the so-called " Christian brotherhood ?> . The
leaders of the movement assembled at the small
town of Memmingen, where the " Peasants
56 THE PEASANTS WAR.
^"Parliament" was held at the beginning of
x- March, where in all probability the celebrated
"Twelve Articles" were drawn up, and where
they were certainly adopted. Here also the)
/most studied moderation was observed in the
Vdemands made and in the proceedings generally./
The decisions arrived at at this conference of
Memmingen were sworn to by all the camps
throughout the country. The restoration of
ancient privileges, where these had been abro-
gated, was demanded, such as the ancient right
to carry arms, together with that of free
assembly.
On the same day on which the order of
federation was adopted, the representatives at
Memmingen addressed a formal letter to the
Swabian League explaining that the action
taken was in accordance with ^the^ Gospel and
with Divine. Tiistir.e. The Christian Brotherhood
^wasto form the bond of organisation for the
whole country. A president and four councillors
were tcTBe chosen from every camp or organised
body ot peasants. These should have plenary
powers to enteF'into agreements with other
_similar camps or bodies, as well as in certain
cases to negotiate with constituted authorities.
OUTBREAK OF THE PEASANTS WAR. 57
No one was to enter into an agreement with his
feudal lord without the consent of the whole"
countryside, and even where such consent "
was granted the tenants in question should
nevertheless continue to belong to the Christian
JBrotherhood and to be subject to its decisions. -
Any who from any cause had to leave their
native place should first swear before the head-
man of the district to do nothing to the hurt
of the Christian Brotherhood, but to assist it
by word and deed wherever necessary. The
existing judicial functions should continue~~Tn
exercise as before. U nbecoming pastimes,
blasphemy and drunkenness shouTcT be for-~
bidden, and all such offences duly punished.
Lastly, no on^shouldj from any cause what-
ever, undertake any action against his lord, or
commit any trespass on his lands or goods,
Eit~a further decision had been taken. There
* i
therefore, it will be seen, a definite
organisation of the peasantry throughout
whole of the South German territories^ai
prepared for action at any moment.
The Black Forest, the Duchy of Wtirtemberg,
and Eastern or Upper Swabia were already
organised. In the course of this month of
58 THE PEASANTS WAR.
March, the Episcopal territories of Bamberg,
of Wlirtzburg, the Franconian districts gener-
ally, Bavaria, Tyrol, and the Arch-episcopal
territories of Salzburg, rose from Thuringia in
the north to the Alpine lands in the south, from
Elsass and Lorraine in the west to the Austrian
hereditary dominions in the east, the whole
of Central Europe was astir. The " common
man " was everywhere in evidence. By the
beginning of April, as though it had been
concerted, the Peasants War had broken out
throughout Germany.
Before giving a sketch of the chief incidents
connected with the rising, we will cast a glance
at the formulated demands represented in the
" Twelve Articles," at the different currents
embodied in the movement, and at the men
who were its intellectual heads Weigand,
Hipler, Karlstadt, Gaismayr, Hubmayer, re-
serving Miinzer and Pfeiffer for a subsequent
chapter.
CHAPTER III.
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES OF THE
MOVEMENT.
ASTROLOGY and mystical prophesvings appeared
in the times shortly preceding the great social
upheaval, foretelling strange things which were
to happen in the years 1524 and 1525.
One of the principal of these indicated a
Noachic delude for the summer of 1524. This
vaticination was based on an alleged combination
of sixteen conjunctures in the sign of Aquarius.
So seriously was the prophesy believed in that
extensive preparations were made, in view of
the approaching catastrophe. Many, however,
explained the presage as indicating a social
inundation the levelling of social distinctions
by the " common man ". Portents were alleged
to have appeared ; strange monsters to have
been born. Illustrated broadsheets and pamph-
lets were in circulation, on the title pages of
which might be seen portrayed pope, emperor,
cardinals and prince-prelates trembling before
(59)
THE PEASANTS WAR.
the approach of a band of peasants armed with
the implements of husbandry and led on by the
planet Saturn. All these things testified to the
excited state of the public mind and the direction
in which popular thought was turned. Mean-
while, the thinkers of the movement were
preparing to give definite form to the vague
aspirations of the multitude.
In the uprising known as the ''Peasants War,"
as already stated, there is more than one strain
to be observed, though all turns on the central
ideas of equality, economic reform and political
reorganisation. First of all, Wefhave^'the
immediate and practical side of the agrarian
mnv^Tflpflf, on the lines of which the actual
outbreak originated, and the special represen-
tatives of which were the peasants of South-
E astern Germany. This side of the movement
is, of course, most prominently present every-
where, but in other parts of the country, notably
in J^ rancoma and 1 hunngia, it is accompanied
^byicleas of a more far-reaching kind as regards
social reconstruction, albeit clothedin a mystical
religious garb. Then again we have certain
definite~schefnes of extensive political reform.
r Behind these things lay the distinction
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 61
between town and country, a distinction recently
become so important, fit need scarcely be said
that most of those.wider aspirations that entered
into the movement had their origin in the new
life of the towns, and, as regards their expres-
jion, in the more educateci elements to be founc
within their walls./ We will first cast a glance
at the mainstay of the whole movement, the
celebrated " /Twelve Articles^
In the last chapta|^^^a|ave already seen a
specimen of the immediate demands put forward
B^rthe peasants of the Black Forest. la
there is no mention of religion. They aptly
indicate the position of the cultivator of tfre
soil, robbed often of his common pasture t of the
right of hunting and fishing on his own. account ;
compelled to perform all sorts_of services for
his lord at any time, were it haymaking, harvest,
or vintage, even though it meant to him the loss
--- -- -~^~ 3 __ __ ,IjJ,ii.Ttkaiiiimin - ----- ^mffSSfBSS^^m
of his__crop ; made to furnish dues of every
description payable in kind_a.nd_jiow_ pjjteri in
money ; prohibited from
or driving away animals of the chase, even
thoughjhey mighl be doing irreparable jamage
to agricultural produce ; compelled to ermit
theJlorcTs hunting dogs to devour his poultry
,< :
62 THE PEASANTS WAR.
at pleasure ; obliged to offer his live stock first
"of all to the'jcastle before~seuTng it elsewHeTgT
Torced to furnish the castle with firewood and
timber and (a significant item) wood for the
stake on the~bccasion of executions. And what
was the penalty for the^neglect ot these things?
/Imprisonment in the lord's dungeon ; the
piercing out of eyes ; or, in some cases, death
Itself. At first the remedying of such grievances
was demanded in a different form on different
manors, sometimes in a greater, sometimes in
a lesser number of " Articles ". Thus, in one
case we find sixteen, in another^ thiff y^four, in
another sixty-two " points'" in these several
^grariarTcEarters. In the month of March, 1525,
however, tEey"we7e all condensed mto tweTve
maia__daims in a document entitled " The
fundamental and just chief articles of *all the
peasantry and villeins of spiritual and temporal
lordships by which they deern^ themselves
^ppre^t". This document was^accepted prac-
tically thr^tgEout Germany as the basis of the
revolution. Owing to its importance, we give
this charter of the German peasantry in fulL
It reads as follows :
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 63
INTRODUCTION.
" To the Christian reader, peace and the (V-
grace of God through Christ ! There are
many anti-Christians who. now seek occasion to
despise ^the Xjospel on account of the assembled
peasantry, in that they say : these be the fruits
of the new Gospel : to obey none ; to resist in
all places ; to band together with great power
of arms to the end to reform, to root out, ay
and maybe to slay spiritual and temporal
authority. All such godless and wicked judg-
ments are answered in the articles here written
down as well that they remove this shame from
the Word of God as also that they may excuse
in a Christian manner this disobedience, yea,
this rebellion of all peasants.
" For the first time, the Gospel is not a cause
of rebellion or uproar, since it is the word of
Christ, the promised Messiah, whose word and
life teaches naught save love, peace, patience
and unity (Rom. xi.). Therefore, that all who
believe in this Christ may be loving, peaceful,
patient and united, such is the ground of all
Articles of the peasants, and as may be clearly
seen they are designed to the intent that
men should have the Gospel and should live
(*>4 THE PEASANTS WAR.
according thereto. How shall the anti-Christians
then call the Gospel a cause of rebellion and of
disobedience ? But that certain anti-Christians
/and enemies of the Gospel should rise up\
I against such requirements, of this is not the
\Gospel the cause, but the devil, the most J
hurtful enemy of the Gospel, who exciteth such
by unbelief, in his own, that the Word of God
which teacheth love, peace and unity may be
trodden down and taken away.
" For the rest, it followeth clearly and mani-
festly that the peasants who in their Articles
require such Gospel as doctrine and as precept
may not be Called disobedient and rebellious.
But should God^hear those peasants who
anxiously call upon Him that they may live
according to His word ; who shall gainsay the
will of God? (Rom. xi.). Who shall impeach
His judgment? (Isa. xl.). Yea, who shall
resist His Majesty? (Rom. viii.). Hath he
heard the children of Israel and delivered them
out of the hand of Pharoah, and shall He not
to-day also save His own? Yea, He shall
save them, and that speedily (Exod. iii. 14;
Luke xviii. 8). Therefore, Christian reader,
read hereunder with care and thereafter judge.
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 65
FIRST ARTICLE.
" For the first, it is our humble prayer and
desire, also the will and opinion of us all that
henceforth the power to choose and elect a
pastor shall lie with the whole community
(i Tim. iii.), 1 that it shall also have the power
to displace such an one, if he behaveth unseemly.
The pastor that is chosen shall preach the
Gospel plainly and manifestly, without any
addition of man or the doctrine or ordinance of
men (Acts xiv.). For that the true Faith is
preached to us giveth us a cause to pray God
for His grace that He implant within us the
same living Faith and confirm us therein (Deut.
xviii. ; Exod. xxxi.). For if His grace be not
implanted within us we remain flesh and blood
which profiteth not (Deut. x. ; John vi.). How
plainly is it written in the Scripture that we can
alone through the true Faith come to God and
that alone through His mercy shall we be
saved (Gal. i.). Therefore is such an ensample
1 Gemeinde in the original. This means, of course, the
"rural community " of the village or district. It might be
translated "commune," or in some cases even loosely as
"parish," though the old English " hundred " probably
answers most nearly to it.
66 THE PEASANTS WAR.
and pastor of need to us and in suchwise
founded on the Scripture.
SECOND ARTICLE.
" Furthermore, notwithstanding that the just
tithe was imposed in the Old Testament, and
in the New was fulfilled, yet are we nothing
loth to furnish the just tithe of corn, but only
such as is meet, accordingly shall we give it to
God and His servants (Heb. ; also Ps. cix.).
If it be the due of a pastor who clearly pro-
claimeth the Word of God, then it is our will
that our church-overseers, such as are appointed
by the community, shall collect and receive this
tithe, and thereof shall give to the pastor who
shall be chosen from a whole community suit-
able sufficient subsistence for him and his, as the
- whole community may deem just ; and what
remaineth over shall be furnished to the poor
and the needy of the same village, according
to the circumstance of the case and the judg-
ment of the community (Deut. xxv. ; i Tim. v. ;
Matt, x.; Cor. ix.). What further remaineth
over shall be reserved for the event that the
land being pressed, it should needs make war,
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 67
and so that no general tax should be laid upon
the poor, it shall be furnished from this sur-
plusage. Should it be found that there were
one or more villages that had sold the tithe
itself because of need, he who can show re-
specting the same that he hath it in the form of
a whole village shall not want for it but we will,
as it beseemeth us, make an agreement with
him, as the matter requireth (Luke vi. ; Matt, v.)
to the end that we may absolve the same in
due manner and time. But to him who hath
bought such from no village, and whose fore-
fathers have usurped it for themselves, we will
not, and we ought not to give him anything,
and we owe no man further save as aforesaid
that we maintain our elected pastors, that we
absolve our just debts, or relieve the needy, as
is ordained by the Holy Scripture. The small
tithe will we not give, be it^ either to spiritual^
or to temporal lord ; for the God the Lord
hath created the beast freely for the use of
man (Gen. i.). For we esteem this tithe for
an unseemly tithe of man's devising. There-
fore will we no longer give it.
68 THE PEASANTS WAR.
THIRD ARTICLE.
" Thirdly, the custom hath hitherto been that
we have been held for villeins ; which is to be
deplored, since Christ hath purchased and re-
deemed us all with His precious blood (Isa.
liii. ; i Peter i. ; i Cor. vii. ; Rom. xiii.),
the poor hind as well as the highest, none
excepted. Therefore do we find in the Scrip-
ture that we are_Iree_; and we will be free
(Eccles. vi. ; i Peter ii.). Not that we would
be wholly free as having no authority over us,
for this God doth not teach us. We shall live
in obedience and not in the freedom of our
fleshly pride (Deut. vi. ; St. Matt, v.) ; shall love
God as our Lord ; shall esteem our neighbours
as brothers ; and do to them as we would have
them do to us, as God hath commanded at
the Last Supper (Luke iv. 6 ; Matt. v. ; John
xiii.). Therefore shall we live according to
His ordinance. This ordinance in no wise
sheweth us that we should not obey authority.
Not alone should we humble ourselves before
authority, but before every man (Rom. xiii.)
as we also are gladly obedient in all just and
Christian matters to such authority as is elected
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 69
and set over us, so it be by God set over us
(Acts v.). We are also in no doubt but that
ye will as true and just Christians relieve us
from villeinage, or will show us, out of the
Gospel, that we are villeins.
FOURTH ARTICLE.
" Fourthly, was it hithertoji .custom that no .
poor man hath the right to capture ground
game, fowls or fish in flowing water, which
to us seemeth unbecoming and unbrotherly,
churlish and not according to the Word of
God. Moreover, in some places the authority
letteth the game grow up to our despite and to
our mighty undoing, since we must suffer that
our own which God hath caused to grow for
the use of man should be unavailingly devoured
by beasts without reason, and that we should
hold our peace concerning this, which is against
God and our neighbours. For when God the
Lord created man, He gave him power over
all creatures, over the fowl in the air, and over
the fish in the water (Gen. i. ; Acts xix. ;
i Tim. iv. ; Cor. x. ; Coloss. xi.). Therefore f
it is our desire when one possess a water that
he may prove it with sufficient writing as
70 THE PEASANTS WAR.
unwittingly purchased. We do not desire to
take such by force, but we must needs have a
Christian understanding in the matter, because
of brotherly love. But he who cannot bring
sufficient proof thereof shall give it back to the
community as beseemeth.
FIFTH ARTICLE.
A
AT V Fifthly, we are troubled concerning the
woodsj for_ou_lords have_taken^ untCL them-
selves all the woods, and if the poor_maji
_ requireth aught he must buy it with double
money. Our opimorTis as touching the woocTsT
be tKey possessed by spiritual or temporal
lords, whichsoever they be that have them
and that have not purchased them, they shall
again to the whole community, and that
each one from out the community shall be free
as is fitting to take therefrom into his house
so much as he may need. Even for carpenter-
ing, if he require it, shall he take wood for
nothing ; yet with the knowledge of them who
are chosen by the community to this end,
whereby the destruction of the wood may be
hindered ; but where there is no wood but
such as hath been honestly purchased, a
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 71
brotherly and Christian agreement with the
buyers shall be come to. But when one hath
first of all taken to himself the land and hath
afterwards sold it, then shall an agreement be
entered into with the buyers according to the
circumstance of the matter and with regard
to brotherly love and Holy Writ.
SIXTH ARTICLE.
" Sixthly, our grievous complaint is as con-
cerning the services which are heaped up from
day to day and daily increased. We desire
that these should be earnestly considered, and
that we be not so heavily burdened withal ;
but that we should be mercifully dealt with
herein ; that we may serve as our fathers have
served and only according to the Word of God
(Rom. x.).
SEVENTH ARTICLE.
" Seventhly, will we henceforth no longer be
opprest by a lordship, but in such wise as a
lordship hath granted the land, so shall it be
held according to the agreement between the
lord and the peasant. The lord shall no longer
compel him and press him, nor require of him
72 THE PEASANTS WAR.
new services or aught else for naught (Luke
iii. ; Thess. vi.). Thus shall the peasant enjoy
and use such land in peace, and undisturbed.
But when the lord hath need of the peasant's
services, the peasant shall be willing and
obedient to him before others ; but it shall be
at the hour and the time when it shall not be
to the hurt of the peasant, who shall do his
lord service for a befitting price.
EIGHTH ARTICLE.
" Eighthly, there are many among us who are
opprest in that they hold lands and in that
these lands will not bear the price on them, so
that the peasants must sacrifice that which
belongeth to them, to their undoing. We desire
that the lordship will let such lands be seen by
honourable men, and will fix a price as may be
just in such wise that the peasant may not have
his labour in vain, for every labourer is worthy
of his hire (Matt. x.).
NINTH ARTICLE.
" Ninthly, do we suffer greatly concerning
misdemeanours in that new punishments are laid
upon us. They punish us not according to
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 73
the circumstance of the matter, but sometimes
from great envy, from the unrighteous favouring
of others. We would be punished according
to ancient written law, and according to the
thing transgressed, ancTnot according to respect
of persons (Isa. x. ; Eph. vi. ; Luke iii. ; Jer.
xvi.).
TENTH ARTICLE.
" Tenthly, we suffer in that some have taken
to themselves meadows and arable land, which
belong to a community. We will take the same
once more into the hands of our communities
wheresoever it hath not been honestly pur-
chased. But hath it been purchased in an
unjust manner, then shall the case be agreed
upon in peace and brotherly love according to
the circumstance of the matter.
ELEVENTH ARTICLE.
" Eleventhly, would we have the custom called
the death-due utterly abolished, and will never
suffer or ^permit that widows and orphans shall
be shamefacedly robbed of their own, contrary
to God and honour, as happeneth in many
places and in divers manners. They have cut us
\
74 THE PEASANTS WAR.
short of what we possessed and should protect,
and they have taken all. God will no longer
suffer this, but it must be wholly ended. No
man shall, henceforth, be compelled to give
aught, be it little or much, as death-due (Deut.
xiii. ; Matt. viii. ; Isa. x. 23).
TWELFTH ARTICLE.
" Twelfthly, it is our conclusion and final
opinion, if one or more of the Articles here set
up be not according to the Word of God, we
will, where the same articles are proved as
against the Word of God/withdraw therefrom,
so soon as this is declared to us by reason and
Scripture ; yea, even though certain Articles
! were now granted to us, and it should hereafter
/be found that they were unjust, they shall be
deemed from that hour null and void and of
J none effect. The same shall happen if there
should be with truth found in the Scripture yet
more Articles which were against God and a
stumbling-block to our neighbour, even though
we should have determined to preserve such
for ourselves, and we practice and use ourselves
in all Christian doctrine, to which end we pray
God the Lord who can vouchsafe us the same
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 75
and none other. The peace of Christ be with
us all."
Such are the celebrated "Twelve Articles".
Such was the form in which they made the
round of the countryside throughout Germany.
They are moderate enough in all conscience,
it must be admitted. It will be noticed that
they embody the main demands of the Black
Forest peasants, already quoted. The same"
may be said of other formulations of peasant
reoj^m^ments. As I have said, they are supposed
to have been drawn up, with all the Biblical
phraseology and references as here given, at the
small imperial town of Memmingen, in March,
1525, and it is further supposed, though this
is somewhat uncertain, that they are at least
mainly from the pen of the Swiss pastor, Schap_-
jjej^r^who is known to have been present at
the conference at Memmingen, and who was
one of the most prominent advocates of the
peasant cause in south Germany. But although
this was the usual form and content of the
" Twelve Articles," and a form which seems to
have been everywhere the most popular^it may
be mentioned that it was supplemented,
perhaps in one or two cases superseded,
J
76 THE PEASANTS WAR.
certain districts by other versions. As among
the most important of these variations we may
note the twelve demands formulated__by_the
peasants of Elsass-Lothringen. They have the
merkof being short and to the point,_a.nd di-
vested of all sermonising, and are as follows :
1. Gospel shall be preached according to the
true faith.
2. No tithes shall be given neither great
nor small.
3. There shall be no longer interest and no
longer dues, more than one gulden in twenty
[five per cent.].
4. All waters shall be free.
5. All woods and forests shall be free.
6. All game shall be free.
7. None shall any longer be in a state of
villeinage.
8. None shall obey any longer any prince or
lord, but such as pleaseth him, and that shall be
the emperor.
9., Justice and right shall be as of old time.
10. Should there be one having authority
who displeaseth us, we would have the power
to set up in his place another as it pleaseth us.
1 1 . There shall be no more death-dues.
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 77
12. The common lands which the lords have
taken to themselves shall again become common
lands.
fThe idea of there being no lord but
emperor, at the time very popular amongst I
constitutional reformers, here finds direct ex-
pression. I The articles, it will be noticed, are
also more drastic than those given in the
classical version!^
The movement was frequently inaugurated
in a village by the reading of the " Twelve
Articles " in the ale-house or wine-room, or it
might be in the open air. They were every-
where received with acclamation, and the able-
bodied among the villagers usually formed
themselves straightway into a fighting con-
tingent of the " Evangelical Brotherhood".
The " Twelve Articles" proper, as will be
seen, were exclusively ao;rarjaru in rfrftrarter ;
they dealt with the grievances of the peasant
againstjiis lord, lay or '^ecclesiastic, but had
nothing to say on the social problems ancT~?
the ideas of political reconstruction agitating
the mind of the landless proletarian or the
impoverished handicraftsman within the wall
of the towjis, The many small, and, according
THE PEASANTS WAR.
to our notions, even diminutive, townships
spread over central and southern Germany
had, it is true, many points of contact with the
agrarian revolution, but they none the less had
their own special point of view, which was also
in the main that of the larger towns. As we
already know, every town had its Ehrbarkeit
or patriciate, which often monopolised the seats
of^ the council (Ratti} and all the higher
municipal offices. Many towns, even among
thlT small ones above referred to, had a dls-_
contented_seGtiori of poor guTJdsmen, and
most^had a proportionately larger or smaller
contingent of precariously employed proletarians,
who had either no municipal status at all, or
who had at best to content themselves with
that form of bare citizenship which conferred
on them and theirs no more than the mere right
^residence. The fact of living withnTforTtried
town walls, however small the area they
enclosed, seemed itself to have the effect of
creating a distinction between the townsman
and the dweller in the open country, who in
time of war had at best to secure his family and
possessions in the fortified churchyard of his
village. Hence, in spite of the strong bond of
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES.
sympathy and common interest between the
poor townsman and the peasant a sympathy
which as soon as the agrarian movement had
begun to make headway showed solid fruits-
it is clear that a programme that might suffice
for the latter would not for the former. No
-^_ ^ __ ____
sooner, therefc
a serious part in the revolutionary movement Vg^
thatthe^ peasantry had inaugurated, than we^
find entering into it the new elements of
some cases, of a
utopiancharacter. elements which we fail to
observe in the great peasant charter, the
in the other subsidiary and local agrarian
J
Among the projects of political revolution
to which the year 1525 gave birth, the foremost
place is occupied by the " Evangelical Divine
Reformation " of the empire, sketched out by
two men, both of them townsmen of position
and education, by name ^{finrH Jjjpler^and
Friedrirh Weigand^. These men embodied in
their_scjienie, in definite form, the average
aspirations of the revolutionary classes of the
towns. As we have seen, the idea of centrali-
8o THE PEASANTS WAR.
sation and of an equality based on a bureau-
cratic constitution was present in the spurious
reformation of Friedrich III., as in all the
new political tendencies of the time. As was
only to be expected, it entered into the general
revolutionary scheme drawn up by the two men
above named and designed to be laid before the
projected congress of peasant and town dele-
gates to be held at Heilbronn. Thejr both of
them had held office at feudal courts. Wendel
Hipler had been chancellor and secretary to
The Count_ of Hohenlohe.and chief clerk to the
Palatinate. Friedrich_Weigand had been a pro-
minent court functionary of the Archbishopjjf
~Mainz~ They both threw themselves energetic-
ally into the new movement. Their marked
intellectual sjjrjejiority^and practical knowledge
of tactics is shown by their endeavours to effect
a union on the basis of a definite plan of action
between the various peasant encampments, as
also in their conceptions of the proper position
to take up towards their princely and ecclesi-
astical adversaries. The aim of Hipler and
Weigand, as of most contemporary Apolitical
reformers, was to strengthen the power o_the
emperor at the expense of thefeudal estates.
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 81
Weigand, whilst supporting the general view
of compelling princes and lords to humble
themselves to becoming simple members of
the Evangelical League, conceived the idea of
specially enlisting the lower nobility and the
towns against the princes. It is probable
enough that this project was debated in the
standing committee of the movement, which sat
during the greater part of its course at the
imperial town of Heilbrdnn, and of which
Hipler and Weigand were members, but re-
specting the proceedings of which we have
little information. Weigand appears also to
have broached the idea of an agreement being
arrived at by a remodelled Reichsregiment*
manned by_e_rjr^s^nialLvS^Qf the lower nobilityy-
oT the't^n^ancLQf the peasantry
The actual scheme of reconstruction drawn
up by these two men was based upon the
"J^formation of Kaisgr JFriedrich III." The
language in which it is couched is studiously
moderate, but the Biblical and pietistic phrase-"
ology of the " Twelve Articles " is almost
entirely wanting. Whilst it embraces the
agrarian demands of the peasants, these are
merely incorporated as arLglemgnt in the general
.
82 THE PEASANTS WAR.
scheme of reform. The stress is laid on the
litical side of things on the notions T
equality before the law, of reformed adminis-
tration, and of national or imperial unity. The
secularisation of the empire is insisted on ;
the ecclesiastical property is to be confiscated
to the benefit of all needy men and of the
common good. Priests or pastors 1 are to be
chosen by the community. They are to receive
a seemly stipend, but are to be excluded from
all political or juridical functions. Princes and
lords are to be reformed in the sense that the
poor man should be no longer oppressed by
them. At the same time, a distinction between
-the estates was not to be entirely abolished.
In this case, as in that of the " Twelve Articles,"
the moderation or opportunism of the official
document is noteworthy when contrasted with
the more sweeping and radical measures which
were demanded in definite form by certain of
the men and sections of the revolutionary
party, and which, especially in northern and
central Germany, seemed at times to animate
the whole movement. In the Wendel Hipler
project, indeed, a fourfold social division of the
empire is proposed, consisting of/(i j) princes,
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES.
counts and barojis ;V. (2j\knights and squires ; ^L
^ntownships ;((^^ruraT communities. Equal \J '
justice is to be meted out to all. But princes
and barons, while retaining their nominal rank,
shall cease to possess independent power and
shall hold their positions merely as functionaries
and servants of the emperor, the mediaeval
representative of German unity. As a neces-
sary consequence, all rights of treaty, of
jurisdiction, of coinage, or of levying tolls,
appertaining to the separate estates, as such,
shall cease to exist. An imperial coinage is to
be established, with separate mints in different
parts of the empire, bearing, in all cases, on
the obverse the imperial eagle, and only on
the reverse the armorial bearings of the prince
or town within whose territory the particular
mint happens to be situated. Customs dues,
passage dues, direct and indirect taxes of every
description are to cease. The emperor alone
shall every ten years have the right of taxation.
Justice is to be thoroughly reformed throughout
the empire. Below the supreme court of the
empire, the Kammergericht, are to be four
subordinate courts ; below these, four territorial
courts ; below these again four so-called " free
84 THE PEASANTS WAR.
V "^V^ .
V. courts, the administrative basis of the whole
being the courts or open tribunals of the town-
ship and of the village-community. Whilst
the higher judicial functions are allowed to be
retained by the nobility and their assessors,
every tribunal, from the highest to the lowest,
is to be manned by sixteen persons, judges
and jurors. Doctors of the Roman law are
to be rigidly excluded from judiciaTTunctions
and restricted to lecturing on their science at
the universities. A thorough reform, in a
democratic sense, of township and communal
government is postulated. All mortgages on
land are to be redeemable on payment down,
of a sum amounting to twenty years' interest.
Such are the leading features of the reform
ffi project drawn up by Wendel Hipler and Fried-
rich Weigand for the consideration of the
delegates from the townships and villages which
should have come together in the month of
June at Heilbronn. Thecongress in question
was destined never to take place. The whole
movement was, at the time it should have been
held, in a state of imminent collapse, even in
those districts where it had not already been
crushed.
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES.
More agrarian and far more drastic in its
revolutionary character was the planof reform
put forward by Michael Gaismayr,_the intel-
lectual leader of the revolt in Tyrol, in the
Archbishopric of Salzburg, and in the Aus-
trian hereditary territories generally. Michael
Gaismayr, who was the son of a squire of
Sterzing, had been secretary to the Bishop of
Brixen. As soon as matters began to stir in
the regions of the Eastern Alps, Gaismayr
threw himself into the movement and ultimately
became its chief. But it is noteworthy that, radi-
cal as were the demands he put forward, neither c-o iAX>Ki
his activity nor his scheme of reform extended
far outside the Tyrol and the neighbouring
territories. This being the case, it is only
natural that his revolutionary plans should be
mainly of an agrarian type. All castles and all**"
town-walls and fortlEcations were to be levelled i f
with the ground, and henceforth there wer_lQJ^
be no more towns, but only villages, to the end
that no man should think himself better than
his neighbour. A strong central government 1 -^
was to administer public affairs. There was to
be c>ne university at the seat of government,*^
which was to devote itself exclusively to Biblical
86 THE PEASANTS WAR.
studies. The calling of the merchant was to
be forbidden, so that none might besmirch
themselves with the sin of usury. On the other
hand, cattle-breeding, husbandry, vine-culture,
the draining of marshes, and the reclaiming of
t^waste lands were to be encouraged ; nay, were
to constitute the exclusive occupations of the
(inhabitants of the countries concerned. All
> /this is to a large extent an outcome of the
.general tendency of mediaeval communistic
/thought, with its Biblical colouring, and would-
l be resuscitation of primitive Christian conditions,
t were believed to have been such. It
is the true development of the tradition of the
English Lollards, and still more directly of the
Bohemian Taborites.
The clflssirft] expression, however, of the
religious-Utopian side of the Peasants War, and,
indeed, of the closing period of the Middle
Ages generally, isjx3 be found in the doctrines
gpd social theory of Thomas Miinzej^ which
played so great a part in the Thuringian revolt,
especially in the town of Miihlhausen, and
which subsequently formed the theoretical basis
of the anabaptist rising, as exemplified in the
" Kingdom of God " in Minister. Since, how-
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 87
ever, we shall devote a special chapter to the\
Thuringian episode of the Peasants War, with/
particular reference to Thomas Miinzer and his
career, it is unnecessary to deal at length with
it here. It is sufficient to say that if in the
political plan of constitution formulated by
Hipler and Weigand we have more especially
the revolution as it presented itself to the mind
of the townsman just as in the Twelve Articles
we have its formulation from the moderate
peasant point of view, and in the scheme
of Gaismayr the more radical expression of
peasant aspirations as voiced by a man of
education and intellectual capacity so in the
doctrines of Miinzer we have both sides of the
movement fused and presented in the guise of
a religious Utopia, on the traditional lines of
mediaeval communism, but of a more thorough-
going and systematic character, the elaboration
of which, however, was reserved for Miinzer's
anabaptist successors.
In the town-movement, as exemplified in the
Hipler- Weigand scheme, the stress of which
was political, the main ideas are on the lines of
the then trend of historic evolution i.e. L towards
centralisation and bureaucratic administration,
88 THE PEASANTS WAR.
equality before the law, etc. On the other hand,
^he distinctively peasant programme, as T^gsallp
has_[)Qinted out, was in the main .^reactionary,
harking back_as it did to the old__village
community with its primitive communistic basis,
an institution which was destined to pass away
in the natural course of economic development.
The old group-holding of land, with communal
property generally, was necessarily doomed to
be gradually superseded by those individualistic
rights of property that form the essential con-
dition of the modern capitalist world.
In addition to the men who may be considered
as the intellectual chiefs of the social revolt,
we must not ignore the influence of those
who were primarily religious reformers or sec-
taries, but who, notwithstanding, took sides
with the social movement and formed a powerful
stimulus throughout its course. The influence
of the new religious doctrines, and of many of
their preachers on the current of affairs is
unmistakable to the most casual student of
the period. As prominent types of this class
of agitator, two names may be taken that of
Andreas Bodenstein, better known from his
birthplace as Karlstadt, .and that of Balthasar
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 89
The first-named was born at
Karlstadt, Franconia, about 1483, was educated
in Rome and became a Professor of Theology
at Wittenberg. Drawn into the vortex of
the Lutheran movement at an early age, he
soon developed into a partisan of the extreme
sects, and of the social doctrines which almost
invariably accompanied them. Karlstadt, who
was somewhat older than Luther, was twice
rector of his university, besides being canon
and archdeacon of the celebrated Stifskirche
at Wittenberg. He it was who in his official
capacity conferred the degree of doctor upon
Luther. Karlstadt enjoyed general esteem in
the university. Though at first he was closely
identified with Luther, the objects of the two
men were probably different even at the outset.
Luther was only concerned with the freeing of
the soul ; the theological interest with him
outweighed every other. Karlstadt, on the
contrary, though primarily a theologian, was
still more concerned for the bodily welfare of
his fellow Christians and for the establishment
of a system of righteousness in this world.
Luther had always regarded the authorities as
his mainstay ; Karlstadt appealed to the people.
]
9 o THE PEASANTS WAR.
In theology and ecclesiastical matters as in
social views, Karlstadt was essentially revolu-
tionary, while Luther was the mere reformer.
Finally, the tendency of Luther was to become
more conservative or opportunist with years,
while, on the contrary, Karlstadt became more
revolutionary. As Luther placed the Bible
above Church tradition, Karlstadt^ placed the
inner light of th^. souj^ above the Bible.
Indeed, in his utterances respecting the latter,
he anticipated many of the points of modern
criticism.
While Luther was in the Wartburg, the
mystics of Zwickau, the friends of Thomas
Miinzer came to Wittenberg. This was the
turning-point with Karlstadt. Carried away by
these enthusiasts, a new world seemed to open
up before him. Theology lost its importance ;
life and political action became all in all. He
now rejected all human learning as worthless
and injurious ; in the dress of a peasant or
handicraftsman he went now among the people.
That man should throw off all learning, all
human authority, and should return to natural
conditions, became henceforth his central teach-
ing. In fact, his was the Rousseauite doctrine
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 91
before its time. In fanatical iconoclasm he had
scarcely an equal.
At length he was compelled to leave Wit-
tenberg. He repaired to the farm of his
father-in-law and worked as a labourer. The
life of the husbandman and the handicraftsman
he proclaimed as the only worthy one. He
demanded that all ecclesiastical goods should
be confiscated for the benefit of the poor. This
new departure naturally offended Luther, and
the inevitable rupture between the two men
occurred on Luther's return to Wittenberg. /
Eventually, Karlstadt betook himself first to
Orlamunda and then to Rothenburg on the
Tauber, just" as the revolutionary movement
was beginning there, into which he energetically
threw himself. He was subsequently compelled
to conceal himself in the houses of friends in
the town, escaping the hot pursuit of the
reaction by letting himself down by a rope at
night from the city wall.
born in the Bavarian
town of Friedberg, near Augsburg, in the
last quarter of the fifteenth century, began
life as a learned theologian, and after teaching
at the University of Friedberg became pro-
92 THE PEASANTS WAR.
rector of the University of Ingolstadt. He was
then made chief preacher of the cathedral at
Regensburg, where he initiated an ar^i- Jewish,
campaign, which resulted in the invasion of
the Jewish quarter of the town and the total
demolition of the synagogue. On the site of
the latter a chapel was built in honour of the
"fair Mary," the image contained in which had
the reputation of effecting miraculous cures.
Popular excitement caused by this led to a
scandal (see German Society, pp. 268-271).
This was in the year 1516. Shortly after the
outbreak of the Reformation, being attracted
by the latter, he left his post at Regensburg
and became preacher in the little town of
\Valdshtrt-on the borders of the Black Forest.
About the same time, he made the acquaintance
of Zwingli and the Swiss reformers, and soon
assumed the character of an energetic apostle
of the new doctrines. The citizens of Wald-
shut, together with the clergy of the town
and surrounding districts, acclaimed him with
enthusiasm. He became the hero and prophet
of Waldshut. Such was his success in his
new capacity that the Austrian authorities at
Ensisheim, the seat of the Austrian Government
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 93
in south-west Germany, became alarmed,
and demanded the extradition of the popular
preacher as a dangerous agitator. This was
refused by the town. Hubmayer, however,
insisted upon leaving " to the end that no man
may be prejudiced or injured on my account,
and that ye may preserve rest and peace".
Accordingly, on the I7th of August, 1524, ac-
companied by the blessings and plaudits of the
townsfolk, he rode out of the eastern gate. A
small body of armed men were in readiness to
receive him from the hands of the Waldshuters,
and to conduct him to the Swiss town of
Schaffhausen, where he found safety and a
favourable reception.
Meanwhile, as we have seen, Hans Miiller
von Bulgenbach, with his peasant bands, had
fraternised with the people of Waldshut, and
the Peasants War began to threaten. The
result of the situation was that, notwithstanding
hostile preparations, the Austrian Government
found it prudent for a while to let Waldshut
alone, more especially as the Swiss cantons
of Schaffhausen and Zurich showed signs
of moving in its favour. Emboldened by im-
munity, the Waldshuters recalled their favourite
94 THE PEASANTS WAR.
preacher. He was received, as an official
document of the time states, " with drums, pipes
and horns, and with such pomp as though
he were the emperor himself". A great feast
was given him in the guildhall, and general
rejoicing followed. About this time either
Thomas Mlinzer himself or some of his followers
who were agitating in the Black Forest districts,
appear to have visited Waldshut. Hubmayer
now became an enthusiastic partisan and apostle
of the new social doctrines of the realisation of
the Kingdom of God upon earth, in the shape
of a Christian commonwealth based on equality
of status and community of goods. Hubmayer
threw himself with renewed zeal into the
agitation for the cause to which he had been
over by Mlinzer^ or his disciples.
The clergy more especially showed themselves
receptive for the new doctrines. In fact, we have
taken Karlstadt and Hubmayer as the most
eminent types of a._cla.ss---of-~refnrming prje^t-
reforming in a social and political no less than
in a theological sense which at the time of
which we write had numerous representatives
throughout Germany. All developments of the
social movement found their advocates among
DEMANDS, IDEALS AND APOSTLES. 95
the revolted priesthood the moderate and im-
mediate demands of the ppagantft as expressed
in the official Twelve Articles ', the political and
administrative reformation of the empire upon
which the Hipler-Weigand scheme lays so
much stress, and, perhaps more than all, the
reHgious-econpjpic utoplanism of which Thomas
MUnzer was the leading exponent.
CHAPTER IV.
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY.
THE heads of the Swabian League sitting in
the imperial town of Ulm were glad enough
to keep up the farce of negotiations with
the peasants, in accordance with the principle
already laid down by the Archduke of Austria,
namely, that of quieting them with promises
and vague hopes until preparations for taking
the field should be completed. Truchsess, the
head of the military forces of the league, was
meanwhile straining every nerve to get fighting
men to join his standard. As a contemporary
manuscript expressly has it, " they kept the
peasants at bay with words so long as they could,
and armed meanwhilePto aTSck~tHern ". But
the landesknechte * employed by Truchsess were
inclined to be mutinous. Their pay was in
arrears, and they were especially indisposed to
1 Landesknechte or lanzknechte I shall in future through-
out this work translate by its nearest English equivalent
free-lances.
(96)
THE MO VEMENT IN SO UTH GERMANY. 97
take the field against the peasants, the class
from which most of them sprang, and whose
grievances they well appreciated. Still, by dint
of threats, promises and money, Truchsess at
length succeeded in getting together a force
of 8000 foot and 3000 horse. By the .end of
Maj^ch^ the peasants, on their side, began to
weary of the interminable negotiations~witFf the
league at Ulm, whose object was now only
too apparent, and determined to begin active
operations. Truchsess, fearing lest the body
encamped in the district known as the Ried,
and called from its place of origin the " Baltringer
contingent," might cut off his retreat to his own
castle and domains and possibly invade them,
determined to attack this section first. His
relations with his own tenants seem to have
been on the whole fairly good, arid he appears
to have left his family at the Waldsee.
As we have already seen, the Baltringer or
Ried contingent formed one of the three sections
of the " Evangelical Peasant Brotherhood," the
other two being the Black Forest and the
Lake contingents. But in the marshy district
where the Baltringer division was encamped,
Truchsess could not transport his heavy guns
98 THE PEASANTS WAR,
easily nor manoeuvre his cavalry with effect.
All he could do, therefore, was to send a
detachment of foot under Frowen Von Hutten
to attack them. The peasants retired to a
favourable position in the hope of inducing
Truchsess to risk his whole force on the
treacherous ground. He remained, however,
where he was, contenting himself with sending
out a foraging party which plundered a few
villages, but which was eventually cut off by a
body of peasants and its members either killed
or driven back into their camp. The object
the leader of the Swabian army had in view
was to draw the main peasant force into firm
open country and compel them to engage in
a pitched battle, knowing that under such
circumstances they would be at a hopeless
disadvantage. To this end he sent sundry
spies in the form of messengers into the
peasant camp, but the insurgents, though they
answered peaceably, proceeded to entrench
themselves still more securely behind a wood.
The peasants further endeavoured to induce
Truchsess's free-lances to desert to their camp
by means of secret negotiations. They were,
they said, their sons and brothers, and this, in
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 99
fact, was the case. Most of the foot-soldiery y
of the time was recruited out of poor town /
proletarians or impoverished peasants' sons, who, \
in many cases as a last resort, had taken to
trade of arms and were prepared to serve any
master for a few hellers a day and the hope of
booty. But, although this was their only chance
of victory to induce experienced fighting men
to enter their ranks many of their number
were averse to being led by, or even to having
in their company, any free-lances. The peasant
leaders were partly jealous of the latter's
superiority in war to themselves, while many
of the rank and file dreaded their dissolute
habits, for which they had an evil notoriety.
Wendel Hipler and the far-seeing heads of
the movement strove in vain to effect an
understanding between the free-lances and the
peasants. Their ways of life were different,
and, though both belonged^to the people, a
certain mutual distrust could not be surmounted.
Finally, after a short and indecisive passage
of arms with the main Baltringer contingent,
Truchsess withdrew his forces in the direction
of the little town of Leipheim, in the neighbour-
hood of which an important detachment of
TOO THE PEASANTS WAR.
insurgents was commanded by the preacher
Jakob__Wehe. Wehe was an enthusiastic up-
lolder of the peasant claims, and a prudent and
energetic leader in action. He had already
constituted a war-chest and a reserve fund. A
train of sixty waggons, containing provisions
and material of war, followed his detachment,
which, in spite of the admonitions of their
leader, showed itself not averse to excesses.
The worthy priest had as his goal to unite
with two other bodies encamped not far distant,.
tp march on Ulm, and to seize that important
imperial city, the seat of the heads of the
Swabian League, whose patrician council had,
moreover, shown itself so unsympathetic to
the popular cause. His immediate objective,
however, was the town of Weissenhorn. In
Weissenhorn, as in all the towns, the wealthier
guildsmen and the patriciate were on the side
of the Swabian League. A garrison of 340
horsemen had been hastily thrown into the
town by the Count Palatine. The gates were
remorselessly shut against the peasants, the
utmost concession made being the passing of
bread and wine over the wall. Hearing of the
near approach of Truchsess, and aware of the
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 101
hopelessness of attempting to withstand his
cavalry charge in the open field, Wehe decided
to retreat on Leipheim, where he had entrench-
ments.
On the following day a detachment stormed
the castle of Roggenburg, making them-
selves drunk on the contents of the wine-
cellars. In this condition they destroyed
the church, with its organ and costly plate,
making bands for their hose out of the church
banners and vestments. One of their number
donned the chasuble and biretta of the Abbot
of Roggenburg, and, seated on the altar, made
his comrades do him homage. This besotted
jesting went on the whole day. Another
detachment, also on plunder bent, was cut off
by some horsemen of the league and partly
destroyed and partly taken prisoners to Ulm.
Jakob Wehe, anxious to gain time, sent
by a trusty messenger the following letter to
the council of the league at Ulm :
" As warriors of understanding and experi-
ence, ye will easily see that the assembly of
peasants waxeth ever greater with time, and
that such a multitude may not readily be
compelled. That which hath happened that
102 THE PEASANTS WAR.
is unmete doth with truth grieve us and our
brethren in other places, who have been
innocently moved thereto, but to the end that
further mischief may be prevented, we entreat
that the league shall be a true furtherer of
God's glory and of peace. We will also our-
selves, so far as in us lies, zealously do our
utmost with other assemblies that complaints
should be heard by God-fearing and under-
standing men, who hate time-serving and love
the common weal, and that all grievances shall be
made straight in peace and by judicial decisions.''
The above letter had scarcely reached Ulm
before " Herr George" with his army was
already within sight of Leipheim. Here the
peasants were entrenched 3000 strong. The
town was already in their possession. The
camp was some distance outside and had on its
right the river, on its left the wood. Its front
was covered by a marsh, and behind it was a
barricade of waggons. A vanguard of horse-
men was kept at bay, but, as soon as the
peasants saw Truchsess with his whole army
advancing on them, they decided to retreat
within the walls to await reinforcements. The
retreat was only partially successful. The
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 103
peasants carried indeed their dead and wounded
with them and buried the former in a ditch
by the roadside. About 2000 succeeded in
reaching Leipheim, whilst about 1000 were
either driven into the Danube and drowned
or cut down in the field. Truchsess now made
direct for Leipheim, which he decided to storm.
The inhabitants, however, lost courage, sending
an old man and some women to beg for mercy.
The general of the league forces answered that
they must surrender themselves at discretion,
and first of all hand over to him their pastor
and captain, Jakob Wehe^ terms which were
agreed to. No sooner did Wehe see the turn
things had taken than, gathering together some
200 florins, he bethought himself of escape.
His parsonage was built against the town wall,
whence a secret subterranean passage led under
the wall down to the Danube. Of this he
availed himself in the company of a friend and
succeeded in reaching a cave known to him
in a rock on the banks of the river, where he
remained in hiding. The town was entered,
but under conditions causing great discontent
to a portion of Truchsess's men, for the free-
lances were not allowed to plunder as they had
io 4 THE PEASANTS WAR.
been promised in the event of the town being
taken by storm. On Wednesday, the 5th of
April, the neighbouring town of Giinzburg,
which had also gone with the peasants,
capitulated to the league, having to pay in all
a ransom amounting to 1000 gold gulden.
Three of the leaders taken prisoners at Leip-
heim and four at Giinzburg were condemned
to death.
Meanwhile, search was made everywhere for
Jakob Wehe in vain, until his whereabouts
were disclosed to some free-lances by the
barking of a dog outside his retreat. The offer
of the 200 florins he had with him proved of
no avail to free him. His captors took him
bound on a hurdle to their master at Bubesheim,
where he was condemned to share the fate of
the seven other captives spoken of above. On
the 5th of April towards evening, they were
taken to a flowery meadow lying between Leip-
heim and Bubesheim to be executed. As
Master Jakob was led forward to the block,
Truchsess turned to him with the words : " Sir
pastor, it had been well for thee and us hadst
thou preached God's word, as it beseemeth,
and not rebellion". "Noble sir," answered
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 105
the preacher, "ye do me wrong. IhaJ&e-JiQl.
preached rebellion, but God's word." " I am
otherwise miormed," observed ^iruchsess, as
his chaplain stepped forward to receive the
confession of the condemned man. Wehe
turned to those around, stating that he had
already confessed to his Maker and commended
his soul to Him. To his fellow-sufferers he
observed : " Be of good cheer, brethren, we
shall yet meet each other to-day in Paradise,
for when our eyes seem to close, they are really
first opening ". After having prayed aloud,
concluding with the words : " Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do," he laid
himself on the block, and in another moment
his head fell in the long grass.
The preacher of Giinzburg, who had also
taken part in the movement, and an old soldier
of fortune, who had joined the rebels, were
brought forward in their turn to submit to the
same fate, when the old soldier, turning to
Truchsess, observed : " Doth it not seem to thee
a little late in the day, noble lord, for one to
lose one's head ? " This humorous observation
saved the lives of himself and the preacher.
The latter was carried about with the troops
io6 THE PEASANTS WAR.
in a cage, until he had bought his freedom
with eighty gulden. He lost, however, the
right of preaching and of riding on horse-
back !
Meanwhile, the free-lances of "Herr George"
were becoming more mutinous every day.
They had not made the booty they expected,
and their pay was long outstanding. The
danger to the commander's own castles notably
the Waldburg or Waldsee, where his wife and
child resided was imminent. Still the free-
lances would not budge. Some of his noble
colleagues and neighbours took the matter in
hand and occupied his territories. It was,
however, too late. The Waldsee had capitu-
lated to the Baltringer and bought itself off for
4000 gulden. The attacking party did not
know that the countess and her child were
located within, or it would probably have gone
badly with them. In the course of a few days,
the League having undertaken to pay the
month's arrears of wages, the matter with the
free-lances was arranged.
The peasants, however, were by no means
disheartened by the check that their cause had
received at Leipheim. Truchsess, with a force
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 107
of double their number, including cavalry, and
well-equipped with artillery, might succeed in
crushing one body, but, with his eight or nine
thousand men, he could not be everywhere at
the same time. A few days after, Truchsess
eagerly seized an opportunity of negotiating a
truce with the so-called Lake contingent and the
Hegauers, which relieved him for the moment
and of which we shall have occasion to speak
later on. Just at this juncture the movement
was rapidly reaching its height. It was I
computed that no fewer than 300,000 peasants, ^-y
besides necessitous townsfolk, were armed and /
in open rebellion. On the side of the nobles, J
no adequate force was ready to meet the
emergency. In every direction were to be seen
flaming castles and monasteries. On all sides
were bodies of armed country-folk, organised
in military fashion, dictating their will to the
countryside and the small towns, whilst disaffec-
tion was beginning to show itself in a threatening
manner among the popular elements of not a
few important cities. The victory of the league
at Leipheim had done nothing to improve the
situation from the point of view of the governing
powers. In
io8 THE PEASANTS WAR.
as if the "Twelve Articles," at least, would
become realised, if not the Christian Common-
wealth dreamed of by the religious sectaries
established throughout the length and breadth
of Germany. Princes, lords and ecclesiastical
dignitaries were being compelled far and wide
to save their lives, after their property was
probably already confiscated, by swearing alle-
giance to the Christian League or Brotherhood
of the peasants and by countersigning the
Twelve Articles and other demands of their
refractory villeins and serfs. So threatening
i was the situation that the Archduke Ferdinand
I began himself to yield in so far as to enter into
negotiations with the insurgents. These were
mostly carried on through the intermediary of
a certain Walther Bach, one of the peasant
leaders in the AllgSu and an ex-soldier in the
Austrian service. The only result, however,
was that Walther Bach fell under the suspicion
of his followers and was shortly afterwards
deposed from his position by them.
In brilliancy of get-up, none equalled Hans
Muller from Bulgenbach and his two colleagues,
Jians Ritel-and JohariiL-Ziigelmullet^ and their
followings. We read of purple mantles and scarlet
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 109
birettas with ostrich plumes as the costume of the
leaders, of a suite of men in scarlet dress, of a
vanguard of ten heralds gorgeously attired. This
combined contingent of the Black Forest and
surrounding districts went from one success to
another, taking castle after castle, including as
before mentioned that of Lupfen, the seat of
the Countess Helena of " snail-shell " notoriety,
who was the alleged proximate cause of the
insurrection. After leaving peasant garrisons
in all the places captured, Hans M tiller be-
thought himself of attacking Radolfzell, where,
o o
as we have seen, a considerable number of
nobles and clergy had taken refuge. He
does not seem, however, to have immediately
attempted any formal siege of the town, but
simply to have cut off all communications and
laid waste the surrounding country. Indeed,
as is truly observed by Lamprecht (Deutsche
Geschichte, vol. v., p. 343), " the peasant revolts
were, in general, less of the nature of campaigns,
or even of an uninterrupted series of minor
military operations, than of a slow process of
mobilisation, interrupted and accompanied by
continual negotiations with the lords and princes
a mobilisation which was rendered possible
no THE PEASANTS WAR.
by the standing right of assembly and of carrying
arms possessed by the peasants ".
The duchy of Wiirtemberg, the home of
the " poor Conrad," was, as we have seen, ripe
for insurrection at the time of Duke Ulrich's
abortive attempt to regain possession of his
coronet. While Truchsess was operating about
Leipheim and holding the Baltringer contingent
at bay, the Wiirtemberg authorities, spiritual and
temporal, found themselves face to face with
a threatening peasant population, everywhere
gathering under arms. The assembly of the
estates of the duchy had been called together
at Stuttgart to deliberate on the matter. The
result was the immediate despatch of an embassy
to Ulm to represent their case to the council
of the Swabian League. The latter replied
sympathetically, but observed that the regency
of the archduke and the estates themselves
were largely to blame for the position of affairs,
pointing out that, while every member of the
league was by the terms of its oath obliged to
keep its most important castles and towns in
a state of thorough defensive repair, in Wiirtem-
berg there was not a single castle which was
capable of holding out, and that the frontiers
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY, in
especially were entirely exposed. All that they
could promise was that, as soon as Truchsess
had settled affairs in Upper Swabia, he should
come to their assistance. The allegations were
quite true ; the duchy was absolutely denuded of
fighting men through the Italian war, the arch-
duke having taken no care or having been
unable to replace those he had sent to his brother
with any other sufficient force. The finances
of the country, bad as they had been before,
were now almost entirely exhausted by the
resistance to Duke Ulrich's invasion. Turning
from the league to the archduke, the estates
were similarly met by promises, but no assistance
was forthcoming.
Meanwhile, the small towns were everywhere
opening their gates without resistance to the
peasants, between whom and the poorer in-
habitants an understanding usually existed.
Here as elsewhere, defenceless castles were
falling into the hands of the insurgents, who
waxed fat with plunder, and in many cases
drank themselves senseless with the contents
of rich monastic wine-cellars. In the valley
of the Neckar an innkeeper, named Matern
Feuerbacher, was chosen as captain of the
ii2 THE PEASANTS WAR.
popular forces. Feuerbacher was compelled to
accept the leadership of the insurgents against
his will. The nobles in the vicinity of the
small town of Bottwar, where Feuerbacher
had his inn, knew him well as an honest good-
natured person, with whom they even at times
conversed, as they sat in his wine-room, and
they were by no means averse to the choice the
insurgents had made. The innkeeper at first
hid himself on the approach of the peasant
delegates, who threatened his wife that if her
husband did not, on their next demand, consent
to place himself at their head, they would
plant the ominous stake denoting his outlawry
before his door.
Just at this time an event occurred at the
little town of Weinsberg, of "faithful wife"
fame, near the free imperial city of Heilbronn
to the north of the duchy, which constitutes a
landmark in the history of the peasant rising.
The town-proletariat of Heilbronn had been
stirring from February onwards, and by the
end of March a good understanding had been
arrived at between them and the peasantry of
the surrounding country. The leader of the
movement here was one Jakob Rohrbach,
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 113
commonly called by the nick-name of " Jacklein
Rohrbach," or sometimes simply " Tacklein".
He kept an inn in a village called Bockingen,
a short distance from Heilbronn. He is de-
scribed as young, well-built, and strong, of
burgher descent, and intelligent withal. His
reputation as a boon companion was immense, if
and as he was of a generous nature and treated
freely, his popularity, especially with the young ^ A
people of the district, was enormous. Always D
of a rebellious disposition, he had had many
a tussle with constituted authority^ The most
serious appears to have been in 1519, when he
was accused of stabbing the head man of his
village, against whom he had a grievance.
For this he was to be arrested and tried, but
threatened the constable and the judges that,
if they dared to lay hands upon him, the whole
place should be burnt to the ground. Knowing
that all the countrymen of the neighbourhood
were on his side and would very probably put
this threat into execution, or, at best, avenge
themselves in some other unpleasant way, the
local authorities found it prudent to let the
matter drop. Jacklein Rohrbach, in short, was
the terror of all respectable persons.
8
ii4 THE PEASANTS WAR.
His chief companions were the sons of the
peasantry, whom he saw oppressed on all sides.
A village girl, with whom he was in love, was
seized by the forest ranger of a neighbouring
lord for gathering wild strawberries, maltreated
and subsequently ravished. This may have
given a deeper colour to his hatred of the aristo-
crat. In any case, by the end of 1524, Jacklein
found his money spent and himself in an ap-
parently hopeless condition economically. At
the same time, his hatred of the existing order
of society knew no bounds. An ecclesiastic
had sought to obtain payment of a debt from
Jacklein. The latter had assembled his peasants
3t Bockingen, and had, in addition, called out
some of the town proletarians from Heilbronn
in order to prevent the hearing of the case.
On the demand of the priest, the council
of Heilbronn sent one of their number to
Bockingen, who speedily returned with the
news that the village was full of armed men
at the service of Rohrbach. The council,
thereupon, advised the clergyman to let his
plaint fall for the time being, as his pursuing
it would only lead to a disturbance, which for
the moment there was no means of quelling.
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 115
This was at the end of March. On the 2nd
of April, Rohrbach, who had the previous day
repaired with his following to the village of
Flein, also in the Heilbronn territory, raised
the standard of revolt, and soon had 300
more supporters from the neighbouring villages
around him. He had been long in communica-
tion with Wendel Hipler and George Metzler,
a leader of the Odenwald insurgents, of whom
we shall speak presently. Jacklein was now
strong enough to compel by threats, or other-
wise, the neighbouring places to supply him
with men to serve under his standard. As soon
as he had gathered together 1500 partisans, he
proceeded to join the main body of insurgents
in the Schonthal, under the leadership of
Metzler. The body was known as the " Heller
Haufen" which may be translated as the "United
Contingent". In the meantime, the bold
Jacklein had seized the head-man of Bockingen,
thrown him into prison, and set up a new one
of his own choosing. As a taste of the good
things in store for them, he had also allowed
his men to fish out a small lake belonging to a
patrician councillor of Heilbronn.
George Metzler, the commander of the
n6 THE PEASANTS WAR.
" United Contingent," had been from the be-
ginning of the movement a zealous agitator
and organiser. He was an innkeeper in the
town of Balenberg, and his wine-room was the
resort of all the discontented and insurrectionary
elements of the neighbouring districts. As
soon as the Swabians had begun to move,
Metzler bound ajjea&arrtVshoe (the BundschuJi)
Lto a pole and carried it about the country,
preceded by a man beating a drum. In a
short time he had 2000 men around his
"shoe". This body, which steadily increased,
was given a form of military organisation by
Wendel Hipler (the peasants chancellor), who
now appeared upon the scene, and Metzler was
definitely appointed its commander. Thus,
while some of the other contingents were little
better than hordes, the Heller Haufen assumed
more the character of an army. It had its
x grades and its judiciary power, and in front of
was carried the "Twelve Articles," which
all were required to swear to and to sign.
Princes, bishops and nobles had the alternative
offered them of loss of property or life, or of
entrance into the Evangelical Brotherhood.
The two Counts of Hohenlohe, the most
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 117
considerable feudal potentates of the neighbour-
hood, received the challenge in question in the
name of the " United Contingent". On their
scornfully replying that they were ignorant to
what order of animal the " United Contingent "
might belong, Hipler is reported to have given
the following rejoinder : "It is an animal that
usually feedeth on roots and wild herbs,
but which when driven by hunger sometimes
consumeth priests, bishops and fat citizens. It
is very old, but very strange it is that the older
it becometh, by so much doth it wax in strength,
even as with wine. The beast doth ail at times,
but it never dieth. At times, too, it forsaketh
the land of its birth for foreign parts, but early
or late it returneth home again." u Tell my
lords, the counts," added Hipler, it is said, to
the envoys who brought him the message, " that
it is even now come again into Germany, and
that at this hour it pastureth in the Schupfer
valley." On the foregoing message being
returned to them, the counts seem to have
given way. The two brothers, Albrecht and
George, met the delegates of the " United
Contingent," now 8000 strong, in the open air,
and after some negotiations, during which they
n8 THE PEASANTS WAR.
endeavoured to persuade the peasants to submit
their grievances to a judicial tribunal, they
re compelled to swear to the " Twelve
Articles". This they were required to do
with uplifted hands and to remove their gloves,
whilst the peasants, on the contrary, retained
theirs (probably assumed for the occasion). By
this oath, the counts were admitted into the
Evangelical Brotherhood.
But these things did not create that profound
impression which constituted the landmark in the
Peasants War before spoken of. It was the
celebrated " blood-vengeance " of the peasants
in the township of Weinsberg, near Heilbronn.
that did so. Weinsberg, with its castle, had
been occupied, by the orders of the Archduke,
by Count Ludwig von Helfenstein, whose wife
was the illegitimate daughter of the Emperor
Maximillian and therefore half-sister to the
Emperor Charles and to his brother Ferdinand.
This Helfenstein, who was a young man of
twenty-seven, had seen fifteen years' service in
war and had recently shown himself very active
in killing peasants, wherever he found them
isolated or in small bands. His recent journey
to Weinsberg had been signalised by several
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 119
acts of this description. A number of the
citizens of the little town were inclined to open
the gates to " the enemy ". As a body of
peasants appeared before the town demanding
admission, Helfenstein without any parley made
a sortie with his knights and men-at-arms and
massacred them in cold blood. As he heard
this, Jacklein Rohrbach is said to have ex-
claimed : " Death and hell ! We shall know
how to avenge ourselves on Count Helfenstein
for his mode of warfare ! " It must be admitted,
indeed, that for this act alone Helfenstein richly
deserved the fate which afterwards befel him.
On the same day, news arrived in the camp
of the " United Contingent" that the brothers,
the Counts of Hohenlohe, had refused to supply
the force with the pieces of artillery for which
it had applied to them and which it so urgently
needed. This, coming immediately after the
report of Jakob Wehe's execution at Leipheim,
excited the indignation of the insurgents against
the nobles to fever pitch. The counts had
solemnly sworn to maintain and further the
peasant cause, and this refusal of theirs to
supply the ordnance required was seen in the
light of an act of treachery. Jacklein Rohrbach
120 THE PEASANTS WAR.
moved that a sufficient force be sent to storm
and enter " that nest of nobles/' Weinsberg.
The proposition was carried, as against that
of going back to punish the Counts Hohenlohe,
as some would have wished. Accordingly, a
large body proceeded in the direction of Weins-
berg by way of Neckarsal, which surrendered
to them. After having pitched its camp, the
" United Contingent" sent an ultimatum to the
former town demanding unconditional surrender.
Helfenstein returned a contemptuous answer.
Shortly after, the wife of a citizen came out
to the peasants, urging them to the attack, and
stating that half the inhabitants were with them
and would open the gates. Another citizen
offered to show them the weak points in the
town-walls and in the castle.
\ On the 1 6th of April, the count and all the
nobles at that time in Weinsberg were placed
by the peasants under a ban. Helfenstein does
not seem to have believed in a serious attack.
He could not think that mere peasants would
be so daring. He was awaiting the arrival of
reinforcements from Stuttgart and from the
Palatinate. Meanwhile, he employed his men
in strengthening the weak parts of the forti-
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 121
fications. At break of day, the peasants moved
forward from their encampment and established
themselves on an eminence overlooking the
town. For the last time, heralds were sent.
They carried a hat upon a pole. " Open the
gates," they cried, " open the town to the
1 United Christian Band M If not, remove wife
and child, for all that remains in the town must
be put to the sword ! " The only answer received
was a shot from the walls, which wounded one
of the heralds. He had just sufficient strength
to crawl back into camp, and, fainting from loss
of blood, to cry for vengeance. Within the
walls of the township, the knights saddled their
horses, and the free-lances made themselves
ready. Only five men could be afforded for
the defence of the castle, which contained
Helfenstein's wife, child and valuables. The
rest, not more than seventy or eighty all told,
were necessary to defend the walls and gates.
The count, with his knights and men-at-arms,
appeared in the market-place and exhorted the
assembled citizens to remain loyal to him,
assuring them that help would come in the
course of the day. Knights, citizens and
men-at-arms thereupon repaired to the church
122 THE PEASANTS WAR.
- it being Easter Sunday to hear mass and
take the sacrament.
At nine o'clock, before the service was ended,
the cry arose that the peasants were advancing
>n the town. The first to attack was the great
Vanconian hero of the Peasants War, the
:night Florian Geyer of whom we shall hear
more presently with his " black troop," who
had come down from the north and effected
a juncture with Metzler and the " United
Contingent ". The point of attack was the
castle. Before the defenders had time to set
themselves in readiness, a shout was heard from
above, and two of Florian Geyer's banners
waved from the battlements of the castle, which
had been taken by storm. At the same
moment, two of the town gates fell before the
attack of Jacklein Rohrbach and his comrades.
Many of the inhabitants assisted the storming
party from within. In a moment, seeing the
situation hopeless, Helfenstein sent a monk on
to the wall who cried : " Peace, peace ! " The
only answer returned was : " Death and ven-
geance ! " On hearing these cries, the count
bethought himself of flight, but was surrounded
by a body of citizens, cursing and threatening
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 123
him for attempting to leave them in the
lurch.
At this moment Jacklein's storming party,
mad with fury, dashed up the main street toward
the market-place, shouting to the citizens to
keep to their houses for that all nobles and
men-at-arms were about to be put to death.
The knights and men-at-arms had by this time
fled into the church for protection, the count
with eighteen nobles of his following escaping
by a secret staircase into the church-tower.
Jacklein's comrades now burst into the church-
yard, striking down lords and fighting men
right and left. In a few minutes as many as
forty had fallen. Finally, they discovered the
secret staircase.
" Here we have them altogether," cried
Jacklein ; " strike them all dead ! " The knight
Dietrich von Weiler stepped forward on the
gallery of the church tower, as the peasants
burst in upon the fugitives, offering 30,000 gold
gulden as ransom.
" An' ye would offer us a tun-full of gold, yet
should ye all die ! " shouted the peasants with
one consent. " Vengeance for the blood of
our fallen brethren ! "
i2 4 THE PEASANTS WAR.
At the next instant a musket shot laid him
on the ground. A peasant then beat his brains
out with a club. Others were compelled to
spring from the top of the church tower, whence
they were received on the spears of the peasants
below. At last the main body of the " United
Contingent" appeared upon the scene, under
the command of George Metzler himself, who
forthwith gave strict orders that the killing
should discontinue, and that only prisoners
should be taken. Helfenstein, with his wife
and son, were seized, the child receiving a
wound from a peasant as he was crossing the
churchyard with his captors.
Jacklein begged his leader to allow him and
his troop the custody of his prisoners. This
was accorded him. The order was now given
that all who concealed a nobleman or a free-
lance should be put to death. The result was
that all were surrendered, with the exception of
three, one of whom escaped in woman's clothes,
whilst another concealed himself in a stove,
and the third, a handsome young fellow, was
hidden in a hayloft by a girl. Curiously enough,
Jacklein and some of his friends passed the
night in this very hayloft, discussing the way
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 125
in which they would bring about the slaughter
of the prisoners taken.
The rank and file now demanded the right
to plunder the town, but this was not conceded
by Metzler and Hipler, who insisted upon only
permitting the plunder of churches and mon-
asteries and castles. In most cases, even where
plundering was the order of the day, it was
easy to hoodwink these naive children of the
soil. Having, for instance, found a trunk full
of gold in the Biirgermeister's house, the inno-
cent countrymen were induced not to lay hands
on it by a story that it was a chest the con-
tents of which were destined for almsgiving
purposes.
But to booty, drink and women the former
boon companion, roisterer and spendthrift,
Jacklein Rohrbach, for the moment appeared
indifferent. His whole soul seemed possessed
by one idea hatred and vengeance vengeance
on the privileged classes of the existing socletyr
With this object always in view, he imprisoned
his captives in a mill near the town wall, resolved
to evade Metzler's orders and slay them, if
possible, at break of day. Having ascertained
that Metzler and the main body of the " United
126 THE PEASANTS WAR.
Contingent " were still sleeping after their heavy
drinking bout of the previous evening, Jacklein
led his prisoners from the mill to a meadow
outside the walls, hard by. They were eighteen
in all, mostly knights, with a few free-lances
and pages, foremost among them being of
course the Count and Countess von Helfenstein
and their two-year-old son. The men were all
placed shoulder to shoulder in a semi-circle, and
sentence of death was passed upon them by
Jacklein. It was decided that they should be
compelled to "run the gauntlet". This was
regarded as a degrading punishment, which
was only applied to common soldiers of fortune
guilty of some grave criminal offence against
military honour. Accordingly, on a signal given
by Jacklein, a double row of spears was formed.
Jacklein then cried out : u Count Helfenstein,
it is your turn to open the dance ! " " Mercy ! "
exclaimed the countess, as with child in her
arms she threw herself at Jacklein's feet. " Thou
pray'st for mercy for thy husband," cried he ;
" it may not be ! " Thereupon, he seized the
countess by the arm, and throwing her back on
the ground, knelt on her bosom, exclaiming:
" Behold, brethren, Jacklein Rohrbach kneels
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 127
on the emperor's daughter!" ''Vengeance!"
shouted the assembled peasants.
" Countess Helfenstein," cried one of their
number, " thy horsemen, thy dogs and thy
huntsmen have trodden down my fields. My
boys opposed you. They were gagged and
carried forth, as though they had been dogs
themselves," and, uttering a cry of " Venge-
ance," he flung a knife at the countess. It
struck the child in the arm, the blood spurting
into its mother's face. "Mercy, mercy!" the
woman continued to cry, as she rolled on the
ground.
"Count Helfenstein," shouted another peas-
ant, "thou hast thrust my brother into thy
dungeon because, forsooth, he did not bare his
head as thou passedst by ! Thou shalt perish ! "
"Thou hast harnessed us like oxen to the
yoke ! Thou hast caused the hands of my father
to be smitten off, for that he killed a hare on
his own field," shouted another. " Thou hast
wrung the last heller out of us," exclaimed
several.
These and other accusations of a like kind,
even if they may not all have been deserved
strictly by Helfenstein himself, certainly were
128 THE PEASANTS WAR.
so by the feudal lords in general whose repre-
sentative he on this occasion was. At last, the
count himself was driven to beg for mercy at
the hands of the peasant leader. He offered
him his whole fortune and 60,000 gulden in
addition, for which he was prepared to pledge
the emperor's credit. He swore it on the head
of his wife and son. It was now about half an
hour before sunrise. " Not for 60,000 tuns of
pearls," replied Jacklein. " Kneel down and
confess, for thou shalt never again behold the
sun ! "
" Only wait," cried Melchior Nonnenmacher,
a discharged piper of the count's, whose function
it had been to play for him at his ancestral castle
in Swabia during meals, but who now formed
one of Jacklein's bodyguard. " Long enough
have I made table music for thee. I know thy
favourite tune and have kept it for this thy last
dance ! " The piper thereupon proceeded to
tune his instrument, whilst his former master
confessed to a priest. As soon as he had finished
the piper seized the count's hat and donned it
himself, and, dancing before him, whilst playing
his favourite air, led the way to the double file
of spears, through which he was condemned to
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 129
pass. The countess was held upright by two
men that she might see her husband fall.
Standing by and taking an active part in the
scene was a woman known as the " black Hoff-
~- '
mann," a jreputed witch, and one of the most
striking dramatic figures of the Peasants War.
She was, in respect of deep-seated, savage
hatred of prince, noble and prelate, the female
counterpart of Jacklein, though her lust of
vengeance was, if anything, of a deeper hue,
and she seems to have lacked Jacklein's original
light-hearted generosity of disposition. Her
dark skin and jet-black hair probably gave
her her name. She was the cast-off child of
a wandering gisy jwoman. Her mother had
deserted her in Bockingen, in the native village,
that is, of Jacklein himself. Here she gained
her living by tending cattle, a calling she
subsequently abandoned for fortune-telling and
kindred arts. She is described as the Egeria
of Jacklein, whose purpose she was continuously
sharpening. She was usually clad in a black
cloak and hood, with a red girdle or sash, the
ends of which fluttered in the wind. As soon
as Jacklein had formed his band, she joined
them as a kind of prophetess who presaged
9
130 THE PEASANTS WAR.
them victory, blessed their weapons, and urged
them on to the fight. During the storming of
Weinsberg, she had stood upon a neighbouring
hill and with outstretched arms had ceaselessly
shouted : " Down with the dogs ; strike them all
dead ! Fear nothing ! I bless your weapons !
I, the black Hoffmann ! Only strike ! God
wills it ! "
The hour of vengeance had now come. As
the Count von Helfenstein fell beneath the
peasants' spears, seizing a knife from her girdle
this strange unsexed fury plunged it into his
body, and proceeded to smear the shoes and
lances of the peasants with the "fat". In half
an hour the last of the knights and men-at-arms
had fallen. As the sun rose, the countess and
her young son alone remained.
After Jacklein and his partisans had dis-
tributed the clothes of the dead nobles amongst
themselves, Jacklein, who had himself assumed
the garments of the count, addressed the
countess and said : " In a golden chariot earnest
thou hither ; in a dungcart shalt thou depart
hence ! Tell thine emperor this, and greet him
from me ! " To this she replied : " I have sinned
much and deserved my lot. Christ, our Saviour,
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 131
also entered Jerusalem amid the shouts of the
people, yet soon He went forth bearing His
cross, mocked and derided by that very people.
That is my consolation. I am a poor sinner
and forgive you gladly." She was then stripped
and dressed in the rags of a beggar woman,
and in this condition, clutching her wounded
child to her breast, was thrown on to a dungcart
and conveyed to Heilbronn. We may here
mention that her son was brought up to the
Church, and she herself ended her days in a
convent.
The sun having now risen, the peasants'
camp within the walls of Weinsberg suddenly
awoke to a knowledge of what had happened.
A general outcry arose against the execution.
A council of war was held, but of what actually
passed therein little is known. It would seem,
however, that at this time a division arose
between the leaders. A " moderate " party, to
which Metzler and Hipler belonged, definitely
formed itself and appears to have got the upper
hand. This party wished to give the knight
Gotz von Berlichingen " with the iron hand "
the command of all the insurgent bands.
Florian Geyer, on the other hand, seems to
1 32 THE PEASANTS WAR.
have been strongly opposed to this step, though
whether he was prepared to pursue the policy
of Jacklein Rohrbach or approved of his recent
action it is not easy to say. Certain is it that,
from this moment, he and his " black troop '"
severed themselves from Metzler, Hipler and
the " United Contingent," and returned into
the Franconian country. The action of Rohr-
bach may well have had more behind it than
the mere thirst for vengeance, however great
the part this motive may have played therein.
> Rohrbach was an extremist who wished to
carry the revolution through to its uttermost
end. Respecting this end, his ideas may have
/been somewhat vague, but there is no doubt
' that he conceived it as involving the total
destruction of the feudal orders, as against any
mere partial concessions on their part. He
may well, therefore, have wished to force the
hand of the peasant council by making them
feel that they had "burnt their boats". And,
certainly, nothing was more calculated to-
incense the nobles and cut off the possibility
of any compromise being arrived at than his
" blood-vengeance " on their order at Weins-
berg. As a matter of fact, the immediate effect
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 133
on the authorities was that of a demoralising
terror. The Counts Hohenlohe did not hesitate
any longer, but immediately sent the two pieces
of ordnance and the ammunition which the
" United Contingent" had demanded.
Leaving a detachment in Weinsberg, the
latter proceeded to Heilbronn, which city they
regarded as already as good as won. They
were accompanied by two prisoners, the
Counts of Lowenstein, clad in peasant's costume,
and bearing white staves in their hands, looking,
a contemporary notice states, " as frightened as
if they were dead ". The events at Weinsberg
had naturally not been without their effect at
Heilbronn. The power of the aristocratic
burgher party was completely broken, and the
peasants' army entered the gates, after a short
parley, almost without resistance. The city
council took the oath of allegiance to the
" Evangelical Brotherhood," or the " Christian
Peasants League " as it was variously termed,
and expressed their willingness to negotiate
measures with the insurgents and to act as
intermediaries towards an understanding with
the feudaL-ppwers.
!ans Flux,'\a wealthy baker, a brother-in-law
134 THE PEASANTS WAR.
of George Metzler, was the chief go-between
in the negotiations. He belonged distinctly to
the moderate party, and he found it not difficult
to persuade the " United Contingent " to adopt
a conciliatory attitude, if only to show their
innocence of the Weinsberg affair. It was thus
that the understanding was arrived at, the city
council promising to pay a subsidy and to furnish
500 men to the peasant army. The ''Twelve
Articles " were, as a matter of course, to be
sworn to. Furthermore, it was agreed that the
town should be given into the hands of the
peasants on the condition that no house should
be plundered, save that of the Teutonic knights.
The patricians of the town council, who had
no intention of keeping their oath where it was
possible to break it, no sooner concluded the
bargain than they refused to furnish the force
promised. Hans Flux, however, who had been
the medium of the negotiations, armed the men
at his own expense. The situation generally
displeased a number of the peasant army.
Cries of treachery against Flux began to be
heard, especially when it leaked out that he
was negotiating with Hipler and Metzler for
a modification of the " Twelve Articles ". The
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 135
" black Hoffmann " made an attempt one night
to assassinate Flux, as he rode from the peasant
camp back into the city, but his horse saved
him.
An uncertain tradition relates that the last
deed of this extraordinary female was the mur-
der of the crier who proclaimed the annulling
of the " Twelve Articles " at Bockingen, a month
later, after the reaction had gained the day
there. Respecting her death nothing definite
is known.
According to the terms of the agreement
entered into, the Carmelite monastery was to
pay a ransom of 3000 gulden and the Clara
convent 5000 gulden. Other smaller religious
houses were to furnish sums in proportion.
The great establishment of the " Knights of
the Teutonic Order " was reserved for plunder.
The heads of the order and most of the
inmates made good their escape. In Heilbronn,
as in other towns, the wealthy Teutonic knights
were a special object of the hatred of the
" common man ". The ferment among the
poor citizens, town proletarians and impover-
ished guildsmen, was immense, as may be
imagined. They had long held secret converse
136 THE PEASANTS WAR.
with the peasants and now openly fraternised
with them. 1
/ The sacking of the wealthy establishment of
the knights took place under the aegis of the
city council, who sent to see that the place
was not set on fire and that the plundering did
not extend beyond its precincts. A motley
crew of peasants, consisting largely of tenants
of the lands belonging to the order, entered
the house, armed with weapons of destruction.
All documents were torn up and thrown into
the moat. Wine, silver and furniture of all
sorts were dragged out into the courtyard and
sold at an extemporised auction, over which
Jacklein Rohrbach presided. Women carried
away acolytes' garments and priests' vestments,
and cut them up for clothes for themselves and
their children. As soon as the business of
plunder and the sale of the booty was duly
1 On the poverty of some of the proletarians of Heil-
bronn, an inventory subsequently taken throws some light.
The possessions of one were found to be limited to a bed,
an old wooden bedstead and two pillows, on which six
children were lying. Another with four children had only
a table and a small bed. A third, also with four children,
could only boast an old bedstead, a can, and a piece of
armour.
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 137
ended, a feast was spread in the refectory of
the house, at which those few of the knights of
the order who had remained were compelled to
stand by and serve with their hats in their hands.
One peasant, who was sitting at table, re-
marked to a knight standing behind him :
"How now, noble sir? To-day, we are the
masters of the Teutonic Order," at the same
time giving him a back-handed blow on the
paunch, which caused him to stagger back
against the wall with a cry. In addition to the
furniture, a considerable sum of money was
found in the house, of which the tenants of
the order claimed the larger share, as having
contributed most to the funds. As a matter
of fact, a rich booty, sufficient for all, was
obtained.
One citizen alone who had been active in the
undertaking carried off a chest containing 1400
gulden to his house.
Meanwhile, the negotiations of the moderate
party, which centred in the handing over of
the command of the "United Contingent" to
Gotz von Rerlichmffen-^went on apace. Gotz,
the hero of Goethe's well-known drama, who was
noted for his artificial iron hand (he having lost
138 THE PEASANTS WAR.
his own hand in battle), had been a zealous
^_ partisan of the knights' revolt under Sickingen.
His deeds as a warrior generally were famous,
and he was animated by a special hostility to
-the clerical order. But, unlike Florian Geyer,
- he had no real sympathy with the peasants, for
whom at heart he entertained much the same
feelings as any other noble. Gotz had recently
appealed to the Franconian knighthood to form
I a league against the priesthood, and he may
I have seen in the peasant revolt a possible
* shoeing-horn to his plans. His immediate
Treasons, however, for connecting himself with
the movement were~<mdoubtedly partly com-
pulsion and partly fear. Nearly all his knightly
colleagues had, from dread of the " common
man," entered the service of the Swabian League.
Gotz also offered his services to the league
before suffering himself to be nominated JQL_
the commandership on the other side. Ac-
cording to his own account, which he gives in
his autobiography, it was only through a mis-
understanding that this came to pass at all.
It is true that his statements require to be
taken with some reserve, since the desire, for
obvious reasons, to dissociate himself from any
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 139
sympathy with the peasants and their lost cause
is only too apparent throughout the aforesaid
work, which, so far as this episode is concerned,
is couched in an apologetic tone. It is probable
notwithstanding, from all we know of the man,
that the account he gives is substantially true.
On finding his appeal to the Franconian knight-
hood unsuccessful, he had, it appears, offered
his services to the Count Palatine, his feudal
superior. Immediately after the capture of
Weinsberg, Gotz alleges that he took steps to
save his property and family archives, by hav-
ing them deposited in a town for safety. As,
however, no town would accept the respon-
sibility in the event of its being sacked, he
abandoned his plan. At the same time he
sent a messenger to the " United Contingent"
to know what he was to expect. The chief
men, as we have seen, were already discussing
among themselves the question of offering him
the leadership. Finding his messenger's return
delayed, he communicated with the marshal of
the Count Palatine, Wilhelm von Habern, asking
him to protect his castle. Gotz's wife, however,
and her sister seem to have mistrusted the
strength of the authorities to cope with the
140 THE PEASANTS WAR.
insurrection. Everywhere around them they
saw castles and monasteries falling into the
hands of the peasants, so when a letter arrived
from the Count Palatine himself, gladly accept-
ing Gotz's offer of service and promising the
desired protection, the two women concealed
the letter and carefully kept the fact of its
arrival from the knight's knowledge. In fact,
according to Gotz's own account, his wife cate-
gorically denied having received any reply from
the count. " Thereupon," he writes, " I feared
me much in that I knew not how I should hold
myself, the more so in that the story went that
the count would make a compact with the
peasants."
The upshot was, according to Gotz, that,
thinking the proposals he had made to the
marshal were rejected by the count and fearing
for the safety of himself and his castle, he had,
" like so many other nobles, consented to join the
" Evangelical Brotherhood," and was ..subse-
quently compelled to take over its command.
This was effected almost entirely by the leaders
Hipler, Metzler, Berlin (a member of the Heil-
bronn Council), Flux, and one or two others,
amid strong protests from the bulk of the rank
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 141
and file. With Gotz himself, it was a case of
aut Ccesar, aut nullus. Non-acceptance, he
felt, meant his ruin. The pact between Gotz
and the peasant leaders was signed and sealed
in an inn at the village of Gundelsheim, whither
the contingent had retired after leaving Heil-
bronn. Gotz narrates in his autobiography
how he rode from one company of the peasant
army to another, offering to negotiate peace
with the authorities, until he came to that con-
sisting of the tenants of the Counts Hohenlohe.
"Here I beheld myself," he says, " suddenly
encompassed with muskets, spears and halberds,
pointed at me. They cried that I should be
their captain, an whether I would or no. They
compelled me to be their fool and leader, and
to the end that I might save my body and my
life I must forsooth do as they willed."
Had Gotz been sincere in taking up the cause \
of the rebellion, there is no doubt that, experi-
enced warrior as he was, he would have been
a valuable acquisition. Even as it was, some
of his suggestions respecting the maintenance
of discipline were in the right direction, but
the fact remained that he was acting under
compulsion in a cause with which he had no
THE PEASANTS WAR.
sympathy, and that his one concern was to
get rid of his responsibility at the first possible
moment, if not actually to betray his trust.
The appointment of Gotz von Berlichingen
was a victory for the moderate party, which had
suddenly acquired prominence owing to the
action of Rohrbach and his followers at Weins-
berg. In addition to this, George Metzler,
the trusted leader of the " United Contingent,"
had been influenced in the direction of modera-
tion by the machinations of his wife, as it would
seem, and by the persuasions of her brother,
the wealthy master-baker of Heilbronn. There
is, however, no reason to think that Metzler was
actually a traitor or consciously moved to the
course he took by unworthy motives.
The result soon showed itself in a modification
pf the "Twelve Articles". On this Gotz insisted.
With Hans Berlin and Wendel Hipler, and
possibly others, the matter was discussed in a
sort of committee. Certain of the "Articles"
were declared suspended until the imperial
reform which Weigand, Hipler and the Heil-
bronn permanent committee were sketching out
for the consideration of a general congress
should be decided upon. Most of the old
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 143
feudal rights and dues were to be provisionally^ 1 ~
upheld. There was to be no more plundering. -
Obedience was provisionally to be paid to
constituted authorities, and no new insurrec-
tionary bands were to be formed in short, with y
few exceptions, everything was to remain in '^
statu quo until the adoption or introduction of
the aforesaid imperial reform.
These modifications were carried by a narrow
majority in the council of the " United Contin-
gent," but naturally not without fresh murmur-
ing among the rank and file. Jacklein Rohrbach
and his company had separated at once from
the main body on the first symptoms of the new
turn that things were taking. Other sections
followed later, and the " United Contingent" of
the Evangelical Peasant Brotherhood began to
acquire an unenviable reputation throughout
the movement for " trimming". Certain practical
proposals respecting military reorganisation
which Hipler at this time put forward, notably
the very sensible one to enrol free-lances in
the service of the contingent, were incontinently
rejected by the peasants, partly from mistrust
and partly from an unwillingness to divide the
spoil with these experienced booty-hunters.
144 THE PEASANTS WAR.
For it must not be supposed that the " United
Contingent" observed the rules laid down by
Gotz and his moderate colleagues anent plun-
dering. They burnt and plundered as much
as ever. In fact, in one case on Gotz remon-
strating with his supposed followers (over whom
his actual authority was the very smallest) for
destroying a castle which he had given express
orders should be spared, he narrowly escaped
with his life. He was only saved, indeed, by
the prompt appearance of his henchmen, Berlin
and Hipler.
On the other hand, however anxious he
might be to protect the property of his own
immediate order, when the possessions of the
Church, which he hated perhaps more than
the peasants themselves, were in question, he
was perfectly willing to let the contingent have
its way to the full. Thus, on the 3Oth of April,
the various bodies comprising the contingent,
with Gotz and Metzler at their head, appeared
before the Benedictine Abbey of Amorbach, in
order, as they declared, " as Christian brethren
to make a reformation ". The inmates were
summoned to surrender all their money and
treasures on pain of death. But while the
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 145
negotiations were going on, a body of peasants
burst into the house, and the same scene took
place as had been enacted in scores of other
ecclesiastical buildings for more than a month
past. Vestments, chalices, books richly bound,
with silver, gold and precious stones, furniture,
the contents of the cellars and the granaries, the
cattle, in short, all things that were of any value
at all, were dragged out and divided amongst
the assailants, or destroyed. Gotz himself took
his share, including the costly vestments of the
abbot, who had to go away in a smock which
one of the peasants had given him out of com-
passion. The immediate plan of operations was
to proceed to the assistance of the insurgents in /
the Archbishopric of Mainz and the Bishopric %/
of Wurzburg, and then by way of Frankfurt
to invade the Archbishoprics of Trier and of\
Cologne. It was a favourite scheme of GotK
to divide up ecclesiastical property amongst the \
knightly order. Hipler and Metzler may well /
have been persuaded that leniency towards the
lower nobility and its possessions, combined
with the prospect of obtaining a share of those
of the Church, would induce the former, if
not to actively support the peasants cause, at
10
i 4 6 THE PEASANTS WAR.
least to waver in their fidelity to the imperial
authorities.
In Mainz, the cardinal -archbishop was
seriously considering the question of secular-
ising his territories, and had been, in fact, in
correspondence with Luther on the subject, a
plan which he abandoned, owing, it is said, to
the influence of his mistress. On the approach
of the peasants, the envoys, not of the arch-
bishop, who had fled, but of the Bishop of
Strasburg, whom he had left in charge of his
affairs, hastened to sign the modified " Twelve
Articles," and to pay a ransom of 15,000
gulden. In the whole territory of the arch-
bishopric, including the towns of Mainz and
Aschaffenburg, the insurrection was now in
full swing.
It had even reached the neighbouring free
^X imperial city of Frankfurt-on-the-Main, where
the leaders of the city-proletariat had extorted
from the council a charter of rights and privi-
leges containing forty-five " articles". An
insurrectionary committee, mainly composed
of small craftsmen, under the leadership of
a shoemaker, had been formed in the town
and was in perpetual session, having relations
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 147
with the peasants of the surrounding territories
and with the small towns of the neighbour-
hood.
The " United Contingent," under Gotz and
Metzler, after reducing Aschaffenburg to sub-
mission, now decided to make straight for
Wiirzburg, where the main body of the Fran-
conian insurgents was encamped, their efforts
being directed towards the capture of the
important fortress on the Frauenberg which
commanded the city.
Amongst the free imperial towns now threat-
ened by the insurrection, none were more
hardly pressed than Schwabisch Halljlying on
the borderland between Swabia and Franconia.
Like other imperial cities, Hall had an exten-
sive territory outside its walls, cultivated by
a numerous peasantry, to which it and its
council stood in the feudal relation of overlord.
The peasants of this countryside and of those
adjoining it had risen in the usual way. They
formed themselves into companies with leaders,
and arranged a plan of campaign for capturing
the city, but it seems that these particular peas-
ants were exceptionally well-to-do and accus-
tomed to good living, and their fighting capacity
148 THE PEASANTS WAR.
seems to have been in inverse proportion to
their boon companionship. They possessed,
indeed, muskets and ordnance, but as a general
rule they contented themselves with the ordinary
dagger as their weapon. Instead of making
straight for their objective, this contingent,
which was over 3000 strong " turned in " at
every village on the way, making free with the
wine-cellars of the priests, the Blirgermeisters
and the monks, whom they compelled to carouse
with them. When, finally, they came within
striking distance of the city, all they could do
was to encamp and fall asleep. The town of
Hall was, of course, in trepidation, having, like
the rest, within its walls its own discontented
population, which was well disposed to the
cause of the peasants, and the authorities were
not in a position to withstand the force of the
movement from within and from without. Some
of the country people had made so sure of
coming into possession of the town that they had
actually fixed upon the houses they were going
to appropriate. The well-beliquored peasants
were, however, awakened at break of day by a
shot from the neighbouring height. This was
followed by a second and a third. The peasant
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 149
camp was in confusion. Many in their still
nebulous condition believed themselves struck
and fell down accordingly. The rest scattered
precipitately. The fact was that a small party
had started from the town to reconnoitre,
bringing with them a few hand-guns, but, as
it happened, without shot. Seeing the state
of affairs in the camp below them, they had
fired more in jest than for any other reason.
The upshot was that the peasants of the
imperial city of Hall were glad to be allowed
to return to their homesteads on renewing
their oath of fidelity to the city, and thus the
rebellion of the Hall peasants ignominiously
collapsed.
The movement in Wurter^berg r meanwhile,
went on apace ; but it was moderated by the
influence of Mja^ejTi^F^ejJiexba^hex^ the well-to-
do innkeeper of Bottwar, who was anxious to
remain on good terms with all sides, and, as we
have seen, only placed himself at the head of
the peasant force under compulsion and to a
certain extent with the consent of some of his
noble patrons. By their advice, he made it a
special stipulation that he would have nothing
to do with the " Weinsbergers," understanding
150 THE PEASANTS WAR.
thereby the party of Jacklein Rohrbach, who
had been the agents in the slaughter of the
knights. In Stuttgart^the excitement was so
great that the members of the regency, re-
presenting the Austrian Government, had fled,
together with some of the patrician members
of the city council. The chief pastor of the
city, Qr. Johannes Mantel, was a zealous patron
of the new doctrines, for which he had suffered
imprisonment, being liberated by the peasants.
After some negotiations, the peasants were
admitted into the town, but they only remained
within the walls for two days. The ransom
money exacted for religious establishments and
from the town itself was comparatively moderate.
After two days, the contingent left the city for
the valley of the Rems, in order to drive back
an extraneous body of peasants, who were
now accused of plundering ; for Matern Feuer-
bacher and the other leaders of the Wiirtem-
berg movement had pledged themselves not to
allow foreign elements to intrude into the duchy.
Here, as elsewhere, the Weinsberg affairs
had strongly influenced the trend of senti-
ment, both within and without the movement,
within by strengthening moderate counsels,
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 151
and without by first of all terrorising and
afterwards exacerbating the princes and nobles
against the peasants and their demands. It is
only one instance of the policy pursued by all
governing classes in exploiting the conscience
of mankind. Of the causes of the insurrection
itself, of the infamous oppression of the feudal
orders, no notice, of course, is taken. Of the
slaughter by knights, well-armed and equipped,
and experienced in the fighting art, of unarmed
or badly-armed peasants, sometimes even of
countryfolk who were not in rebellion, of the
atrocities of this nature committed by that very
Helfenstein, whose death was only the just
penalty of his crimes, similarly nothing is said.
Hundreds of peasants foully massacred count
for nothing ; the important event, the " great
crime," calculated to produce in all men a
u thrill of horror," is that eighteen knights,
the authors and abettors of these things, are
slain by an act of justice, or, if you will,
vengeance.
It was the same in the contest between the
workmen of Paris and the reactionaries of
Versailles, in the spring of 1871. The gov-
erning classes and all those who took their cue
152 THE PEASANTS WAR.
from them (either through interested motives,
want of knowledge of the facts, or indifference),
were, or pretended to be, dissolved in horror at
the execution of seventy-two persons belonging
to these classes. They had not one word to
say in condemnation of the systematic butchery
for two months previously in cold blood of
insurgent prisoners of war, culminating per-
haps in the vastest massacre on record, by
the authorities representing those governing
classes. Yet it was this that led up to the act
of vengeance against which they pretend such
an overflowing indignation.
Once more, the torturing and doing to death
of nine working men, after a mock trial, by
order of the late Spanish Minister, Canovas, is
a trifle ; but no sooner is their death avenged
on Canovas himself by a self-sacrificing fanatic
than the governing classes and their organs
talk with duly impressive fervour of the
" sanctity of human life " and of the exceeding
infamy of violating it. The power of position
and wealth to create a public conscience agree-
able to its interests, and to suit its purposes, is
indeed convenient and wonderful.
The German peasants of 1525, as did the
THE MOVEMENT IN SOUTH GERMANY. 153
Commune of Paris, and as is the wont of
successful insurgents generally, signalised their
success as a rule by their studied moderation
and good-nature, as contrasted with the
ferocious cruelty of their enemies, the con-
stituted authorities.
CHAPTER V.
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA.
THE starting point and centre of the insur-
rectionary movement in the Franconian districts
of middle Germany was the free imperial city
t __ -of Rpthenburg-on-the-Tauber, a town situated
on a plateau of table-land in the valley watered
by the little river Tauber (cf. German Society,
pp. 208, 209). As we have before seen, the
rival of Martin Luther, Andreas Bodenstein,
better known as Dr. Karlstadt, betook himself-
here, after having been compelled to leave Wit-
tenberg. Another preacher, Joahann Deuschlin,
had already discoursed on the new doctrines in
the town for a year or two previously. Deusch-
lin's career, like his doctrines, bore a striking
resemblance to that of Hubmeyer. He also had
undertaken an anti- Jewish campaign and had
been instrumental in the destruction of Jewish
quarters and synagogues before his conversion
to the new revolutionary principles, political
(i54)
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 155
and religious. One of his most zealous disciples
and co-operators was Hans Schmidt, a blind
monk. The Teutonic Order in Rothenburg,
as in other towns, possessed an establishment,
but in this case the preacher Deuschlin suc-
ceeded in gaining over certain of their number
to the Reformation, and indeed Melchior, one
of the heads of the order, had even ventured
to marry publicly with the usual festivities, and
as fate had it, to marry the sister of Hans
Schmidt, the blind monk. The two preachers
had severely attacked the Commenthur, or
supreme head of the order, and had so far
carried their point as to get him deposed and
another Commenthur, Christen, established in
his place. These things, of course, did not go
on without friction with the Episcopal authori-
ties at Wiirzburg. but for the moment the y
revolutionary party remained victorious.
By the end of March, the peasant population -
in the territory belonging to Rothenburg had
begun to assemble with a view to revolu-
tionary action, whilst inside the town the
Btirgermeister, Ehrenfried Kumpf, the Church
reformer, had inaugurated an iconoclastic
campaign, in the course of which priests and
156 THE PEASANTS WAR.
choristers were driven from the cathedral, the
mass-book was hurled from the altar, images
and pictures were mutilated and destroyed,
and the chapel of the immaculate virgin was
levelled with the ground. Karlstadt followed
in the same strain. A richly ornamented and
endowed church, just outside the walls, was
plundered by the members of the miller's
guild, and costly pictures, images and plate
were thrown into the Tauber. But while
Kumpf remained a mere anti-popish fanatic,
Karlstadt went forward on the lines of the
political movement. The party of the people
within the walls had now become strong and,
as usual, sympathised with the peasants without.
The latter, on the 26th of March, presented their
grievances to the city council in the form of
" articles," which in this, as in so many other
cases, had been drawn up by ex-priests. The
part that the recalcitrant clergy played in the
political and social, no less than the religious
movement of the time, we have more than
once had occasion to remark. These "articles"
were of the usual character, alleging the
weight of feudal dues many of them of recent
imposition. jThe appeal to the religious senti-
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 157
ment in them is also strong. The negotiations,
however, which ensued did not result in any
definite agreement.
Karlstadt, who had fled from Orlamunde to
Rothenburg, was received on his arrival with
acclamation by the town populace. The
Markgraf Casimir set a price upon his head,
but Karlstadt, notwithstanding that, once
within the walls of Rothenburg, felt himself
comparatively secure and did not hesitate to
preach openly even in the streets. The inner
council^ manned as usual by the patrician class,
eventually forbade him the right of preaching
and at the same time withdrew from him
permission to reside in the town. The council
in this matter, there is no doubt, acted partly
in obedience to strong pressure from outside.
In consequence, the learned agitator found it
necessary to disappear for a time. It was
given out by his friends that he had repaired
to Strassburg. The truth was that he was
in hiding within the city in the houses of the
preacher Deuschlin, the new Commenthur of
the Teutonic Order, Christen, the ex-Biirger-
meister and iconoclast Kumpf, and especially
in that of the master-tailor Phillip. During
158 THE PEASANTS WAR.
his concealment and supposed absence, tracts
and brochures from the pen of Karlstadt found
a mysterious circulation in the town, his friends
having seen to the printing of them, whilst
there were plenty of willing hands to attend to
their sale or distribution.
One of the most active leaders in the revolt
was Stephan Menzingen, a Swabian knight of
an old family and a partisan of Duke Ulrich,
who had married the daughter of one of the
city councillors and had been admitted to the
citizenship. From this, in consequence of a
quarrel with the council on a question of taxa-
tion, he had subsequently withdrawn, and had
taken up his abode in northern Switzerland,
whence he suddenly returned .to Rothenburg
early in the year 1525, in time to take part in
the new religious and political movement. He
was instrumental in procuring the formation of
a citizen's committee, to which all prominent
members of the people's party belonged and
which served as a sort of counterpoise to the
aristocratic council. It was this committee
that brought the peasants' demands before the
council. By the end of March, Menzingen
had carried the matter so far that the great
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANC ONI A. 159
council of the town dissolved itself, many of i
members joining the new citizens' committee,
which now formally constituted itself the gov-
erning power of the town, while the small or
executive council was allowed to continue on
its good behaviour, after having sworn to carry
out the will of the citizens or to abdicate.
The victory was now practically won for the
new gospel of "evangelical brotherly love,"
according to which all things should be in
common, and the authority of status should
cease. As reported by a contemporary writer,
" the common people did will that one should
have as much as another and no more, that it
should be the duty of one to lend to another,
but that none should require of another that
he should give back and repay " (Thomas
Zweifel ap. Baumann, Quellen aus Rothen-
burg). The aJHpnrp with the_peasants, the
tenants of the city lands without the gates, was
now concluded.
Karlstadt now came out of his hiding-place,
Kumpf openly admitting that he had given him
shelter. On being remonstrated with by his
old colleagues of the council, Kumpf replied
that he had acted in the service of God and
i6o
THE PEASANTS WAR.
for the good of the town, always believing
Karlstadt to be the man to negotiate between
the town and the peasants. No little; wonder,
as may be imagined, was excited by the sudden
reappearance of a man believed to be at the
time in another part of Germany. The Roth-
- enburg peasants now began to adopt the same
tactics as those of other parts. Whoever
refused to join their " brotherhood " had his
house sacked, if not also burnt down. A ' 4 high
time " moreover was had with clerical wine-
cellars, whilst in the town itself the clergy were
compelled to supply gratuitously the poorer
citizens, who quartered themselves upon them.
The peasant-army already numbered from four
to five thousand men, and the leaders, amongst
whom were some impoverished knights, better
understood the art of war and military organi-
sation than those of some of the other con-
tingents.
A part of their force remained encamped
near the town, while the rest swept along the
valley of the Tauber. Chief among the
military heads of the Franconian peasant forces
was the knight FlorianGeyer, to whom we
had occasion to refer in the last chapter.
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 161
Little is known of his antecedents, save that he
was the lord of the old castle of Giebelstadt,
near Wiirzburg. He suddenly appeared on the
scene in the Tauber valley at the end of March,
1525, with a small company of free-lances that
he had engaged, and shortly after he took over
the command of the Rothenburg Landwehr,
a body whose members were enrolled for the
defence of the Rothenburg territory, on the
initiation of the revolution. Out of these two
elements he formed his famous "Black Troop,"
a company distinguished among the peasant
forces for its bravery, cohesion and organisa-
tion. Florian Geyer, though himself a noblej
threw himself heart and soul into the peasantl
cause, championing the most radical demands
of the popular party, notably advising the \ / f^
destruction of all castles, and the reduction of /
their lords to the status of simple citizens or
tillers of the soil. The fame of his " Black
Troop" soon spread far and wide, and its co-
operation was eagerly sought by other bands.
The Franconian insurrection had now spread -
to the immediate territory of the Bishop
of Wiirzburg. Early in April, the whole
diocese~~~was in motion, in the towns no less
162
THE PEASANTS WAR.
than on the country-side. On the 5th of the
month, Fritz Lobel. anotherJFranconian_ knight.
led a body of peasants to the sack of the
wealthy Carthusian monastery of Zackelhausen.
The chapter at Wlirzburg became alarmed, and
sent three canons to secure the allegiance, amid
the general collapse of authority, of the town
of Ochsenfurt, but they were received with
closed gates and had to remain outside all
night. Eventually, the town consented to a
pact with the Episcopal authorities on the basis
of certain substantial concessions, which the
latter were compelled with a heavy heart to
grant by charter.
In the Wtirzburg territories the insurrection
was carried on largely through an association
founded here again by two preachers, and bear-
ing the name of the " infinites" or "eternals"
(" Die Unendlichen "). One township after
anotHer was won! Everywhere the alarm-bell
clanged forth, calling to arms all within the
walls. In the north of the diocese, the drum
of insurrection first made itself heard on the
9th of April. The matter followed its usual
course. In a few days the original small band
had increased to formidable dimensions and had
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 163
been joined by other bands. Monasteries of
various orders were entered and plundered.
Within the walls of the townships, as usual, the
Teutonic Order fared worst of all.
The Bishop of Wiirzburg and Duke of
Franconia, Konrad von Thungen, became now
seriously alarmed, especially on hearing that
the peasants of the Rothenburg Landwehr, led
by Florian Geyer, meditated making a descent
upon Wiirzburg. Jn vain he sought help from
the surrounding districts. In vain he applied
to the Bishop of Bamberg, whose hands were
full with his own rebellious subjects ; in vain to
the Swabian League, which offered to pay for
three hundred horsemen for a month, if they
could be obtained, but sent neither man nor
horse. The duke-bishop assembled his vassals,
his "noble counsellors," to consult what mea-
sures should be adopted. Opinions were
divided. Some thought that active steps
should be taken against the recalcitrant country
people, and that the wives and children of
those who had banded themselves together
should be driven from their homesteads and
villages, and the latter set on fire. Others
feared to take immediate repressive measures,
THE PEASANTS WAR.
more especially as the neighbouring princes
had hitherto held their hands, arguing the
meagreness of the bishop's resources and con-
tending for a policy of delay until an arrange-
ment could be come to with the adjacent
potentates. This view was finally adopted.
The peasants, as a result, pursued their course
unopposed. " Where they came, or where they
lay," writes Lorenz Fries, the Prince-Bishop's
private secretary, " they fell upon the monas-
teries, the priests' houses, the chests and the
cellars of the authority, consuming in gluttony
and in drunkenness that which they found. And
it did exceedingly please this new brotherhood
that they might consume by devouring and
drinking their fill, and had not to pay withal.
More drunken, more full-bellied, more helpless
folk, one had hardly seen together than during
the time of this rebellion. So that I know not
whether the peasants 7 device and conduct, had
they but abstained from fire and bloodshed,
should rather be called a carnival's jest or a
war . . . and whether a peasants-war, and not
rather a wine-war."
So much from a hostile source. It must,
however, be admitted by the best friends of the
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 165
-^1
peasants and their cause that gluttony and
wine-bibbing contributed as potently as any
other influence to the politically unproductive
character of the peasant successes and to that
lack of cohesion and discipline which led the
way to the final catastrophe and soaked the
German soil with the blood of its tillers.
All authority throughout the bishopric of
Wiirzburg was now paralysed. Even the
Count__Henneberg-, whose territory lay on its
northern frontier, the most powerful feudatory
of the bishop, showed no signs of furnishing his
overlord with men or money, but, on the con-
trary, as it soon appeared, was entering into
negotiations with a view to adoption into the
"Christian Brotherhood"- an event which^
shortly afteT* happened. The count was re-
quired, at the same time, to furnish his tenants
with a charter of emancipation and to swear
to act in accordance with the Word of God and
with the precepts of the Gospel.
Wiirzburg itself, the seat of government and
residence of the bishop and his chapter, soon
showed signs of disaffection. The town
been captured a century before by the then
duke-bishop by force of arms, and deprived of
1 66 THE PEASANTS WAR.
its ancient municipal rights. This had never
been forgotten. So, one fine day, a body of
the poorer citizens were to be seen gathered
together in earnest discussion near the gate of
St. Stephen. A prebendary of the cathedral,
who was passing by at the time, and who
fancied he heard himself unfavourably criticised
by some of the crowd, began to call them
names, and to threaten to have their heads
struck off on the market-place. The news of
the abuse and the threat flew through the
poorer townsfolk like lightning. An uproar
was the result, the populace marching with
arms and in extemporised battle array to the
sound of pipe and drum before the residences
of the cathedral authorities. The disturbance
was only partially and for the moment quelled
by the gift of a tun of wine to the people by
>ne of, the canons. In a day or two, affairs had
come to such a pass that the bishop betook
himself to the overhanging fortress on the
Frauenberghill, the Marienburg, as it was
called, after having provided the stronghold
with victuals to sustain a siege, and having
given orders that all available men-at-arms and
loyal subjects capable of such service, from the
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 167
town and country round, should be brought in
to garrison the place.
Those among the patrician councillors of
the city, who had fled to the stronghold of
authority, escaped with their bishop, and, after
having conferred with the latter, sent Sebastian
von Rotenhan and two others of their number
down into the town to discuss with the citizens,
and to seek by threats or cajolery to bring
them to obedience. They were to secure the
punishment of the ringleaders and if possible
the expulsion of unruly and dangerous elements
from within the walls, and further to see that
the town was placed in a proper state of defence
against peasant bands from outside.
Rotenhan and his companions rode pom-
pously through the streets, and, calling together
the heads of the different wards, handed over
to them his instructions. Thinking to frighten
the Wiirzburgers, he at the same time announced
that a body of horsemen was on its way and
had orders to quarter itself in the town. This
threat, which Rotenhan had no instructions to
make, had as its only result to precipitate matters.
The leaders of the movement were at once
aroused, urging the citizens to close the gates
i68 THE PEASANTS WAR.
against any force the bishop might send. The
citizens, they said, or at least the " common
man " of the town in the language familiar
now everywhere to the dwellers within walls,
when the man from the open country knocked
at their gates had no cause of quarrel with
the peasant, who was his brother. So, far from
fighting against him or refusing him admittance,
they should both join hands in a common
brotherhood against the oppressor, be he prince
or prelate, noble or city-magnate. The peas-
ants were only fighting for the Gospel, said
they. A dissolute priesthood had already
seduced enough burghers' wives and daughters.
Would they march out to fight the peasants
^j leaving their women a prey to such ? Already
it was alleged that ordnance was being placed
^ V t * n P os ^i on by the bishop's orders to attack the
' ^ town, should it refuse him obedience.
Excitement manifested itself on all hands.
In response to the exhortations of the agitators,
towers and gates were soon garrisoned by sturdy
burghers. The warden of the fishers' guild
saw that the approaches to the river the
Main were duly secured by heavy chains ; he
also took in charge defensive operations as
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 169
regards the paths leading up the Frauenberg.
Up these paths Rotenhan and his two col-
leagues now wended their sorrowful way back
to the castle with the tidings that their mission
had proved a failure. Further intercourse
between the castle and town was now rendered
well-nigh impossible by the defensive obstruc-
tions alone, apart from the fact that the vintners'
guild had organised itself into a company of
sharp-shooters, to "pot," from behind the vines
which covered the slopes of the Frauenberg,
any knight, patrician or prelate, who might be
seeking his way to the town from the heights
above. The cooks' and the carpenters' guilds
alike refused to obey the mandate calling upon
them to furnish certain of their number for
service in the Marienburg. It fared now badly
with the ecclesiastical foundations and residences
within the town. Wine-cellars and larders, as
may be imagined, were not spared more in
Wlirzburg than elsewhere.
But negotiations were not yet entirely broken
off between the bishop and the city. On the
1 3th of April, a delegation went up to the castletX
to negotiate, with the result that the bishop
was compelled to call a Landtag for the 3Oth of
i yo THE PEASANTS WAR.
the month, consisting of representatives of the
knighthood and the towns, at which all griev-
ances were to be discussed and considered.
At the same time that these things were
passing in Wiirzburg, the five different bodies
of insurgents, which had formed in the northern
part of the Duchy of Franconia, united them-
selves into a single contingent with a commander
and military organisation. On the 1 5th of April,
amidst the flames of castles and monasteries
fallen an easy prey to the peasant bands, a great
council of war was held at which it was decided
to at once advance on Wiirzburg. The nego-
tiations with Count Henneberg, however, which
were not concluded till some days later, delayed
matters for a time.
On the 2nd of May the bishop with certain
of his councillors descended, under a promise
of safe conduct, into the town to open the
Landtag agreed on. This was against the
advice of many of his following, who thought
the proceeding dangerous and would have
liked the Landtag to have been called on the
Frauenberg, or, indeed, anywhere else rather
than in the now openly-rebellious town of
Wiirzburg. However, as a large number of
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 171
representatives had already assembled, no other
course seemed possible. Before the proceedings
had fairly begun, loud complaints reached the
bishop's ears of the oppression of the " common
man " by his prelates, contrary to the Word of
God, and of how the Word of God, which had
only a few years ago been again brought to
light, was being smothered and its preachers
persecuted. Many of the town representatives
demanded that the peasants should be called
upon to send their own delegates to confer in
the deliberations. With this demand the
bishop was, much against his will, compelled
to comply. The response, however, was not
satisfactory. The peasantry of the Tauber
valley answered the bishop's messengers
that at the moment it was not the time for
deliberating at diets, but that they would
reserve anything they had to say till they
arrived in force at Wiirzburg, which would be
before long. The same with other districts.
All saw now that things had gone too far to be
settled in the way proposed. The result was
the collapse of the Landtag, which was hastily
closed, every man riding away to his own town
or castle.
172 THE PEASANTS WAR.
There was now a formal understanding
between the town of Wiirzburg and the insur-
gents in the open country. The bishop on his
side took his measures, collecting the garrisons,
such as they were, from neighbouring castles
to reinforce the Frauenberg. The united
insurgent contingent from the north was now
encamped before the gates, where it was joined
in a day or two by Florian Geyer and his black
troop from the Tauber valley, and almost
immediately after, as before related, by the
famous " United Contingent " of George
Metzler and Wendel Hipler. In this ex-
tremity, the bishop was advised as a last resort,
to apply personally to the Elector Palatine for
assistance. On the 5th of May, accordingly,
with a heavy heart, he rode down, accompanied
by a few followers, from the Frauenberg, his last
remaining stronghold, into the plain, and struck
out westward towards Heidelberg, where he
arrived two days later.
The castle of the Marienburg on the Frauen-
berg was now garrisoned by 244 men-at-
arms, besides ecclesiastics, nobles and servants.
The Markgraf Friedrich of Brandenburg was
left as commander, while Rotenhan undertook
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANC ONI A. 173
the victualling. Florian Geyer and his black
troop were soon followed by the whole of the
Tauber-valley contingent, which recruited itself,
during a victorious march, with hundreds of new
followers. The course of the " Franconian
Army," as the Tauber-valley contingent now
called itself, was characterised, needless to say,
by the usual plunder and destruction, an
especially rich booty being furnished by the
wealthy Cistercian foundation at Ebrich. Flocks
and herds were slaughtered or driven away,
larders and cellars emptied of their contents,
precious stones and gold torn out of the set-
tings ; vestments, chalices and ornaments
appropriated, and the building finally giverj
over to the flames.
With the advent of the Tauber-valley peas-
antry on Wiirzburg there was united, in and
around the town, the greatest force of the
peasant army at that moment to be found at |
any one point throughout Germany. Most of
the ablest leaders from a military point of view
were also present Metzler, Hipler, not to
mention Gb'tz von Berlichingen, and, above all,
Florian Geyer. But, as the event turned out,
this almost solitary instance of co-operation on
1 74 THE PEASANTS WAR.
V
a great scale between different sections of the
insurgents proved not only a failure in itself,
but a source of weakness to the whole move-
ment. The peasants of middle Germany
placed too heavy stakes on this one event, the
capture of the Frauenberg. Now the Frauen-
berg itself was a strong natural strategic
position, and the Marienburg, the object of
attack, was an exceptionally well-built and well-
appointed mediaeval fortress. It had been
thoroughly victualled, so that it would take
some time to reduce by famine, and it was
well-garrisoned with experienced fighting-men,
with no lack of weapons, ordnance and ammuni-
tion. The result was as might have been
expected ; valuable as the acquisition of the
Frauenberg would have been to the peasant
cause, yet the chance of capturing it was not
worth the price paid. For what was the price ?
Nothing less than the locking up at one point
of a force constituting the main strength of
the insurrection a force comprising the only
reliable military nucleus in the whole movement.
Had a plan of campaign been worked out,
according to which by means of rapid marches
this force or portions of it should have under-
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCO NI A. 175
taken the task of supporting the movement
generally at places where it needed support, in
conjunction with the local insurgent bands, the
contest would undoubtedly have been prolonged,
and though complete success may not have
been possible. . owing to the political and eco-
nomical trend of the time, the completeness
of the catastrophe, which nearly everywhere
overtook the movement, would almost certainly
have been averted.
The peasants, in accordance with the pact
made with the town, had free ingress and
egress. The sympathetic citizens, of course,
fraternised with them, though possibly they
may have winced somewhat at the free and
easy behaviour of their guests at times and at
the outspokenness of the communistic sentiments
expressed.
According to a contemporary, the peasants
<4 were always full (drunken) ; showed much
ill-behaviour in word and deed, and neither in
the afternoon nor the morning would they be
ruled by any ". The language was openly
heard that, since they were brethren, it was
only fair that all things should be equal, and
that the rich should divide with the poor,
176 THE PEASANTS WAR.
especially they who had acquired their wealth
through trade or otherwise gained it from the
poor man. The improved discipline sought to
be introduced by the leaders of the " United
Contingent " proved as impossible to carry out
in the camp and in the city as it had been on
the march. The orders issued in this sense
remained for the most part unobeyed. Even
the gallows erected on the market-place proved
no adequate deterrent. In fact, in most of the
companies, a tendency to insubordination was,
as might be expected, increased by the life of
idleness and dissipation, which the camp and
Wiirzburg afforded them. In vain the leaders
endeavoured to drive home to their following
the fable of the " head and the members ".
In vain they descanted on the impossibility of
a " civil brotherly constitution " without the
maintenance of an organised administration.
The reply was that they were brothers, and
would be equal.
Even after the departure of the bishop, nego-
tiations with the Marienburg were not finally
broken off. On the 9th of May, the dean of
the cathedral with some canons and knights
descended into the town, and met the leaders,
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANC ONI A. 177
Gotz, Metzler, Geyer, and others, in the inn,
whose sign was the " Green Tree". They
pleaded their willingness and that of the
bishop to make concessions as regarded the
" Twelve Articles ". Gotz and Metzler seem to
have been anxious to accept the terms offered,
which included a truce until some of their
number could go to and from Heidelberg to
obtain the bishop's consent ; but Florian Geyer
was strongly opposed to any compromise, be-
lieving in the possibility of compelling the
castle to an unconditional surrender within a
few days. When the matter was brought
before a general council of the peasants, Florian,
with his accustomed fire, observed : "The time
is come ; the axe is laid to the root of the tree ;
the dance has now begun, and before the door
of every prince shall it be piped. Will we
hold back the axe? Will we, of ourselves,
turn aside ? " Others followed in the same
strain, with the result that the terms proposed
by the dean and his colleagues were rejected/
and the siege continued.
A few days later, another attempt at negotia
tion was made. Gotz and Metzler were now
more emphatic than ever in their advice to
12
178 THE PEASANTS WAR.
come to terms. Gotz reasonably urged the
imprudence of lying idle with their immense
force for weeks, awaiting the surrender of the
impregnable Frauenberg, and pointed out very
justly that there was more important work to
do, even going so far as to propose as an
alternative an attempt to capture the imperial
city of Niirnberg. In this advice, Gotz
undoubtedly bore himself and his order more
in mind than the peasants. In his capacity of
/Toiight, he despised and hated the burgher as
Uiuch as he did the priest. But it was all of
o avail. Either from a false view of the
situation or, as is more probable, from an un-
willingness to exchange the ease and good
living afforded them by the bishop's capital
for the dangers and hardships of a serious
campaign, none of the contingents would
consent to abandon the Frauenberg.
On May 14-15, the castle was stormed. With
much shouting and beating of drums, several
companies, foremost among them the " Black
Troop," swarmed up the Frauenberg. The
light stockade was swept away, the moat was
crossed, the assailants reached to the very
walls. But it was only to be received by a
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 179
rain of bullets, missiles of burning pitch, huge
stones from windows and battlements, followed
by the thunder of all the ordnance with which
the castle was provided. Twice the attacking
party was driven back with enormous loss.
Hundreds of peasants lay dead and dying in
the moats. Seen from the town, the whole
castle appeared brilliantly illuminated. It was
clear that so long as provisions and powder
and shot remained in the castle, the Frauenberg
was not to be captured. The idea of taking
the fortress by storm before a breach had been
made in the walls was in itself chimerical. As
ill-luck would have it, moreover, the peasantry's
greatest military genius, Florian Geyer, was
absent when the storming was decided upon,
having gone to Rothenburg to demand ord-
nance of a larger calibre than any in the peasant
camp, and to negotiate for the formal adoption
of that town into the " Evangelical Brother-
hood ". Even Wendel Hipler was not there,
having left for Heilbronn to attend the perma-
nent official committee there sitting, to elabo-
rate, in conjunction with Friedrich Weigand
and the rest, the scheme of imperial reform
already spoken of. Discouraged at the result
i8o THE PEASANTS WAR.
of their unsuccessful attempts at taking the
fortress by storm, the peasants continued the
siege in the hope of starving it into surrender.
But this took longer than they imagined.
Meanwhile, the popular cause scored another
success by the formal entry of the city of
Rothenburg into the " Evangelical Brother-
hood ". On the appeal of the peasant-contin-
gents being handed in to the council by Florian
Geyer and his colleagues, the whole body of
the poorer citizens threatened to march .out
with all the ordnance and join the peasants
against the town if a favourable response were
not given. Even the free-lances in the service
of the city threatened to desert to the enemy
as soon as it should appear before the gates.
The fortunes of Rothenburg were now com-
pletely in the hands of the populace. A
resolution had been carried for the communisa-
tion of ecclesiastical goods. The stores of corn
and wine were also to be divided in equal
shares between the citizens. Jewels and
chalices were to be sold, and with the proceeds
of the sale the citizens were to be armed and
maintained. A fine frolic went on within the
walls. According to contemporary accounts,
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 181
" old and young did drink and became drunken.
Many lay in the streets who could go no further,
especially young children who had made them-
selves overful with wine."
Rothenburg formally entered the " Evangel-
ical Brotherhood" on the i4th of May, under
the following pledges : Firstly, shall the general
assembly of burghers set up the Evangelical
doctrine, the Holy Word of God, and shall see
that the same be preached in pure simplicity
without superaddition of human teaching. And
what the Holy Gospel doth set up, shall be set
up ; what it layeth low, shall be laid low, and
shall so remain. And, in the meanwhile, no
interest due or aught such thing shall be given
to any lord until by those most learned in
the Holy, Divine, and true Scripture shall a
Reformation have been appointed. Injurious
castles, water-houses and fortresses, whence
hitherto a dreadful oppression have been prac-
tised upon the " common man," shall be broken
up or consumed by fire. Yet what is therein
of goods that can be borne shall go to them
who would be brethren, and who have committed
naught against the general assembly. Such
ordnance as may be found in these houses shall
T82 THE PEASANTS WAR.
belong to the general assembly. Clergy and
lay-men, nobles and commons, shall henceforth
hold to the right of the plain citizen and the
peasant, and shall be no more than the "common
man ", The nobles shall surrender to the
assembly all goods of clergy or others, especi-
ally of them of their own class, who have done
aught against the brotherhood, on pain of loss of
life and goods. And, in fine, every man, be he
church-man or lay-man, shall henceforth hold
in all obedience that which is ordained in the
reformation and order concluded by them who
are learned in the Holy Scripture.
- The city thus entered the " Evangelical
Brotherhood " for the formal term of lox^ea*^
The best and heaviest pieces of ordnance in its
possession were, with the requisite powder and
balls, handed over to the peasants. The late
Burgermeister, Ehrenfried Kumpf, the zealous
church-reformer and iconoclast, clad in full
armour, rode back with the peasant delegates
to the camp of Wiirzburg. Six hundred
Rothenburg peasants, fully armed and equipped,
followed with the two guns and the powder-
waggon. By the aid of the new artillery, the
assailants succeeded in making some impression
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCONIA. 183
on the walls of the Marienburg, but, even now,
no serious damage appears to have been done.
News now came of the successful advance of
Truchsess and the army of the Swabian League
in the south. The leaders all saw the urgent
necessity of making an end of this Wiirzburg
business at the earliest possible date. On the
2Oth of May, they, through a public crier, offered
the entire booty to be found in the castle,
including gold, silver, jewels and furniture,
together with the assurance of a high rate of
continuous pay to any company that should
first carry the castle by storm. They, indeed,
endeavoured to form a special company for the
purpose, keeping a list of volunteers before
them in the " Green Tree," where they sat
as an executive council ; but it all came to
nothing.
In the neighbouring Bishopric--0f-^amberg,
the insurrection had also broken out about the
same time as in the Wurzburg territories.
The chief preacher of the new doctrines here
was one Joh^HI! .^rhwanhaiiser. Like his
colleagues elsewhere, he attacked in the first i
instance the clergy and then proceeded to
descant on general social inequalities. The
1 84 THE PEASANTS WAR.
clergy were hypocrites and godless men, " they
do thrust Christ out of the vineyard," said
Schwanhauser, " and do set up themselves in
His stead. They call themselves the vice-
gerents of Christ, and the true ambassadors
are persecuted by them. They let the poor
sit without houses, perish with cold and starve,
yet to dead saints do they build great stone
houses and bear to them gold, silver and
precious stones. Were we true Christians," he
added, " we should sell monstrances, chalices,
church and mass vestments, and live as the
twelve apostles, giving all our surplusage to
the poor."
The sermons of Schwanhauser worked in
Bamberg, as similar discourses had worked
elsewhere, like a spark, firing the inflammable
material furnished in such quantity both within
and without walls at this epoch. On the nth
of April, the tocsin rang out from the belfry
of the town, and Bamberg proclaimed itself in
insurrection. The town populace formed itself
into companies, chose leaders, closed the gates,
and compelled members of the town patriciate
and the clergy to assist. They sent messengers
throughout all the country round, urging the
THE PEASANTS WAR IN FRANCON1A. 185
villages to join them. On the bishop's refusal
to surrender the church property, his castle
above the town, which was practically unde-
fended, was taken by assault, pillaged and
burnt. For three days the usual scenes of
plunder took place in and around Bamberg.
On the 1 5th of April, however, a compromise
was arrived at with the bishop, by which he
was recognised as the sole responsible authority
in the land, the chapter losing all its separate
rights. The bishop on his side promised
to call a Landtag for the discussion and
removal of all grievances. This treaty,
although publicly proclaimed in the streets,
does not seem to have been of much effect.
The destruction of castles and monasteries
throughout the episcopal territories went on
apace. As many as seventy castles, besides
religious houses, fell a prey to rapine and
flames. Crowds from the country-side flocked
into the capital. An old chronicle informs us
that " no one was certain of his life and goods,
after the multitude had bedrunk themselves in
the wine-cellars of the churchmen, as continually
came to pass. So evil and so unruly did it
become in Bamberg, that not alone the old
1 86 THE PEASANTS WAR.
pious burghers were grieved thereat, but also
the others, even they who had, at first, had
right good pleasure in the tumult."
By the rniddle^o^-Aprtrme movement was
everywhere reaching its height, and was not
to be quelled by promises or even by written
concessions any more than by threats. The
insurrection was going from one success to
another.
CHAPTER VI.
THE MOVEMENT IN THE EAST AND WEST.
WE have now to follow the rise and progress
of the movement in the eastern Austrian
territories of Tyrol and Salzburg. We shall
then briefly trace its fortunes in the western
dependencies of Austria, in the Breisgau and
Upper Elsass, and along the Rhine.
In the first rank of the prince-ecclesiastics of
the extensive hereditary domains of the house
of Austria stood the Archbishop of ^SalzburgT 0\
Amongst the numerous well-hated prince-
prelates of the age, Archbishop Matthaus Lang
by no means took a back place. The town
of Salzburg had long been at cross purposes
with the arch-episcopal castle overhanging it.
History tells how the predecessor of Lang,
Leonhard by name, had invited the burger-
meister and some distinguished members of the
city-council to a banquet. As soon as they
sat down to table, he caused the castle ban-
queting-hall to fill with armed men, to whom
(187)
188 THE PEASANTS WAR.
he gave orders for his guests to be seized,
fettered and carried off to a distant portion of
his territories to be executed. The reason of
this act of treachery was a report that had
J reached his ears of the intention of the council
to apply to the emperor for a charter constituting
Salzburg a free city. This act, however, seems
to have excited less indignation amongst the
body of the burghers, owing to the class hatred
entertained for the wealthy town patricians
whom it immediately concerned.
r As for the peasants in the Salzburg lands,
/ they, like other peasantries on ecclesiastical
/ domains, had a standing quarrel with their
lord, and had more than once risen against
what they deemed unjust exactions during the
latter half of the preceding century. It was
natural, therefore, that the great popular wave
of 1525 should not have passed over the town
and country of Salzburg without leaving its
impression.
The then Archbishop Matthaus Lang came
to his see in 1519. He had sprung from a
patrician family of the town of Augsburg, and
by cunning and diplomacy had attained to one
of the wealthiest and most powerful sees in the
:
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 189
empire. His character may be judged from
the statement of one of his own privy council-
lors that u it were well known with what
roguery and knavery he had come into the
benefice, how his whole life long he had naught
that was good in his thought, was full of
malice, a knave, and his disposition never good
towards his countryfolk". That the foregoing
estimate is in nowise too severe his public
acts amply testify.
On the opening of the Lutheran Reformation,\
it is not surprising that the Salzburgers showed^
themselves eminently favourable to the new
doctrines. Here, as elsewhere, were to be
found enthusiastic reformers amongst the '
clergy. With these must be included the
confessor of the archbishop himself. No sooner
did the latter become aware of the fact than
he threw the priest, whose name was Kasten-
bauer, into prison, and gave orders for all those
acknowledging the Lutheran heresy, were they
clerical or lay, to be pursued with heavy pains
and penalties. But the cunning prelate had a
plan in view for making the spread of the
Lutheran movement a shoeing-horn to an
ambitious scheme of his own for doing away
j
190 THE PEASANTS WAR.
with all ancient rights and privileges in the
town and the country alike, and for reducing
the whole territory beneath his absolute sway.
Under pretence of repressing heresy, and
protecting the see against disaffection, it was
his aim, namely, to collect a body of mercen-
aries from outside, to fall upon his own subjects,
and by a display of severity to reduce them to
an abject submission. " The burghers," he is
reported to have said, "must be the first that
I shall undo ; then those of the country must
follow."
In Tyrol, accordingly, whither he journeyed
to do homage to his feudal superior, the
Archduke Ferdinand, who was at Innsbruck,
he engaged six companies of free-lances,
alleging to the archduke as his excuse the
necessity of being prepared against a possible
Lutheran rising in his dominions. The citizens
of Salzburg were horrified at the return of
o
their liege lord with a small army at his back.
Their alarm was increased on observing signs
at the castle of the planting of ordnance in a
position to threaten the town. So great was
the panic that, on the peremptory demand of
the cardinal-archbishop, the city surrendered
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 191
at once unconditionally, and the prince-prelate
rode in in triumph, followed by his retinue, to
the guildhall on the bread market.
This entry lacked none of the pomp and
magnificence characteristic of the age. The
archbishop, clad in full armour, was mounted
on a white charger, surrounded by his pages
and courtiers, and followed by two com-
panies of free-lances. A humble address
delivered to the archbishop by the biirger-
meister was answered by his chancellor in
haughty and almost insulting language. All
imperial charters, granting privileges to the
town, were ordered to be surrendered, as well
as those given by himself or by his predecessors.
A formal document was then required to be
drawn up and signed by the burgermeister
and principal councillors, pledging the town to
submit in all things to the will of its feudal ^
superior. Salzburg thus, unlike most of the
other important towns of Germany, which had
long ago settled accounts with their feudal
overlords, was still in the throes of a struggle
which, in not a few other cases, had been left
two centuries behind. As a natural consequence,
the class-antagonism within the walls, although \7
THE PEASANTS WAR.
unmistakably existing, was somewhat over-
shadowed. There was at least a solidarity of
all classes against the feudal oppressor. A
similar despotic policy was pursued throughout
,the whole territory of the archbishopric.
Severe persecutions of the preachers of the
new gospel now followed. The recalcitrant
priest, Matthaus, who had been amongst the
most active of its propagandists., was sentenced
to perpetual imprisonment. He was bound on
a horse with an iron chain and was to 'be con-
veyed to a distant castle. On the way thither,
however, his conductors turned into a friendly
inn to refresh, leaving their prisoner alone
outside. Finding a few peasants around him,
attracted by curiosity, the preacher appealed to
them to release him. In a short time a con-
siderable crowd had gathered, and, a young
peasant constituting himself leader, the preacher
was released and went his way. The leader
and another peasant engaged in this affair were
afterwards secretly executed at Salzburg within
the castle. As soon as this 'was known, how-
ever, it acted as a powerful stimulus to the
prevailing disaffection. The friends of the
victims and of the new doctrines went about
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. ^193
from valley to valley, secretly urging the
country-folk to defend the gospel and avenge
innocent blood.
The measureless exactions of the Cardinal-
Archbishop all helped in the same direction.
Not only was the peasantry taxed up to the
hilt, but heavy subsidies were demanded from
the wealthy burghers of the town of Salzburg.
I nsults,oppressions,exactions, continued through-
out the winter of 1524-1525. But, at the same
time, here as elsewhere, the opposition, which
was to break out in the spring in the form of
open rebellion, was organising itself. This
first took definite shape in the valley of Gas-
tein. Fourteen "articles" were formulated by
this peasant popuTation, whom the celebrated
" Twelve Articles " of Upper Swabia appear not
yet to have reached. First and foremost, the
free preaching of the gospel without human
additions was demanded. The free election
of preachers was also insisted upon. Further-
more, various imposts were to be done away-
with, notably the merchet (or due payable
on the marriage of a son or daughter), the
death due, the so-called small tithe, and many
other things of a like nature. A righteous
THE PEASANTS WAR,
J
I administration of justice and especially that
j the judges should be independent of the lord
| and his bailiffs was also amongst the demands.
f A further curious item was that the cost of the
^execution of criminals should not fall upon the
/ rural community. Finally, the maintenance of
public roads for the facility of trade and inter-
course was required.
On the basis of these articles, a " Christian
Brotherhood " was formed here also. Messen-
gers were sent into all the neighbouring valleys
to secure adhesion. Soon the whole of the
Alpine archbishopric was in motion, and by
the end of April the insurrection had reached
Styria, Carinthia and Upper Austria. The
" Christian Brotherhood " was now well-estab-
lished in all the Austrian lands.
The Archduke Ferdinand, who held court
at Innsbruck, at this time called together the
assembly of the Estates of the five Austrian
Duchies to consider what action should be
taken. The local assemblies of the territories
also met. It was generally admitted on all sides
that the revolt was brought about by high-
handed and oppressive action on the part of
the territorial magnates. Here, indeed, even
THE MO VEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 195
the lower nobility, when offering the archduke
their aid in quelling the insurrection, made the
redress of certain specified wrongs, under which
the "common man" was suffering, a necessary
condition. The archduke himself had to
agree. His real views and inclinations as
regards the situation were probably better
expressed by a rescript previously issued by
himself and the court-council at Vienna to
the effect that " the crime must be chastised
with a rod of iron, to the end that the evil
and wanton device of the peasants should be
punished, so that others may take warning
thereby, also that those who are elsewhere
already rebellious may be stilled and brought
into submission. It is therefore our counsel
and good opinion that ye all do proceed against
all chiefs and leaders, wheresoever they may ^
arise, or show themselves, with spearing, flaying,
quartering, and every cruel punishment."
In Styria, Sigmund von Dietrichstein, who
ten years before had mercilessly suppressed a
peasant insurrection in the duchy (cf. German
Society, pp. 82-86) held still the chief authority
in the land. He was, however, without men.
Even the mercenaries sent him from Vienna
196 THE PEASANTS WAR.
refused to march against the peasantry, a
section of them actually deserting to the latter.
He would have been absolutely powerless, had
not a contingent of three hundred Bohemian
men-at-arms arrived upon the scene. An
attempt, nevertheless, to attack a peasant
encampment at Goysen resulted in the repulse
and flight of his whole force. In his retreat
through a narrow defile, the sides of which
were occupied by parties of insurgents, Diet-
richstein suffered almost more than in the open
field. He himself was wounded, and confessed
to a loss of over a hundred men killed, though
this was undoubtedly far below the true number.
To make matters worse, his remaining men now
mutinied, and it was only with difficulty, and
with the expenditure of a large sum of money,
that he could induce them to remain with him.
Two companies of free-lances and some three
hundred horsemen were, however, on their way
from Carinthia to his assistance. With the aid
of these he was able to maintain his position,
though he did not dare to attack the main body
of rebels, consisting of some six thousand
peasants, under the leadership of one Reustl.
His attempts at negotiations, though they first
THE MO VEMENT IN EAST AND WEST, i
of all failed owing to the opposition of Reustl,
were eventually successful, the majority of the
contingent deserting: their leader and accepting
the terms offered. Reustl, with a band of
faithful followers, mostly workers in the salt
mines, made good his retreat, and succeeded
in reaching the main Salzburg contingent,
which he joined.
By this time, things were getting hotter than
ever in the archbishopric. The main body of
the insurgent peasants were encamped in a
village a few miles from Salzburg. They were
armed with the most motley weapons, clubs,
pitchforks and sickles, with only here and
there a rusty sword or spear or a worn-out
piece of armour. In this way they streamed
forth from their valleys and mountain pastures.
The episcopal functionaries were taken by
surprise. They had omitted to occupy the
leading pass. In vain the archbishop altered
his tone ; in vain he became mild, persuasive
and even fatherly. The peasants were not so
boorish as not to know the worth of his assur-
ances. The townspeople of Salzburg were
in full sympathy with them. So threatening
did matters become that Matthaus Lang felt
198 THE PEASANTS WAR,
himself no longer safe in his palace on the
market-place, and made good his retreat to his
castle immediately above. A steep and narrow
path led from the city to this impregnable
fortress, which boasted a double wall, in part
hewn out of the natural rock. The south side
rested on a sheer precipice of 440 feet. Here
the archbishop was safe enough as regards
his person, but the position was not favourable
for conducting negotiations with the town, in
which his whole force consisted of one of the
companies afore-mentioned, under the command
of two knights named Schenk and Thurn. As
in the case of the Frauenberg, members of his
council were active in riding to and fro between
the castle and the town, with the object of
establishing a pact with the citizens.
The peasants kept in close touch with the
Salzburgers. The chief intermediary of the
latter with their overlord was a municipal
functionary of the name of Gold. He was,
however, suspected of treachery. One day, as
the archbishop's military commanders, Hans
Schenk and Sigmund von Thurn, were endeav-
ouring to appease a tumultuous general assembly
of the citizens on the market-place, Hans Gold
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 199
was seen on horseback in the neighbourhood.
Believing him to be acting the spy, or swayed
by motives of personal vengeance, a butcher,
against whom Gold had given an unfair decision
in his judicial capacity, dragged him off his
horse by the hook of his halberd. He was
only prevented from running him through by
the intervention of a brewer named Pickler.
The incident was, nevertheless, a signal for the
assembly to become openly insurrectionary ; so
much so that Schenk and Thurn themselves,
fearing that their force was insufficient for the
emergency, made a dash for the castle. Gold
himself was not so fortunate, being seized and
thrown into one of the towers, where he was
put to the torture and had to confess matters
concerning the archbishop's policy not calcu-
lated to conciliate the popular feeling. Finding
that their official leaders had abandoned them,
the company of free-lances were nothing loth
to allow themselves to be enrolled in the service
of the citizens.
The peasants now drew nearer the town, and
on Whit Monday the brother of one of the
peasants whom Lang had had secretly executed
in his castle, entered the gates and rushed
200 THE PEASANTS WAR.
through the streets, affixing notices on the
houses of the canons and councillors of the
archbishop with the words : " This house is
mine until the innocent blood of my brother be
avenged ". The same evening the main body
of the peasants entered the city, the gates of
which were thrown open to them. The usual
scenes ensued on the following day ; the palace
of the prince-prelate on the market-place was
entered ; charters, documents and registers
were destroyed, so that, as it was stated, one
might wade knee-deep in the fragments ;
kitchens, cellars and dwelling-rooms were
sacked, the retainers being turned out. By
evening the building was empty, and became a
place from the windows of which women hung
their washing. In a few days, reinforcements
arrived from the mining districts, well-armed
and disciplined. Finding this to be the case,
a large number of the original ill-armed con-
tingent withdrew to their fields and villages,
undertaking to maintain their newly-arrived
comrades.
The insurgent city now set about laying
siege in earnest to the archbishop and his
nobles in the castle, the Hohen-Salzburg, as it
THE MOVEMENT IN EASJ AND WEST. 201
was called. Every possible means of egress
was occupied by them. They were, however,
too late to prevent one of the prelatical coun-
cillors from riding off to solicit aid from the
courts of Bavaria and Austria. The Archduke
was himself already too much pressed to afford
any assistance, for in addition to his troubles
previously spoken of in the so-called " five
duchies," the movement had now reached Tyrol.
As for the Duke of Bavaria, so far from being
anxious to assist his brother potentate, he was
disposed to treat secretly with the insurgents,
with the view of obtaining possession of the
Salzburg territories, and was only with difficulty
prevented from carrying out this policy by the
advice of his chancellor, Leonhard von Eck.
The Tyrolese movement is remarkable as
being the only one of which it can be sai
that it obtained ultimate success of a rnodifi
kind. With the rest, rapid and complete
seemed their success at first, as rapidly an
completely were they crushed in a few weeks.
The Tyrolese, on the other hand, not only suc-
ceeded in prolonging the struggle far into
summer of 1526, but, although the far-reaching
202 THE PEASANTS WAR.
"*S
aspirations of those engaged in the conflict were
doomed to disappointment, the peasantry as a
whole did not go out altogether empty-handed.
They obtained certain distinct concessions of
a permanent nature. This was partly due, no
doubt, to the intrepid character of the inhabit-
v ants, accustomed as they were from the earliest
ages to a life of comparative freedom and in-
dependence ; partly also to the formation of
the country, in many parts inaccessible to any
but natives, and everywhere easily capable of
defence by small bands, and, last but not least,
to the remarkable man who was not only the
intellectual head of the movement, but who
was as eminent as an organiser and diplomatist
as he was bold and logical as a thinker I refer
to Michael Gaismayj^
On the Tyrolese insurrection, it may be
worth while to quote here a report of a hostile
contemporary witness, George Kirchmair (ap^ld
Jansen, vol. ii., pp. 492-494): "There arose,"
writes Kirchmair, "a cruel, fearful, inhuman
insurrection of the common peasant-folk in this
land, at which I was at hand and beheld many
wonders. Certain noisy, base people did
adventure with violence to free from the judge
THE MO VEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 203
a condemned rebel who had done mischief and
who justly had been ordained to the penalty.
After that they had done this thing on a Wed-
nesday, did the peasants run together out of all
mountains and valleys on Whit Sunday, young
and old, albeit they knew not what they would
do. As then a great concourse was come
together in the Muklander Au within the
Eisack valley, their conclusion was to free
themselves from their oppression. A noble
gentleman, Sigmund Brandisser, bailiff at
Rodenegg, went straightway to the assembled
peasants and showed to them all the danger,
vanity, mischief, trouble and care. Notwith-
standing that they promised him not to go
forward to deeds, but to bring their complaint
before their rightful prince, who was then in
Innsbruck, yet did they not keep their promise,
but on Whit Sunday at night made assault
to Brixen, plundering and robbing in defiance
of God and right, all priests, canons and
chaplains. Thereafter did they assemble be-
fore the bishop's court and drave thence his
councillors and his servants, with much vio-
lence, and in such inhuman manner that one
may not write thereof. They of Brixen had
204 THE PEASANTS WAR.
as soon forgotten their duty toward Bishop
Sebastian as the peasants of the new founda-
tion toward their lord, the Prior Augustin.
In fine, was there no duty, faith, vow, or other
^ thing whatsoever bethought. The Brixeners
and the peasants were ot one mind. Every
part had its chief men. These chiefs did
without any cause or any renunciation (of
allegiance) move with five thousand men against
the monastery of the new foundation, and
overran the priory on Friday, the i2th of May,
1525. Of the wantonness which they there
wrought, a man might write a whole book.
Prior Augustin, a pious man, was driven out
and pursued, and the priests in such wise
despised, mocked and tormented, that they
must forsooth be made ashamed of the priestly
sign and name. More than twenty-five thousand
florins of loss in houses, silver, treasure, fur-
nishings and eating vessels, charters and books,
did the peasants bring about. No man may
say with how much pride, drunkenness, blas-
pheming and sacrilege the priory was at this
time offended. It had also been burned, had
not God willed it otherwise. On Saturday, the
1 3th of May, they chose a captain, a fair-spoken
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 205
yet cunning man, named Michael Gaismayr, (
son of a squire of Sterzing, an evil, a rebellious,
but a cunning man. So soon as he was
chosen their captain, the plundering of priests
went on in the whole land. There was no
priest so poor in the land but that he must lose
all that was his own. Thereafter fell they upon
divers nobles and did destroy so many that no
man could or would arm himself to resist them ;
nay, even the Archduke Ferdinand and his
most excellent wife held themselves nowhere
saved. For in this whole land, in the valley of
the Inn and of the Etsch, there was in the
towns and amongst the peasants such a con-
course, cry, and tumult, that hardly might a
good man walk in the streets. Robbing,
plundering and stealing did become so common
that even not a few pious men were tempted
thereto, who afterwards bitterly repented. And
I speak the truth when I say that through this
robbing, plundering and stealing, did no man
wax rich."
A spy of the Archbishop of Trier reports to
his master that emissaries from the Tyrolese
insurgents were to be found in southern Ger-
many and in Elsass, seeking to establish
206 THE PEASANTS WAR.
communications and an understanding between
the two movements. He cautions his master
at the same time, probably with the fear of
Michael Gaismayr's constitutional reforms
before his eyes, not to be deceived by the
comparatively harmless "articles" of the
peasants, for that something quite different
lay behind these.
The Tyrolese peasantry had been stirring
already, a few years before the great outbreak.
They complained of much having been pro-
mised, but little carried out, by their lords and
rulers. One of their great grievances was
the prohibition of the killing of game. This
prohibition, at last, they openly disregarded,
and so impossible did it become to rehabilitate
it that the Austrian Government at Innsbruck
formally conceded the right of every peasant
to hunt and shoot game on his own land. But,
here as elsewhere, the embitterment of the
x people against nobles and clergy had gone too
far to be appeased by partial concessions. In
the mining districts, especially those belonging
x to the Fugger family at Schwatz, where the
capitalistic wage-system was apparently first
introduced, wages are said to have been in
THE MO VEMENT IN EAST AND WEST.
207
arrear at this time to the extent of forty thou-
sand gulden. Add to this that the imperial
council had recently put on an additional tax. -
The new religious doctrines had soon ob- -
tained adherents in the Tyrol, especially
amongst the miners. Foremost of the preachers
were Jcjhajmje^_Sjtrauss and Urbanus Regius.^
The evil life of princes and great ones was,
of course, denounced. The rights proclaimed
by the new jurists were likewise attacked as
heathenish, and as not binding on Christian
men. The year of jubilee was declared to
be an institution still in force. Many other
doctrines of a like nature were promulgated.
A friar left his cell and engaged himself as
a workman in the Fugger mines, in order to
follow out the scriptural injunction to earn
bread by the sweat of his brow. Here he had
a taste of the newly-introduced wages-system
for profit.
Followers of Thomas Munzer, or at least -
persons holding similar views, appeared also
about this time in the valleys in question.
Finally, these mining and peasant communities
assembled together in the usual manner and
drew up nineteen " articles"? of reform. Most
208 THE PEASANTS WAR.
r\
Oo j. j.j.j^/ j. j^t^-L^^LJ. r j. o rr^Li\
**
of these " articles " deal with the right of
(/preaching the Gospel and other rights iden-
tical with those demanded elsewhere. The
j^novel points were protests against the constant
passage of armed men through the country and
the quartering of alien troops in the frontier
villages. One of the complaints was directed
against the free exportation of the wines of
Trient ; another against the reckless riding of
lords over cultivated fields ; another against
^the new lawyer class ; yet another against the
keeping of wine-rooms by the judges and
clerks of tribunals. Most noteworthy of all was
a. remonstrance against the Fugger family and
against other privileged companies of merchants,
which through their agents produced such a
great increase in the cost of provisions that
many articles had risen in price from eighteen
kreutzers to a gulden. The assembled country
people gave also, as one of the immediate
causes of their action in coming together, the
attempted removal by the authorities of certain
ordnance and ammunition, which removal, how-
ever, it would appear, they had been successful
in preventing. Zimmermann conjectures that
they feared that the war-material in question
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 209
was to be used against their brethren who had
risen in the neighbouring provinces.
The concessions of the archduke had their
effect for the moment. Most of the rural
communities consented to await the Landtag
which was to consider their grievances. This
applies to the Tyrol itself, but not to the Vor-
arlberg. In and around Bregenz the insurrec-
tion gathered, until it soon numbered forty
thousand men, who insultingly replied to the
emissaries from the archducal court at Inns-
bruck that they would come in a few days
and bring the answer themselves to the pro-
posals made.
In the south also, the movement showed no
signs of abating. As we have seen, the source
and centre of the Tyrolese rising was the
neighbourhood of the town of Brixen, many
public functionaries there joining the cause.
Michael Gaismayr himself had been the
bishop's secretary and the keeper of the
customs at Klausen. From the proceeds of
the sacking of the wealthy house of the
Teutonic Order at Bozen, Gaismayr, now
elected captain of the local contingent, formed^
the nucleus of a war-chest. It was augmented
14
2io THE PEASANTS WAR.
by numerous other spoliations of ecclesiastical
possessions. Gaismayr, further, at once opened
up a correspondence with the view of gathering
into his hand the threads of agitation in the
surrounding territories. In his manifestoes he
knew how to combine in the cleverest way the
immediate aspirations and the popular demands
of those with whom he was dealing, whilst
hinting at the more far-reaching projects of
the Christian commonwealth that formed his
ultimate goal. For example, he knew how to
exploit patriotic sentiment by pointing out
the evils resulting from' the occupation of
important posts by aliens, notably by Spaniards,
whose promotion Charles V. and his brother
had naturally favoured.
Under Gaismayr the insurrection rapidly
spread, in spite of the archduke's blandishments
and the temporary character of the peasants'
success in certain interior districts of the Tyrol
itself. From the lake of Garda and Trient in
the south, the whole country soon broke out into
open and organised revolt. One peasant camp
was formed outside the city of Trient itself.
Other contingents swept the valleys of the
Brixen territories and of the Etsch, plundering
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 211
monasteries and castles, and occupying the
smaller towns or laying them under contribution.
Gaismayr's headquarters were at Meran. With
him were the delegates of the towns and of
the various jurisdictions of the Tyrol province,
endeavouring with difficulty to reconcile local
demands with one another and with the ge
object of the movement. Loyalty to the feudal |
chiefs of the province, the house of Austria,
seems to have been deeply ingrained in the
hearts of the countryfolk, and, in spite of his
own ultimate end, Gaismayr was careful not
to openly collide with, or even disregard, this_
feeling. Although the local nobility and clergy
were everywhere regarded as fair game for
plunder and rapine, the agrarians were particu-
larly concerned to spare the archduke's castles.
Meanwhile, the archduke himself continued
to adopt a conciliatory and even friendly tone
in his messages. It is said that he had really
an affection for his patrimonial province, but in
any case he had no force of fighting men at
hand with which to quell the revolted popula-
tions. That this latter motive was chiefly
responsible for his mildness is evidenced by
the fact that he gave orders to the Innsbruck
212 THE PEASANTS WAR.
council to negotiate a loan by the pledging of
certain lands and jewellery for the purpose of
raising the force he wanted. At the same time
he sought to hurry on the promised Landtag.
Gaismayr, on his side, had called a Landtag,
which, however, was forbidden by the archduke
by special messengers with signed and sealed
despatches. On the despatches being read,
the majority of the peasant council at Meran
accepted the armistice and abandoned the
projected Landtag, which was to have been
held at that place. But difficulties arose when
it was found that the Austrian Government
did not interpret the armistice as implying
any duty on its part to abstain from further
armaments. In a special rescript to the im-
perial authorities, written about this date by
the archduke, the latter lets his mask of
mildness fall, complaining that the machina-
tions of the evil-minded populations were such
that they would allow no foreign mercenaries
to enter the country, that he himself was
practically a prisoner in his own land, and that
from day to day there was no certainty that
the capital, Innsbruck itself, would not be
attacked.
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 213
The insurrection was master throughout
the duchy. On the calling of the Landtag
at Innsbruck, a hundred and six "articles,"
formulated by the standing council at Meran,
probably under Gaismayr's direction, were sub-
mitted, and the archduke was compelled to
concede a number of points that must have
proved very sour to him. These were finally
brought together in the form of a new consti-
tution for the province, containing strong and
democratic provisions. But further demands
were made in many quarters, and the insur-
rection, everywhere smouldering, burst out into
renewed activity in several districts.
We must now, for the present, leave the
fortunes of the Tyrolese, in order to turn to
those of the movement in west Austrian
and in the Alsatian and Rhenish districts
abutting on them. It is impossible to separate,
either topographically or historically, the hither
Austrian dominion of Breisgau from the Mar-
gravate of Baden and the adjoining districts.
The Black Forest contingent, under Hans
Mliller von Bulgenbach, moved westward
early in May for the purpose of combining
214 THE PEASANTS WAR.
with contingents which had formed, in the
latter part of April, in the Austrian territory
and in the Margravate, and of making a
combined attack upon the important city of
Freiburg, one of the best defended and
most noteworthy towns of south-west Ger-
many. Breisgau and Baden had been in a
state of fermentation for a year_past. Local
disturbances and a threatened general rising
are recorded from the early summer of 1524
onwards. By the end of that year, large
numbers of nobles and clerics, apprehending
a new " Bunds c huh" had fled into Freiburg
for security, amongst them the Markgraf
Ernst, with his wife and children. Freiburg
had, therefore, become a nest of the privileged
classes and a repository of vast treasures.
The chief of the Margravate contingent was
one Hans Hammerstein. In dread of an attack
by Hammerstein upon his castle of Rotelen,
the Markgraf had taken to flight. Rotelen,
however, did not share the fate of so many
other strongholds of Baden, and was reserved
for destruction in the second half of the
seventeenth century during the wars of Louis
XIV. Arrived at Freiburg, the Markgraf
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 215
sent conciliatory letters, accompanied by offers
of mediation on the part of the Freiburg
authorities. But, unlike his brother Philip, a
man of exceptional humanity for that age, and
immensely popular with his subjects, Ernst
was mistrusted, and could not succeed in
making any impression with his overtures.
After discussing the matter in conclave, the
peasants returned answer that if he would un-
reservedly countersign the u Twelve Articles,"^
and regard himself henceforward as no more
than the trustee and vicegerent of the emperor,
he might retain his castle and his lands. If,
on the other hand, he refused to consider
himself as primus inter pares of themselves, it
would go badly with him, since they were
determined to have done with nobles, to have
nobody in authority over them save peasants
like themselves, and to acknowledge no lord
but the emperor. These proposals obviously
did not suit this wealthy territorial magnate,
who, rinding himself in security for the time
being, was content to let matters drift.
The practical refusal of the Markgraf
to concede anything resulted in a rising of
the whole land. All the important castles,
2i6 THE PEASANTS WAR.
including Rotelen, were occupied. A camp of
peasant contingents was formed at Heidersheim.
The wealthy monastery of Thennenbach was
stripped, suffering damage, as was alleged, to
the amount of thirty thousand gulden, whilst
the small town of Kenzingen was taken and
garrisoned, and the arrival was awaited of
Hans Miiller with his contingent before
Freiburg.
Freiburg was at its wits' end, and was
well-nigh denuded of fighting men, having a
few weeks previously sent some bodies of
free-lances in its service to the assistance of
other towns more immediately threatened than
itself. The Schlossberg, the great stronghold
commanding the town, was manned by no
more than a hundred and twenty-four men.
All available persons, however, who were in
the town, made ready to assist in its defence,
and all flaws in the fortifications were repaired.
The authorities then sent out to know the
meaning of the presence of Hans Miiller and
the Black Forest contingent in the Breisgau
territory. The reply was an expression of
regret that Freiburg should be on the side of
the oppressors of the "common man," and of
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 217
hope that the city would enter the " Evangelical
Brotherhood ". To this the city answered that
its oath to the House of Austria prevented
its undertaking such obligations as those
suggested, but professed its willingness to
mediate where special grievances could be
shown, and concluded with hoping that the
Black Forest peasants, mindful of how divine
and blessed it was to live in peace, would
withdraw themselves from the neighbourhood
of Breisgau. Hans M tiller, thereupon, declared
that his Black Forest men were not acting
without the concurrence of their brethren, the
Breisgau peasants. He then moved his camp
into the city's immediate proximity.
By the i7th of May, the local contingents
also arrived before Freiburg, from the battle-
ments of which the banners of twenty companies
were to be counted. Accordingly, the forces
being now joined, an ultimatum was sent on
this day requiring the formal alliance of
Freiburg with the " Evangelical Brotherhood ".
No answer was returned, and the siege began
by the close investment of the city. Aqueducts
were constructed to draw off the water. The
block-house on the Schlossberg was taken by
2i8 THE PEASANTS WAR.
J_
surprise a day or two later, and, as some nobles
were sitting on a fine May evening drinking
their wine before a hostelry in the cathedral
close, five hundred shots fell around them.
The fighting power of the town was forthwith
drawn up in readiness on the fish-market. The
citizens were divided into twelve companies
corresponding to the twelve guilds, each of
which had to defend its own gate, tower and
section of the wall. Even the University
supplied its company, consisting of some forty
students under the leadership of the rector and
two professors. Help from without was no-
where forthcoming. The civic authorities thus
expressed themselves in a report made later on :
" No man did come to our help. From Hegau
to Strasburg, and thence from Wiirtemberg to
the Welsh [French] country we had no friends.
All townships, hamlets and villages were
against us."
On the evening of the 2ist, a further ultima-
tum from the peasants was sent into the town.
/They only wished well to the country, but
/demanded "a goodly Christian order and the
I freeing of the common man from excessive and
( unjust burdens ". Meanwhile, within the town,
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. ^19
ominous voices made themselves heard in the
guildrooms. Freiburg was not in a position to
sustain a long siege, and the idea of its being
taken by assault was not palatable to the
wealthy citizens. Moreover, sympathy with
the peasant cause, though not so widely spread
as in some other towns, was not wanting, and
there were many poor citizens who had friendly
relations with the besiegers without the walls.
The upshot was that on the 24th of May, a
week after the siege had been begun, Freiburg
capitulated and agreed to enter the " Evangelical
Brotherhood ".
Both sides pledged themselves to do their
utmost to further a general peace, and the
removal of the burdens of the " common man,"'
and also to cherish the true principles of the
Gospel. The relations of the town to its feudal
overlord were not to be compromised, nor
its liberty in any way curtailed. It was to pay
to the assembled contingents the sum of three
thousand gulden as earnest of its good inten-
tions. This sum was afterwards increased, and
further pecuniary demands were made. Frei-
burg appears also to have supplied the peasants
with some artillery7Tor r ~m an exculpatory
220 THE PEASANTS WAR.
report, subsequently made to the Austrian
Government, we read : " We have indeed
loaned the peasants four falconets, the which
had no great worth, but yet for no other end
than that they might hold the Rhine at Lim-
burg against the Welsh [the foreigners]. For
we have given the commandment to the twain
to whom we delivered them that they should
destroy this ordnance so soon as there were
danger against any other person soever."
Thus ended the peasant siege of Freiburg.
The attention of the peasant bodies was at
this time drawn off from Freiburg and Breisgau
generally to the disasters that were befalling
their cause in the neighbouring Elsass. Even
the strongly-fortified town of Breisach they
were content to leave, after having threatened
it for some days, on a pledge being given that
no foreign troops should be permitted to cross
the river at any point within the defensive
capacity of the town.
The attack on the town of Villingen was
repulsed, the garrison making sorties and razing
the peasant homesteads near by. Rudolfzell,
which, as we have seen, had received into its
walls numbers of fugitive nobles, who con-
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST, 221
stituted its main armed force, had also com-
pelled the Black Foresters to retire. A body
of knights, in fact, in making a sortie, distin-
guished themselves by burning the neighbour-
ing villages and throwing women and children
into the flames. An agreement was ultimately
made through the mediation of the popular and
amiable Markgraf Philip of Baden, who also
acted on behalf of his brother Ernst. It con-
sisted of the following two articles : (i) that the
great tithe should be rendered as of wont, but,
until the judgment of the matter, should be laid
by in a neutral place, while the small tithe
should not be rendered until this judgment, and
that corvdes should also cease meanwhile ; (2)
that all the ordnance of the Markgraf and all
other that might be in the hands of the peasant
bodies should be brought into the town of Neuen-
burg, should be there preserved until the issue
of the matter, and should be by neither side
used against the other.
About this time the middle of June further
understandings as regards an armistice were
entered into between the various contingents
and Freiburg, Breisach, Offenburg, and other
towns of Breisgau and Baden.
222 THE PEASANTS WAR.
We now turn to the contiguous, and in many
respects allied, movement in Elsass. Here the
insurrection began, as elsewhere, early in April.
It spread like wild-fire from town to town and
from village to village. A contemporary, writing
from Strasburg at the end of April, says: " The
peasants have everywhere assembled themselves
in companies. They hold the most towns and
divers castles. The Papists are in a fear such
as is not to be believed. The rich are filled
with alarm for their treasure, and even we
in our strong town live not wholly without
dread."
Iconoclasm was the order of the day in Stras-
burg. Churches were ransacked ; monks and
nuns were driven out of cloister and convent.
The city, in fact, was at one time in imminent
danger of falling into the hands of the rebels.
The council, however, appears to have got wind
of a conspiracy to introduce the armed peasants
into the town, and sixteen worthy burghers were
in consequence arrested, some of them paying
for their temerity with their lives. Unfortu-
nately, throughout Elsass many priceless works
of mediaeval art were destroyed in the pillaging ;
pictures, wood carvings, and the contents of
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 223
monastic libraries being often used for the
lighting of fires.
On the 28th of April the " United Contingent
of Elsass," as it was called, which numbered
20,000 men, commanded by one Erasmus Ger-
ber, marched along a mountain ridge constituted
by a spur of the Vosges, to attack the town of
Zabern, the residence of the Bishop of Stras-
burg. Zabern, although comparatively small,
was well fortified, and was calculated to form a
most valuable base and storehouse for the in-
surgent forces. Their first objective was the
wealthy abbey of Mauersmunster, between two
and three miles from Zabern. The foundation
was completely sacked from cellar to roof. An
establishment of the Teutonic Order was also
sacked, and a valuable booty was obtained. In
fact, the insurgent camp glittered with chalices,
salvers, church utensils, and decorations of all
sorts. Zabern was then challenged to open its
gates and join the Peasant League. The canons
and the patrician councillors wished to send for
help to Duke Antoine of Lorraine, who on the
first symptoms of danger had offered to throw
a garrison into the town. The bulk of the
citizens, however, declared that they would
224 THE PEASANTS WAR.
rather open their gates to the peasants than to
these Frenchmen. They refused to receive any
aliens at all. Finally, after some negotiations,
the gates were opened, and the peasant army
entered Zabern on the I3th of May, occupying
the fortifications with a strong force, and also
entrenching themselves immediately outside the
walls.
Far-reaching plans seem to have been talked
of at this time of the invasion of France and
of the humiliation of the French seigneur like
the German adelige. The impression seems to
have prevailed that the whole strength of the
French noblesse had been exhausted at the battle
of Pavia. The importance of the capture of
Zabern was hardly to be exaggerated, and
Duke Antoine hurried on his preparations for
crushing the rebels. Weissenburg was from
the very first entirely in their hands, even the
biirgermeister and the majority of the council
being on the insurgent side, together with the
powerful vintners' guild, to which most of the
councillors belonged.
The formula of the peasants was to demand,
-^ in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord," that
every town, hamlet and village should furnish
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 225
their fourth man to the contingent. As we
have seen in a former chapter, the demands
put forward in Elsass were considerably more
drastic than the celebrated "Twelve Articles".
An agent of the Archbishop of Trier reports
to his master that the "common man" of the -
towns was far more violent even than the
peasant. "With one accord," he writes, "cry
they : ' we will not alone win monasteries and
castles, but will have our hands busy in the
towns, and there also will we be as gentle-
men'." He alleges that they had definite
relations with the Breisgau and Black Forest
contingents.
The movement did not leave the town of
Colmar untouched. The discontented here
formulated fourteen " articles," which they laid
before the council. The matter was quieted
for a time, but in the second week of April
renewed disturbances took place. The in-
surrection, however, did not succeed in making
any headway within the walls, and in spite
of repeated threats the gates remained closed
to the peasants. Colmar in fact at this time,
like many other towns that had successfully /
resisted invasion, was full of fugitives glad to
15
226 THE PEASANTS WAR.
save the wreck of their property. Jews were
especially in evidence.
From Elsass, the movement spread along the
Rhine. On the 23rd of April, in a village in
the neighbourhood of Landau, on the occasion
of a kirckweih (church-ale), a peasant band
formed itself, which subsequently developed into
the so-called Geilweiler contingent. Emissaries
from the band went round all the neighbour-
ing villages, visited the peasants in their
houses, and even fetched them out of their
beds, persuading or compelling them to join
the ranks. The band almost immediately
began the pillaging of monasteries and other
\ ecclesiastical foundations. They took therefrom
\ " corn, wine, cattle and victuals, and lived in
\wantonness," says a contemporary chronicler.
The neighbouring castles shared the same fate.
Such an enormous amount of spoil was collected,
that the half of it had to be left behind in a
village through which the contingent passed.
Day by day their numbers swelled. Feeling
themselves strong enough now to proceed to
greater things, they summoned, on Sunday, the
1 3th of April, the little, well-fortified town of
Neustadt to surrender. The Rhenish Elector
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 227
in vain admonished the citizens to hold no
converse with " the wanton, lawless band ".
The Bishop of Speyer, who counted a large
number of his own villeins in the contingent,
also interposed without effect.
At the beginning of May another body formed
near Lauterburg, the captain being the_burger^_
nieister of that place. The bishop was forced
to concede to them the entry into one or two
strongholds, on their professing to have no
disloyal sentiments towards himself, but only
to wish to defend the territory against the
foreigner. In Lauterburg, high festival was
held. The overhanging castle was broken
into, and, according to a contemporary account,
" the women from the villages hard by did
come into the castles and did drink themselves
so full of wine that they might no more walk ".
Meanwhile the town of Landau itself had be-
come the prey of the Geilweiler contingent, and
had to hand over all the corn and wine in its
possession, most of which had been entrusted
to its care by various neighbouring monasteries.
Two peasant delegates from each company
were sent into the town to see that there was
no cheating in this transaction.
228 THE PEASANTS WAR.
A band now formed in the neighbourhood of
Worm? which swept the country round, receiv-
ing the adhesion of all the villages through
which it passed. On learning of the approach
of the Marshal of the Palatinate, Wilhelm
von Habern, with a force of three hundred
horse and five hundred foot, they established
themselves in a strong position in a vine-clad
hill above the little town of Westhofen. The
marshal was prevented by the favourable
position of the peasants from making a direct
attack, but he had no sooner fired three shots
into their camp than they fled into the village
below a flight that cost the lives of sixty
of them at the hands of the marshal's men.
During the night they retreated to Neustadt,
where they united with the Geilweiler con-
tingent.
The Elector Ludwig, besides being unable
for want of men to suppress the rising by
force, showed signs of his being sincerely
desirous of an amicable arrangement with his
subjects. Through the mediation of the town of
Neustadt, an interview was arranged between
the elector and the peasant leaders in a
field outside the village of Forst. It was
THE MOVEMENT IN EAST AND WEST. 229
stipulated, however, that the elector should
be accompanied by no more than thirty horse-
men as his retinue. As soon as the parties were
met, the whole of the peasant forces appeared
on the brow of an elevation a little way off.
This was evidently a device of the leaders to
overawe the elector. After protracted negotia-
tions, it was agreed that the towns, castles and
villages taken should be surrendered to their
lawful lords and masters, that no further hostile
acts should be committed, and that the peasant
bands, which here numbered some 8000 men,
should disperse to their homes. On his side,
the Elector Ludwig promised the peasants a
complete amnesty, and, in addition, thecalling
at an early date of a Landtag, at which their
grievances should be considered and remedied.
Thereupon the elector retired for the night
to Neustadt. The following day, on representa-
tives of the peasants announcing themselves
with a view of obtaining a definite promise as
to the date of the Landtag in question, the
elector not only satisfied their demands, but
invited them to his table. " There," in the words
of Harer, a contemporary historian of the war,
"one saw villeins and their lord sit together,
230
THE PEASANTS WAR.
ii
I'"
Ls
and eat and drink together. He had, so it
seemed, one heart to them and they to him."
The Landtag was then convened for the
week after Whitsuntide. Its decisions were to
be binding throughout the whole country, that
is to say, on both sides of the Rhine. The
seemingly mild, and even generous conduct of
the elector did not, however, entirely quell
the insurrection. General excitement and the
temptation of plunder were too great. Bands
of peasants throughout the Palatinate continued
the old course of pillage and destruction. It
was not until the common suppression of the
movement that these bands dispersed, and the
Palatinate settled down to its wonted state.
Similarly, in the adjacent bishopric of Speyer,
in spite of agreements, it was not until the
advance of Truchsess and the forces of the
Swabian League that all hostilities on the side
of the peasants came to an end.
CHAPTER VII.
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT AND THOMAS
MUNZER.
WE come now to speak of the figure most
prominently associated by tradition and the
popular mind with the Peasants War. In the
view of most persons, the whole movement that
we are describing centres in the figure of the
schoolmaster and preacher who came from
Stolberg in the Hartz Mountains. For weal
or for woe, history seems to have indelibly
stamped the last great peasant revolt of the
Middle Ages with the name of Thomas Miin-
zer. Yet it may be fairly doubted whether the
stupendous influence on the events of the year
1525 attributed by historical tradition to the
personality in question has not been very much
exaggerated.
That Miinzer, in the winter of 1524-5, made )
a tour of agitation through central and south" 7 -
ern Germany,including those districts where
the revolt earliest broke out, Ts undoubtedly
232 THE PEASANTS WAR.
, but we find, if we analyse the accounts,
l that the reception of his preaching was
J- by no means everywhere encouraging. Thus
/ Melancthon, in his pamphlet Historic Thoma
Miintzers, etc., expressly states that the Fran-
conians, who, as we have seen, played such
a zealous and important part in the move-
ment, would have none of Miinzer or his-
doctrine.^ It is, of course, perfectly true that
the object of the malignant toady Melancthon
in writing this political manifesto, was to curry
favour with the victorious princes and to
defame M (Inzer's character. But, seeing that
the whole trend of the work in question is to
display Miinzer in the role of a powerful and
dangerous demagogue, as, in fact, a kind of
arch-fiend of rebellion, Melancthon can have
had no conceivable object in making the above
statement. Moreover, a statement of this
kind, not referring to an obscure episode in a
man's life, but to his public activity of a few
months before, if untrue, must have been so
notoriously untrue as not to have been worth
the stating. Hence, in the absence of rebutting
evidence which does not seem forthcoming, we
can hardly do otherwise thai) accept it. Other
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 233
accounts, which speak of Mlinzer's influence in
south Germany, especially in the Klettgau and
the Hegau, leave it uncertain how far they
refer to Miinzer himself and how far to those
preaching similar doctrines doctrines unques-
tionably in the air at the time, and not exclusively
ascribable to any single man.
Turning from Miinzer as agitator to Miinzer
as thinker, the same tendency to exaggeration
with otherwise accurate and sober-minded his-
torians is often to be found. Mtinzer is repre-
sented as an embodiment not only of the
practical movement of the time but also of its
idealistic side. That he energetically cham-
pioned the chiliastic notion of" a Christian
Commonwealth, tnen so generally pt'evaJerrt-
amongst the thinking heads of the revqET is^
true enough. But, on the other hand, we fail
fcTdiscover in his extant writings anything more
than vague aspirations towards it ; there is
certainly nothing approaching the originality
of handling, and the elaboration of the idea,
exhibited by Michael Gaismayr. We find this
even in the pamphlet where the social views of
Miinzer are most prominent, his u Emphatic
Exposure of the False Belief of the Faithless
THE PEASANTS WAR.
World " (^' Aussgetruckte emplossung des false hen
Glaubens der ungetrewen Welt"), published at
Miihlhausen late in 1524. Here also all we
have is a vague expression of belief in the
- necessity of the establishment of a communistic
) society and in its approaching advent.
f Miinzer strikes us as before everything a
y theologian. This is noticeable in his pamphlets
down to the very eve of the Peasants War.
In the one on the ordering of the German
mass at Allstatt, in another on the book of
Daniel, and in an exposition of the nineteenth
Psalm the last published in 1525 we see
him most concerned to justify his ecclesiastical
innovations and his theories respecting infant
baptism, the Eucharist, and other edifying
theological topics. He speaks, indeed, at
times bitterly enough of the oppression of
ji>rince, noble and prelate,and of the right of
,the ''common man " to rebel, but, we repeat,
there is no evidence of any constructive theory
beyond the most casual expressions. Of course,
A in saying this, we by no means forget that his
I main strength lay in his fervid oratory, and
/ that his influence from this point of view was
/ considerable. All we contend is that, as in so
\^
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 235
many historical cases, chance has played
kindly with his fame, and has obtained for
him credit for an influence, theoretical and
practical, over the general movement of 1525
which the cold light of research hardly seems
to justify.
Thomas Munzer appears to have been born
in the last decade of the fifteenth century. An
uncertain tradition states that his father was
hanged by the Count of Stolberg. The first we
hear of him with certainty is as teacher in the
Latin school at Aschersleben and afterwards at
Halle. Where he studied is doubtful, but by
this time he had already graduated as doctor.
In Halle he is alleged to have started an
abortive conspiracy against the Archbishop of
Madgeburg. In 1515 we find him as confessor
in a nunnery and afterwards as teacher in a
foundation school at Brunswick. Finally, in
1520, he became preacher at the Marienkirche
at Zwickau, and here his public activity in the
wider sense really began. The democratic
tendencies previously displayed by him broke
all bounds. He thundered against .those who
devoured widows' houses and made long prayers
and who at death-beds were concerned not with
THE PEASANTS WAR.
the faith of the dying but with the gratification
of their measureless greed.
At this time Miinzer was still a follower of
Luther, but it was not long before he found
him a lukewarm church-reformer. Luther's
bibliolatry, as opposed to his own belief in the
- continuous inspiration of certain chosen men by
the Divine spirit, excited his opposition. TTe
criticised still more severely as an unpardon-
able inconsistency Luther's retention of certain
dogmas of the old Church whilst rejecting others.
He now began to study with enthusiasm the
works of the old German mystics, Meister Eck
and Johannes Tauler, and more than all those
of Joachim Florus, the Italian enthusiast of the
twelfth century. A general conviction soon be-
came uppermost in his mind of the necessity of a
thorough revolution alike of Church and State.
His mystical tendencies were strengthened
by contact with a sect which had recently
sprung up amongst the cloth workers of Zwickau,
and of which one Nicholas Storch, a master
clothworker, was corypheus. The sect in ques-
tion lived in a constant belief in the approach of
a millennium to be brought about by the efforts
of the " elect ". Visions and ecstasies were the
f
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 237
order of the day amongst these good people.
This remarkable sect influenced various promi-
nent persons at this time. Karlstadt was
completely fascinated by them. Melancthon
was carried away ; and even Luther admits
having had some doubts whether they had not
a Divine mission. The worthy Elector Friedrich
himself would take no measures against them,
in spite of the dangerous nature of their teaching
from the point of view of political stability. He
was afraid, as he said, " lest perchance he should
be found righting against God ".
It was not long before Munzer allied him-
self with these " enthusiasts," or " prophets
of Zwickau," as they were called. When
the patrician council at Zwickau forbade the
cloth-workers to preach, Munzer denounced
the ordinance and encouraged them to disobey
it. New prohibitions followed, culminating in
prosecutions and imprisonments. The result
was that, by the end of 1521, the cloth-working
town had become too hot to hold the new
reformers. Some fled to Wittenberg, and
others, including Munzer himself, into Bohemia.
Arrived in Prague, Munzer posted up an
announcement in Latin and German that he
238 THE PEASANTS WAR.
would " like that excellent warrior of Christ,
Johann Huss, fill the trumpets with a new
song ". He proceeded in his addresses to
denounce the clergy and to prophesy the
approaching vengeance of heaven upon their
order. He^ here also preach ed^against the
"^ead letter," as he called it, pf_the^ Bible,
expounding his favourite theory of the neces-
sity of believing^ in the^supplemental inspira-
tion of all elect persons. But the soil of
Bohemia proved not a grateful one. It had
been exhausted by over a century of religious
fanaticism and utopistic dreams of social
regeneration.
The next we hear of Miinzer is as preacher
at Alstatt in Thuringia, Allstatt was the scene
of his great Church reformation, in defence of
which he published a pamphlet. The whole
service was conducted in the German language.
All the books of the Bible were read and
expounded in their order, instead of the isolated
passages used in the Roman ritual. His success
here was immense. Crowds streamed to hear
him from the neighbouring towns and villages.
He soon counted not a few theologians and
other learned persons amongst his adherents.
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. ^239
Great was the rush from all sides to listen to
the popular preacher. As Munzer himself has
it, " the poor thirsty folk did so yearn for the
truth that all the streets were full of jpeopje
come to hear it".
He was still, up to the spring of 1523, almost^
entirely a drastic Church reformer rather than T~
a political or social revolutionist. He wrote]
repeatedly to the Elector Friedrich of Saxony
and to his brother, Duke Johann, exhorting
them as his "dearest, most beloved rulers," and
warning them not to be deceived by hypocritical
priests, but to boldly take their stand on the
Gospel. Finding that his admonitions to those
in authority produced no immediate effect, he
turned with increasing zeal to the " common
man". Although the religious side oi MunzerV
character probably remained the most prominent
to the end, the political side now came distinctly W
to the fore. He founded a secret society at /
Allstatt pledged by a solemn oath to labour /
unceasingly for the promotion of the nej^king-
dom^^Ji^d on earth, a kingdom to be based
on the model of the pnmitrve_Qiristian Church
as he supposed it to have been. Treedom and
equality must reign here. The princes and the
240 THE PEASANTS WAR.
great ones of the earth refused to espouse the
cause of the new Gospel. Hence, they must
be overthrown, and the ''common man," who
was prepared to embrace the Gospel, must be
raised up in their place. He who would not
become a citizen of the kingdom of God must
be banished or killed. The great barrier to
the awakening of the inward light was the
riches of this world. Hence, in the kingdom
of God, private wealth should cease to be, and
all things should be in common.
Mlinzer now began to send out missionaries
to different parts of Germany, and soon after
established a special printing-press in Allstatt
Jor the publication of the pamphlets he was
issuing. Whilst at this town he also, like
Luther, married an escaped nun. As a result
of his preaching against the worship of images,
a chapel, a well-known place of pilgrimages
near Allstatt, was burned to the ground. Called
to account for this by Duke Johann, those
responsible, Miinzer at their head, refused to
appear to answer for their action, justifying
themselves by texts out of the Old Testa-
ment.
Finally, Elector Friedrich and Duke Johann
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 241
came in person to the castle at Allstatt, where
they summoned Mlinzer to preach before them
and expound the doctrines that seemed so
subversive of " social order ". Miinzer, obeying
the summons, delivered an impassioned sermon,
well stocked with Biblical quotations. In this
discourse he vehemently demanded the death,
of all priests and monks who perverted the
people and who stigmatised the Gospel preached
by him as heresy. The godless, he said, had
no right to live. If The princes refused them-
selves to exterminate the godless, God would
take the sword from them and accomplish the
work through others. He then proceeded to
attack such social evils of the times as usury,
oppression by princes and lords, and the appro-
priation by them of what of right belonged to
the "common man," the fish in the water, the
fowls ofthe air, the ^produce of the soil While"
professing to protect tEe commandments of
God, one of which said " Thou shalt not steal,"
they themselves robbed without mercy the poor
husbandman and the poor craftsman. If tEe
latter in their turn committed aught,~be it never
so little, against the property of their lords, they
must forsooth hang for it. To all this iniquity,
16
242 THE PEASANTS WAR.
said he, your Doctor Liar his favourite
sobriquet for Luther saith Amen.
The effect on his princely hearers may be
imagined, an effect that was enhanced when
Miinzer immediately caused his discourse to
be printed and circulated amongst their liege
subjects. It does not appear that even now
the mild and benevolent-minded prince-elector
took any action, but Duke Johann at once or-
dered the printer to quit the territory. Miinzer,
in a document dated the i3th of July, 1524,
protests against the attempt to prevent his freely
expounding the doctrines with which the Divine
Spirit had inspired him. He refused the in-
vitation of Luther to debate with him at Wit-
tenberg, alleging the undue influence of Luther's
party in that town. He would not, he said,
preach in a corner, but only before the people.
The new doctrines were now gall and worm-
wood to Luther, who had hurried back from
the Wartburg in the spring of 1523, on learning
of the turn things were taking in Wittenberg
owing to the doctrines of the Zwickau en-
thusiasts. In imminent fear of the Reformation
getting beyond his control, he had succeeded
by his strong personality and authority in
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 243
stemming the tide, but only after he had made
some outward concessions, at least, to the new '
tendencies. Thus, the German mass, the total
abolition of images, and other innovations in-
troduced by Karlstadt and his friends were
reluctantly adopted by Luthejv But the new
political and social doctrines, represented by
Miinzer, Luther could not away with. In a
letter to his patron, the prince-elector, against
the rebellious spirit abroad, Luther entreats the
princes to banish these unruly prophets. " Let
them keep their hands still," said he, " or
straightway be cast out of the land. Thus
should be the speech of princes to the prophets.
For Satan worketh through these misguided
spirits." Miinzer, not without reason, retorted
on Luther that he (Luther) wished to hand
over the Church he had torn from the Pope to
the secular princes, and that he himself would
fain be the new Pope. Luther's little dog,
Melancthon, wrote to his friend Spalatin in
tones of unctuous horror that the new preachers
would make worldly politics of the Gospel.
Territorial lords forbade their villeins to attend
Miinzer's preaching.
A false disciple at this time betrayed Miinzer's
244 THE PEASANTS WAR.
secret propagandist organisation to the authori-
ties. The result was the citation of Mlinzer to
the castle at Weimar once more to give an
account of himself before the princes, this time
on a direct accusation of incitement to rebellion.
He went alone and ably defended himself when
confronted with passages from his published
tracts. The prince-elector still maintained his
unwillingness to take active measures against
the new doctrines, preferring, as he expressed
it, to take his staff in hand and quit for ever
his ancestral territories rather than risk doing
aught against the will of God. Certainly,
Prince Friedrich of Saxony is one of the very
few potentates in history of whose complete
sincerity and single-mindedness we can have
no reasonable doubt. His brother, however,
Duke Johann, and the councillors, threatened
Mtinzer with peremptory expulsion from the
land should he continue his present course.
Miinzer was then dismissed. As he descended
from the castle he met one of his friends who
was in the princely service. " How hath it
gone with thee ? " asked the latter. "It hath
so gone with me," replied Miinzer, " that I must
needs seek another principality."
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 245
Miinzer hurried back to Allstatt, but only to
find that the sworn enemy of the Reformation,
the aggressively Catholic Duke George of
Saxony, had interposed, demanding of the
elector his deliverance into his hands, and
threatening to interfere by force of arms if he
were longer allowed to remain at Allstatt. At
last the elector gave way to the extent of
issuing an order to the town council of
Allstatt to direct Miinzer to leave that place.
Miinzer immediately quitted Allstatt for the
neighbouring imperial city of Miihlhausen.
This city, like the other Thuringian towns,
notably Erfurt, had been profoundly excited by
the events of the Reformation. Miinzer here
encountered the man who was destined to be his
colleague in the noteworthy historical events
that followed. This was Ijelnrich i.
was originally a monk in a neighbouring monas-
tery, and had Luther- wise cast his cowl. He
preached the new doctrines, first of all, in the
territory of the Archbishop of Mainz. Driven
thence he returned to his native town. Here
he further carried on the work of a popular
preacher and agitator.
One Sunday, as the public crier summoned
246 THE PEASANTS WAR.
the burghers to partake of beer and wine, he
stood upon the stone when the crier quitted it,
shouting : " Hear me, ye citizens ; I will offer
you another drink ". He proceeded abusing
the clergy, monks and nuns in the usual church
reformer's manner. His discourse exciting
attention, he promised to preach again from
the same place next day. The city council in
vain summoned him before them, he replying
that he would first keep his word and deliver
the promised speech. At its close, he deigned
to appear at the Rathhaus, but accompanied by
such a formidable crowd of sympathisers that
the council (Ratk] feared to take immediate
steps against him.
Pfeiffer continued to preach at Miihlhausen,
and his adherents increased every day. He
now boldly demanded a guard of honour from
the council, to ensure his safety from the
enemies of the Gospel. This being naturally
refused, he again ascended the stone of the
public crier, and challenged the immense crowd
assembled to indicate by holding up their
hands their determination to stand by him and
the Gospel. A forest of hands appeared in
response. The matter now shaped itself as a
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 247
conflict between the town population, zealous
supporters of PfeifTer, and the patrician council,
as zealous upholders of the old order in Church
and State.
Pfeiffer soon became convinced of the need
for a radical reformation of the council. What
happened in other towns happened also in
Mtihlhausen. A non-official council or com-
mittee of the citizens was formed to oppose
the Rath. Pfeiffer's chief claim was that the
churches should cease to be the exclusive
appanage of members of the " Teutonic Order,"
but should be occupied by competent preachers
of the new doctrines. The Rath finally took
the step of driving Pfeiffer from the town. A
short time afterwards, however, he seems to
have returned. The iconoclastic zeal of the
citizens now took the form of the destruction
of pictures and ornaments in the churches, but
Pfeiffer appears to have taken little part in this
action. His chief interest henceforth was the
reform of the town government.
On the 24th of August, 1524, he was again
driven from Miihlhausen. He now turned to
the environs and the peasants. A document
containing twelve " articles" was drawn up by
THE PEASANTS WAR.
him and presented to the Rath. The articles
were probably the same as those which Munzer
laid before his own contingent, claiming the
confiscation of all the landed property of the
Church, the abolition of corvdes, the annulment
of feudal dues that could not show a prescription
of two hundred years, and the freedom of the
chase and of fishing. Reform of the criminal
law was also demanded, with what amounted to
the abolition of the arbitrary jurisdiction of the
territorial feudal lords. Finally, the election of
the city council by the body of the citizens was
claimed, with the power of revoking mandates.
Eligibility should not be confined to members
of the Geschlechter or old patrician families ; at
least a certain number of the council were to
be ordinary guildsmen.
Munzer now arrived in Muhlhausen and
constituted himself the leader of the town
proletariat, just as Pfeiffer was already the
successful champion of the guildsmen or main
body of the citizens against the patrician Rath.
The diversity of interests between the two
classes and between the ultimate aims of the
two men caused a certain amount of friction in
the popular movement. Pfeiffer, as a represen-
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 249
tative ot the small middle class, desired the
destruction of feudalism for middle class pur-
poses, but does not appear to have had any
communistic sympathies. Miinzer, on the con-
trary, as we have already seen, was now nothing
if not a prophet of the Christian Commonwealth,
or Kingdom of God on earth, of which ^com^
munism, as understood in the Middle Ages, was
an essential element. Hence the patrician party
was able to force the assent of the requisite
number of the body of the citizens to Mlinzer's
expulsion. But that of Pfeiffer followed hard
upon it, the guildsmen having apparently be-
come frightened at the intrusion of the extra-
mural proletarians and the peasantry of the city
territory into the movement. For it must not
be forgotten that the two men, despite diver-
gencies of ultimate purpose, worked hand in
hand for the attainment of their immediate
objects, Pfeiffer using the eloquence and energy
of Miinzer to increase the adherents of the
revolutionary movement, and Miinzer not un-
willingly allowing himself to be guided by
Pfeiffer's sagacity in matters of organisation,
tactics, and the present ends to be striven for.
The expulsion occurred in September, 1524,
250 THE PEASANTS WAR.
and was accompanied by the exodus of many
adherents of the movement. Miinzer now
entered upon a period of several weeks' travel,
laying a short time in Niirnberg and then
passing the winter in some part of south
Germany. This tour, it has been, without
doubt rightly, assumed, was of a propagandist
/ character. Miinzer certainly traversed various
/ districts, possibly returning by way of Fran-
conia. Pfeiffer, it it said, was back in Miihl-
fiausen early in December, but it was certainly
not before February, 1525, that Miinzer again
entered the gates of the imperial city. The
powerful guild-following of Pfeiffer succeeded
in effecting the latter's recall. This success
led the adherents of Miinzer in and around the
town to agitate on behalf also of their leader.
Foremost amongst these was an enthusiastic
master of the skinners' guild, named Rothe,
who, during his leader's absence, kept together
the poor journeymen and city proletarians
constituting the bulk of Miinzer's following.
On hearing the call of his disciples, Miinzer
hurried back to Thuringia. He was arrested
on his way in the Fulda territory, but not being
identified was released after a few days.
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 251
On his return, Miinzer naturally found a
strong opposition in the patrician party to his
being allowed to preach, but his friends, who
had secured his re-admission to the city, rein-
forced by Pfeiffer's party, proved strong enough
to overcome it. Miinzer now began a vigorous
agitation in the suburbs and the open country
round the town. Presently, crowds flocked
through the gates from the adjacent districts.
The council, alarmed, suddenly ordered the
gates to be shut, but it was too late. The
partisans of Miinzer paraded the town at night,
raising seditious cries and even demanding in
menacing terms the death of certain prominent
representatives of the old families and members
of the council. The next day saw a most
numerous exodus of the town patriciate.
Both Pfeiffer and Miinzer had already estab-
lished their position in the town, the one having
taken possession of the Church of St. Nicholas
and the other that of St. Mary. As town
preachers they had insisted on the right of
being present at all council meetings a claim
that the affrighted councillors durst not gainsay.
A few of the patrician party, from either fear or
conviction, now joined the popular government.
2 5 2
THE PEASANTS WAR.
An armed assembly of the citizens was
called for the purpose of taking a muster roll.
The opportunity was seized by PfeifTer and
Mlinzer to persuade the people to overthrow
the existing council altogether. By an over-
whelming majority the council was deposed.
The new council was nominated, with the
consent of those assembled, by the burgher
committee already spoken of, which Pfeiffer
had instituted some months previously. It
^ received the name of the u Eternal Council,"
a designation explained as implying that it
should not, like its predecessor, be subject to
a periodic renewal of a fourth of its members,
but should continue to govern in its entirety
until its mandate was formally revoked by
the general assembly of the citizens. This
explanation of the name is probably correct,
but as the archives containing the constitution
of this " Eternal Council" were destroyed in
the events which followed, it is impossible now
to determine its character precisely. The fore-
going decisive stage in the Miihlhausen revolu-
tion was reached on the I7th of March, 1525.
Pfeiffer and Miinzer were henceforth practically
dictators in their respective spheres, although
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 253
they both remained in name merely the lead-
ing preachers of the two chief churches of the
town. They attended all meetings of the new
council, and important or doubtful points were,
as a rule, referred to them to decide from
the standpoint of the new religious doctrines.
Pfeiffer probably exercised the greater influence
within the town itself, whilst Mtinzer had the
surrounding districts under his sway. Miinzer
endeavoured, moreover, it would seem, to keep
in touch with the movements in other parts of
Germany with which he had become acquainted
in the course of his recent travels. His efforts
in this direction were not crowned with any
practical success, save in so far as Thuringia
and the adjacent Hesse and Saxony were
concerned.
Miinzer now proceeded to put his communistic
principles into practice on a small scale. The
Johanniterhof, the foundation of the monks of
St. John, was selected by him as a residence
for himself and his chief disciples. The monks
were turned out and the place reorganised on
principles dictated by Miinzer. Here the new
religionists seemed to have lived in a manner
after all not essentially different from that of a
THE PEASANTS WAR.
X3
[ monastic order, so true it is that the new,
when it appears on the arena of history, almost
/ uniformly adopts the garb of the old to which
/ it opposes itself! Thus Christianity started
/ first of all as a Jewish sect, and this it remained
as long as its conscious opposition lay in Judaism.
Later on, after it had spread throughout the
Roman Empire, and after this opposition had
been shifted to Paganism, it absorbed pagan
doctrines, practices and rites wholesale, until
in the final stage of the conflict in the fourth
century there was little outwardly to distinguish
the two.
To compare great things with small we find
a similar phenomenon in the movement of Eng-
lish sectarian free thought, known as Secularism,
which became popular some generations ago
with some of the more intelligent of the lower
middle and upper fringe of the working classes.
This was supposed to be a protest against
" church and chapel ". Yet the moment it began
to organise itself positively as a cult, it uncon-
sciously had to adopt the forms of Nonconformist
services. Turning to things economic, we find
similarly the rising middle class holding fast
to guild regulations and to various other relics
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 255
of feudal times long after its opposition to the
feudal classes had been emphasised by more
than one violent crisis. So it will probably be
in the future. When new socialistic conditions
of society take the place of present conditions,
it will doubtless be found that for a time pro-
duction and distribution of social wealth will be
carried on upon lines little more than a
development of the most advanced economic
forms of modern capitalism.
There are in all new movements a Scylla and
a Charybdis ; the one consists in the mistaking
the swaddling-clothes derived from the old as
part of the essential garb of the new, and the
other consists in the premature and too drastic
attempt to rid the new of these very swaddling-
clothes. This applies to all changes, be they
primarily religious, political, intellectual, aesthetic
or economic. Thus the original Judaic Chris-
tianity was in time sloughed off as a heresy the
Ebionite heresy. On the opposite, the pagan
side, the same thing happened with Gnosticism
and Montanism. In modern Socialism again,
we have the state-socialistic tendency known
in this country as Fabianism, which hugs old
bureaucratic forms, and, on the other hand, we
256 THE PEASANTS WAR.
:
have the anarchistic tendency, which would
abruptly abolish all existing administrative
organisations.
Of course, it may be objected that Mtinzer's
ideas were not new, that all mediaeval com-
munistic theories issued in the long run in a
species of monkery. This is true as far as the
positive side of his teaching and action were
concerned, but it must not be forgotten that
the movements with which we are dealing,
although on the positive side reactionary, as
Lassalle justly pointed out, were on the negative
side sufficiently in accord with the contemporary
trend of social evolution. In fact, their failure
definitely to break up the old feudal organisation
contributed in a great measure to the back ward -
ness of Germany for well-nigh three centuries,
as compared with other countries of western
Europe. Miinzer's communism was still-born M
but his antagonism to feudal and ecclesiastical
privileges became common-places of the demo-
cratic thought of a later age. Again, his in-'
sistence on the paramount nature of the " inner
light " was simply a mystical way of asserting
,/the right of private judgment against tradition,
and also the rights of the individual within his
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 257
own sphere against external authority ideas
that have likewise become the theoretical corner-
stones of post-mediaeval progressive movements. /
Outside the Johanniterhof, Miinzer's commun- /
ism at most extended itself to a distribution I
of corn and possibly other food-stuffs, and of /
pieces of cloth for the making of garments.
The new state of things attracted thousands
of the country-folk into the town, where they
were now gladly received. Miinzer preached
assiduously in the Marienkirche, and his sermons
were followed by anthems sung by a choir of
youths and maidens organised by himself, the
words being taken from Old Testament ex-
hortations and promises to the children of Israel.
The agitation, under Miinzer's auspices, soon
spread from Muhlhausen to the neighbouring
territories, as far as Erfurt, Coburg, and even
into the Hesse Duchy and the neighbourhood
of Brunswick. At the beginning of April, the
country was everywhere aflame. The archi-
episcopal city of Erfurt itself was at one time
besieged by bands of peasants some three or
four thousand strong. They were induced
to disperse by a harangue from the popular
preacher Eberlin. Here, as elsewhere, noble-
'7
258 THE PEASANTS WAR.
men were compelled to enter the peasant
brotherhood, amongst them the Counts von
Hohenstein. One of them narrowly escaped
being lynched for a veiled threat uttered in
response to an observation by one of the
peasant leaders.
All this time Mlinzer remained in Mu'hl-
hausen, although he was in constant communi-
cation with his agents, notably with certain of
them in the mining districts of the Mansfeld
territories. He issued an address to the miners,
exhorting them to hold together in the common
cause, which was now everywhere in the
ascendant. His activity within the city showed
itself in the casting of cannon of heavy calibre,
and in the holding of the forces together.
Pfeiffer, on his side, occupied himself with
>rganising and drilling his partisans.
It is a mistake to suppose that during the
two months' regime of Miinzer in Miihlhausen
the whole town was animated by communistic
sentiments. On the contrary, as Karl Kautsky
has pointed out, Miinzer's sect formed at most
a tolerated imperium in imperio, the fighting
strength of which, judging by the number of
those who went out with Miinzer to the final
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 259
battle, amounted to not more than some three
hundred men. The close union with Pfeiffer
and his movement was caused by the exigencies
of the situation and the necessity for the com-
plete overthrow of the patrician party in the
town. Pfeiffer was almost exclusively interested
in the success of the local revolt. Miinzer, on
the other hand, with his visions of a universal^
social revolution, was one of the few leaders \
in the Peasants War who attempted to bring \1
unity, at least so far as Germany was concerned, \
into the insurrection, by establishing organised
communication between the different centres. J
That he failed was due to the conditions already
alluded to under which the movement arose,
and not, as far as we can see, to any fault on
his part. The whole movement was essentially
local, and the materials for an effective centralisa-
tion were nowhere at hand.
Meanwhile, the princes, the Landgraf of
Hesse and Duke George Henry of Brunswick,
with other minor potentates, had collected their
resources with a determination to make a definite
end of the Thuringian revolt. The followers of
Pfeiffer and Miinzer within the walls of Miihl-
hausen seem to have got restive and to have
2 6o THE PEASANTS WAR.
forced the hands of their chiefs. That Miinzer's
hands were forced, if not Pfeiffer's, admits of no
doubt. He seems to have been well aware that
matters were not yet ripe, and that the artisans
and peasants at the disposal of the insurrection
were inadequate to meet the army of trained
fighting men that the princes were preparing to
hurl against them. Finally, Pfeiffer, either
unable to keep his men in hand, or having
become otherwise convinced of the necessity
for action, compelled Miinzer to join him in a
sortie. In this sortie the usual booty was
obtained, but no permanent results were
achieved.
A few days later, Pfeiffer, on his part,
remained inactive at Mlihlhausen, when the
situation urgently demanded an expedition for
the relief of the main camp at Frankenhausen
some miles away. The position of this camp
was itself unwise. The correct policy would
obviously have been for the whole available
insurgent strength, to have entrenched itself in
the well-fortified imperial city and to have used
this as a base. Miinzer in vain endeavoured to
effectually arouse the Mansfelders, notwith-
standing that Frankenhausen was in close
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 261
proximity to the Mansfeld mines. The en-
camped peasants by the usual trickery were
lured into negotiations with Count Albrecht
until the arrival of the princes with their over-
whelming force. Miinzer joined the peasant
bodies outside Frankenhausen on the I2th of
May. Two days later, the Landgraf of Hesse
with the Duke of Brunswick came within
striking distance, and their strength was rein-
forced within twenty-four hours, by the arrival
of the Duke of Saxony with a large and well-
disciplined body of troops.
In point of numbers the two camps were now
nearly equal, being composed of about eight
thousand men each. But, in the one case, they
were finely-equipped men-at-arms, well-supported
by artillery, while, in the other case, they were
inexperienced, badly-armed rustics and poor
citizens, with only one or two pieces of ordnance
in their midst. The insurgents were entrenched
on an elevation a short distance from the town
behind a stockade of waggons.
For information respecting the course of the
battle, which took place on the i5th of May,
the usual source is the highly-coloured and
partisan narrative of Melancthon in his well-
262 THE PEASANTS WAR.
known pamphlet on Mlinzer and the Thurin-
gian revolt. Melancthon puts a speech into the
mouth of Mtinzer, in which he bids his followers
to have no fear, for that God would deliver their
enemies into their hands, and guarantees that
the bullets should not hurt them, for that he
himself would catch them in the sleeve of his
mantle. This speech was followed, according
to the same account, with one from the Landgraf
Philip to his men, in the course of which he
deprecated the aspersions cast by the insurgent
leaders upon princes, nobles and the authorities
generally. On the attack being thereupon
made by the Landgrafs followers, it is stated
that the peasants stood still singing the chorale,
Nun bitten wir den Heiligen Geist (Now
beseech we the Holy Ghost).
Another pamphlet, published the same year,
1525, implies that the princes and barons had
given the insurgents a three hours' truce to
consider their terms of surrender, but that
having gained over the Count von Stolberg
and some other nobles, who had hitherto been
forced into siding with the peasants, they pro-
ceeded at once to the attack, thereby taking
their adversaries by surprise. The latter
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. ( 263
account is unquestionably the more reliable of
the two, since it coincides with the general
treatment of the revolted peasants by their
treacherous oppressors.
The following account of the battle is based
upon Zimmermann (iii., pp. 776-781), who had
opportunities of consulting the Miihlhausen
archives and other manuscript sources.
Miinzer marched with his men to the elevation
above Frankenhausen, called to this day the
Schlachtberg. The negotiations entered into
by the princes had had a demoralising effect
upon the peasant army. A full amnesty was
promised if they would only hand over their
leaders, among whom Miinzer was specially
singled out. The noblemen who had been
forced to join the peasants were naturally the
most zealous advocates of surrender. On
seeing themselves surrounded by the hostile
ordnance, the peasant army sent the three
Counts, von Stolberg, von Rixleben, and von
Wertern, into the princely camp. This was
the occasion of the three hours' truce already
spoken of. Unconditional submission, with
the surrender of Miinzer, were the terms
insisted upon. Two of the counts remained
264 THE PEASANTS WAR.
in the princely camp, and one returned to tell
the tale. The party of surrender redoubled
their efforts, a nobleman and a priest signalis-
ing themselves specially in their opposition to
Mlinzer. The latter, still with his devoted
bodyguard intact, and with a strong party
amongst the other combatants, was able to
cause the nobleman and priest to be beheaded.
He then endeavoured to raise the enthusiasm
of the camp by a discourse, denouncing the
godless tyrants with more than his accustomed
vehemence and adding allusions to Gideon,
David, and other Biblical heroes, who with a
small force of the chosen people had conquered
hosts. This is the " bullet-catching " speech
reported by Melancthon. He wound up,
according to the same source, by pointing to
a suddenly-appearing rainbow as a sign from
heaven of their predestined triumph.
Whether the speech in question was genuine
or was fabricated by Melancthon, the episode
of the rainbow need not be doubted. In any
case, Miinzer succeeded in rousing his hearers
to a momentary enthusiasm. They rejected
the terms offered, and began to sing their
hymn, the time of the truce not having yet
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 265
expired. Suddenly the cannon of the princes
thundered into the camp. Many looked
upwards, says a contemporary manuscript
quoted by Zimmermann, to behold whether
help would not come from heaven. But before
the legions of angels descended, the waggon-
stockade was broken through, and " they were
shot, pierced and miserably slain ". In a few
minutes the peasant army was dispersed and in
full flight in various directions. A small body
held its own for a short time in a stone quarry,
only to be ultimately overpowered.
The bulk of the fugitives made for the town
of Frankenhausen, hotly pursued by a detach-
ment of the Landgrafs men-at-arms. Within
the walls, the massacre was frightful, extending
to churches, houses and monasteries, where
refuge had been sought. The stream running
through the chief street seemed turned to
blood. More than five thousand peasants
perished within a few hours, but, not yet satis-
fied, the princes had three hundred prisoners
brought into the square before the Rathhaus
to be beheaded, among them an old priest and
his young assistant. The women of Franken-
hausen begged for mercy for their husbands
266 THE PEASANTS WAR.
and brothers. This was accorded them on
condition that they slew these two priests
with their own hands.
According to the manuscript chronicle of
Erfurt, " the Landgraf and Duke George
delivered to the women a preacher and his
assistant. They must perforce strike them
dead with clubs, to the end that their husbands
might remain in life. Therefore did the women
in such wise beat them that their heads were
like unto a rotten cabbage and the brains did
cling unto the clubs. Thereupon were their
husbands given unto them. The princes
themselves did behold how this thing came
to pass." The singling out of the clericals as
scapegoats was obviously dictated by the feeling
that they were in a special sense traitors to the
cause of the governing classes.
Miinzer, upon whose head a price had been
set, and who was amongst the fugitives who
reached Frankenhausen, fled into a deserted
house hard by the gate. Concealing himself
here in a loft, he threw off some of his clothes,
and, binding his head with the hope of render-
ing himself unrecognisable lay down on a bed.
A knight's servant, one of the pursuers, shortly
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 267
afterwards entered the same house and dis-
covered him in the loft. Miinzer, whom he
did not identify, pretended that he was ill of a
fever, but the fellow's plundering instincts led
him to search the knapsack lying near. He
found therein correspondence that revealed the
identity of the apparently sick man, and he
straightway apprised his master of his valuable
discovery.
Mtinzer was seized and brought before the
princes, who asked him why he had misled the
poor people. He had done what he had done, \
he replied, because the princes persecuted the 1
Gospel and sacrificed all to their avarice and'
lusts. The young Landgraf then admonished
him with the well-known quotations from
Holy Writ as to the duty of obeying authority,
to which admonitions Miinzer made no reply.
Thereupon he was handed over to the execu-
tioner to be tortured. In the midst of his
suffering, on being once more reproached with
having led his followers to destruction, he said
with a grim smile, " They would not have it
otherwise," apparently referring to the pre-
mature action of the insurgents.
He was subsequently sent to his arch-enemy,
268 THE PEASANTS WAR.
Count Ernst von Mansfeld, who immured him
in a dungeon in the tower at Heldrungen.
Here he dictated his celebrated letter to the
inhabitants of Muhlhausen, in which he cer-
tainly " backs down ". So much must be said in
spite of the attempt of Zimmermann and other
admirers of Miinzer to give the letter a more
favourable interpretation. He not merely de-
precates any further attempts at insurrection,
advice that might be dictated by the hopeless-
ness of the situation, but confesses to having
" seductively and rebelliously preached many
opinions, delusions and errors concerning the
Holy Sacrament ... as also against the ordi-
nances of the universal Christian Church ".
Further, he confesses himself as dying as " a
once again reconciled member of the Holy
Christian Church," praying God to forgive
him his former conduct. The only redeeming
passage is one that pleads for his wife and
child, that they might not be deprived of his
worldly goods.
The doubts suggested by Kautsky as to the
genuineness of this letter are hardly tenable.
It may have been to the interest of the princes
that such a letter should have been written, and
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 269
they may have terrorised him into writing it, in
the same way as prison authorities may from
time to time have terrorised innocent persons
condemned to death into " confessing" and
" acknowledging the justice of their sentence ".
But when Kautsky endeavours to impugn its
having issued from Miinzer by asking why he
dictated it instead of writing it, the answer is
sufficiently clear. A man who had so recently
suffered the last extremities of the thumbscrew
would hardly be able to write autograph
letters.
The scandalous lack of solidarity among the
peasants is particularly illustrated in this Thu-
ringian revolt. Two important armed bodies
which might well have turned the scale, heavy
weighted as it was on the side of the nobles,
were carousing not many miles away, when
they ought to have been hastening to the assist-
ance of their brethren at Frankenhausen.
Pfeiffer's party in Miihlhausen. on the
of May, wrote a despairing letter to the Fran-
conian insurgents, apprising them of the destruc-
tion of the Frankenhausen force and imploring
them to come to their assistance. But it was of
no avail. They had their own dissensions and
270 THE PEASANTS WAR.
their own local objects, with but little feeling
for the general movement.
Meanwhile Miinzer was taken from the tower
at Heldrungen and brought for execution into
the camp of the princes, which now lay before
Miihlhausen itself. The imperial city was sur-
rounded on three sides. Pfeiffer, who com
manded in the town, was, in face of the im-
linent danger, beginning to lose his popularity,
'he demand for the unconditional surrender
>f the ringleaders, and especially of Pfeiffer,
(became increasingly favoured by the citizens.
As breaches were^?ria^e~~trr-tiTe^walls and trie'
position seemed more and more hopeless, not-
withstanding the heroic defence of Pfeiffer's
twelve hundred faithful followers, the public
sentiment in favour of capitulation quickly
gained the upper hand. Finally, on the 24th
of May, seeing that all was lost, Pfeiffer escaped
from the town with four hundred adherents,
with the object of joining the Franconian
insurgents.
The next day twelve hundred Miihlhausen
women, with tattered clothes, bare feet and
dishevelled hair, and five hundred virgins with
mourning wreaths, streamed out of the gate
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 271
leading to the princes' camp, where they pre-
sented themselves to implore mercy for their
native city. They were given bread and
cheese, but were informed that the men them-
selves of the town must put in an appear-
ance. This was done. A number of prominent
citizens came, bareheaded and barefooted, with
white staves in their hands, and kneeling three
times before the assembled princes handed
over the keys of the town. After the com
bined army had made its entry the citizens
were compelled to deliver up their arms. The
" Eternal Council " set up by Pfeiffer and
Miinzer was deposed, and the old patrician
council reinstated. Executions followed, that
of the bin-germeister amongst them. The chief
fortifications were levelled with the ground.
The imperial city was deprived of its freedom,
and reduced to the status of a tribute-paying
town. Weapons, treasure, horses were seized,
and it was only spared a wholesale sacking
by a ransom of 40,000 gulden.
On learning of Pfeiffer's flight, the princes
sent a body of horsemen in pursuit. They
came up with his party near Eisenach, where,
after a desperate resistance, Pfeiffer was taken
272 THE PEASANTS WAR.
with ninety-two of his men and brought back
bound into the camp. They were all, or nearly
all, instantly condemned to death and executed
together, Pfeiffer scorning confession and sacra-
ment, and dying without sign of fear or wavering.
These facts regarding Pfeiffer are admitted even
by his enemies.
Miinzer, on the other hand, is accused by the
same chroniclers of having shown up to the last
a spirit of faltering and pusillanimity which,
it must be admitted, accords with the tone of
his Heldrungen letter. The badgering of their
victim by the princes was significant. The
Catholic Duke George of Saxony admonished
him to repent of having forsaken his order and
of having taken a wife. The young Lutheran
Landgraf of Hesse told him that he had no
need to repent of these things, but that what he
had to repent of was his having led the people
into rebellion. Miinzer, in his turn, admitted
that he had attempted matters beyond his
powers, but urgently entreated the princes
and nobles to deal more mercifully with their
subjects, and to read diligently the Holy
Scriptures, especially the books of Samuel
and the Kings, and to take to heart the lesson,
THE THURINGIAN REVOLT. 273
as there related, as to the miserable end of
tyrants.
After this speech he said no more, as he
was awaiting the stroke of the executioner.
He did not even break his silence on being
challenged to recite the " Credo," owing, as his
enemies allege, to the extremity of his fear, or,
as his friends suggest, to his contempt of the
conventional usage. His head was struck off,
and was fixed upon a long pole, as also was
that of Pfeiffer, and his body was impaled.
After the defeat at Frankenhausen, and the
surrender of Mlihlhausen, the suppression of
the revolt throughout the rest of Thuringia.
offered no great difficulty, and was largely
effected by the individual princes and lords,
each in his own territory. The plunder and
devastation by the insurgents had not been
less in Thuringia than elsewhere. As many as
forty-six castles and monasteries lay in ruins.
In the chief places the usual bloodthirsty exe-
cutions followed. In Erfurt the old council
was restored to office, and proceeded with
merciless severity against all connected with
the recent risings.
The battle of Frankenhausen is a landmark
18
274 THE PEASANTS WAR.
in the history of the Peasants War, and was
synchronous within a few days with crushing
defeats of the insurgents in other parts of
Germany. The insurrection, which up to the
beginning of May had, speaking generally,
carried all before it, by that time had reached
the turning-point, and its fortunes henceforward
as steadily receded. In our next chapter we
shall follow the disasters and the final extinc-
tion of the various movements, the rise and
temporary success of which we have been
describing.
CHAPTER VIII.
THE SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION
THROUGHOUT GERMANY.
IT is now time to consider the attitudeofLuther
throughout the crisis. His action was mainTy
embodied in two documents, of which the first
was issued about the middle of April, and the
second a month later. The difference in tone
between them is sufficiently striking. In the
first, which bore the title, " An Exhortation to
Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Peasantry
in Swabia," Luther sits on the fence, admonish-
ing both parties of what he deemed their short-
comings. He was naturally pleased with those
articles that demanded the free preaching of'
the Gospel and abused the Catholic clergy,
and was not indisposed to assent to many of
the economic demands. In fact, the document
strikes one as distinctly more favourable to the
insurgents than to their opponents.
" We have," he wrote, " no one to thank for
this mischief and sedition, save ye princes and
(275)
THE PEASANTS WAR.
lords, in especial ye blind bishops and mad
priests and monks, who up to this day remain
obstinate and do not cease to rage and rave
against the holy Gospel, albeit ye know that
it is righteous, and that ye may not gainsay
it. Moreover, in your worldly regiment, ye do
naught otherwise than flay and extort tribute,
that ye may satisfy your pomp and vanity, till
the poor, common man cannot, and may not,
bear with it longer. The sword is on your
neck. Ye think ye sit so strongly in your
seats, that none may cast you from them. Such
presumption and obstinate pride will twist your
necks, as ye will see." And again: "God
hath made it thus that they cannot, and will
not longer bear with your raging. If ye do
it not of your free will, so shall ye be made
to do it by way of violence and undoing. "
Once more : " It is not peasants, my dear
lords, who have set themselves up against you.
God JHimself it is who setteth Himself against
you to chastise your evil-doing."
He counsels the princes and lords to make
'peace with their peasants, observing with re-
ference to the Twelve Articles, that some of
them are so just and righteous, that before God
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION.
and the world their worthiness is manifested,
making good the words of the psalm that they
heap contempt upon the heads of the princes.
Whilst he warns the peasants against sedition
and rebellion, and criticises some of the Articles
as going beyond the justification of Holy Writ,
and whilst he makes side-hits at " the prophets
of murder and the spirits of confusion which
had found their way among them," the general
impression given by the pamphlet is, as already
said, one of unmistakable friendliness to the
peasants and hostility to the lords.
The manifesto may be summed up in the
following terms : Both sides are, strictly speak-
ing, in the wrong, but the princes and lords
have provoked the " common man " by their
unjust exactions and oppressions ; the peasants,
on their side, have gone too far in many of
their demands, notably in the refusal to pay
tithes, and most of all in the notion of abolishing
villeinage, which Luther declares to be " straight-
way contrary to the Gospel and thievish ". The
great sin of the princes remains, however,
that of having thrown stumbling-blocks in the
way of the Gospel bien entendu the Gospel
according to Luther and the main virtue of
THE PEASANTS WAR.
the peasants was their claim to have this
Gospel preached. It can scarcely be doubted
that the ambiguous tone of Luther's rescript
^T- was interpreted by the rebellious peasa.nts to
/ their advantage and served to stimulate, rather
than to check, the insurrection.
""Meanwhile, the movement rose higher and
higher, and reached Thuringia, the district with
which Luther personally was most associated.
His patron, and what is more, the only friend
of toleration in high places, the noble-minded
Elector Friedrich of Saxony, fell ill and died
on the 5th of May, and was succeeded by
his younger brother Johann, the same who
afterwards assisted in the suppression of the
Thuringian revolt. Almost immediately there-
upon, Luther, who had been visiting his native
town of Eisleben, travelled through the revolted
districts on his way back to Wittenberg. He
everywhere encountered black looks and jeers.
When he preached, the Miinzerites would
drown his voice by the ringing of bells. The
signs of rebellion greeted him on all sides.
The " Twelve Articles " were constantly thrown
at his head. As the reports of violence towards
the property and persons of some of his own
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION.(^$\
noble friends reached him, his rage broke all
bounds. He seems, however, to have prudently
waited a few days, until the cause of the pea-
sants was obviously hopeless, before publicly
taking his stand on the side of the authorities.
On his arrival in Wittenberg, he wrote a
second pronouncement on the contemporary
events, in which no uncertainty was left as
to his attitude. It is entitled, " Against the
Murderous and Thievish Bands of Peasants 'V
Here he lets himself loose on the side of
the oppressors with a bestial ferocity. "Crush
them [the peasants]," he writes, " strangle
them and pierce them, in secret places and
in sight of men, he who can, even as one
would strike dead a mad dog." All having
authority who hesitated to extirpate the in-
surgents to the uttermost were committing a
sin against God. " Kindest thou thy death
therein," he writes, addressing the reader,
1 Amongst the curiosities of literature may be included
the translation of the title of this manifesto by Prof. T.
M. Lindsay, D.D., in the Encyclopedia Britannica, 9th
Edition (Article, " Luther "). The German title is " Wider
die morderischen und rauberischen Rotten der Bauern ".
Prof. Lindsay's translation is " Against the murdering,
robbing Rats [sic] of Peasants " /
28o/ THE PEASANTS WAR.
"i mm
" happy art thou ; a more blessed death can
never overtake thee, for thou diest in obedi-
ence to the Divine word and the command of
Romans xiii. i, and in the service of love, to
save thy neighbour from the bonds of hell
/and the devil." Never had there been such
I an infamous exhortation to the most dastardly
I murder on a wholesale scale since the Albigen-
\sian crusade with its " Strike them all ; God
Iwill know His own"- a sentiment indeed that
/Luther almost literally reproduces in one passage.
Many efforts have been made by Protestant
historians to palliate this crime of Luther's,
more especially to shield him against the charge
of time-serving and cowardice in adopting an
attitude of benevolent neutrality to the peasants'
cause at a time when it bade fair to be suc-
cessful, whilst hounding on its executioners to
hideous barbarities when its prospects were
obviously desperate. One of the more recent
of these Protestant writers, Egelhaaf {Deutsche
Geschichte im sechszehnten Jahrhundert, vol. i.,
p. 614), endeavours to establish the probability
that Luther issued this pamphlet a day or two
before the catastrophe at Frankenhausen, or
at least before he could have known of the
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 281
\^. /
peasants' overthrow in Wtirtemberg. Even if
this were true, which is hardly probable, it
would not help Luther's character, for, from his
immediate personal knowledge of the situation
in Thuringia, he must have seen, at least from
the beginning of the second week in May, that
the forces of the combined princes, with their
trained men-at-arms and adequate supply of
artillery, were destined to win against bands of -
peasants and handicraftsmen, ill-armed, unused
to fighting, and insufficiently munitioned. As
for the other districts, a report could hardly
have failed to reach him concerning the de-
moralisation of the peasant armies and the
reinforcement of the Swabian League's strength
with knights and free-lances returned from the
Italian campaign. Altogether, this second mani-
festo remains an ineffaceable stigma upon the/
powerful personality of the "rebellious monk"
of Wittenberg.
We turn now again to the fortunes of
Truchsess and the overthrow of the movement
in south Germany. The force of the Swabian
League, under Truchsess, by the armistice or
treaty at Weingarten, made with the three
282 THE PEASANTS WAR.
combined contingents of the Swabian insur-
gents, known respectively as the Ried, the
Lake, and the Algau contingents, was saved,
as Zimmermann has pointed out, from imminent
disaster since the insurgents not only consider-
ably outnumbered the troops of imperial order,
but were well supplied with ordnance captured
from sundry castles, and occupied a strong
position. The utter fecklessness of the counsels
of the insurrection was never more exempli-
fied than in the feeble surrender of all these
advantages to the blandishments of Truchsess.
At this time, Truchsess was practically hemmed
in, but, on the dispersal of the greater part of
the country-folk arrayed against him, he was at
once extricated from a difficult situation, and
had his hands left free to move southwards,
destroying or scattering bodies of peasants
on the way.
He took this direction with a view of attack-
ing the Black Forest contingent, which was now
making itself very active, especially in the
siege of Radolfzell with its refugee nobles. On
the 25th of April, he was met by a deputation
of the Hegau and Black Forest insurgents for
the purpose of negotiations. A similar arrange-
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 283
ment to the one mentioned was attempted but
failed. On the emissaries returning to their
respective contingents, Truchsess continued his
march to Stockach, and finally pitched his camp
a short distance from the important fortress of
Duke Ulrich, the Hohentwiel. His further
movements in this neighbourhood were stopped
by the peremptory order from the Council of
the Swabian League at Ulm that he was to
proceed straight to the relief of Wiirtemberg.
Unwillingly giving up his plans in the south,
he returned by forced marches to his old camp
on the Neckar.
Meanwhile, on the 7th of May, some
cavalry of the Markgraf Kasimir von An-
spach, strengthened by a force sent by the
Count Palatine from the Upper Palatinate,
attacked a large body of peasants, who had just
captured the small town of Wettingen. They
had come from plundering a neighbouring
monastery, and were marching in great disorder,
intent in the main apparently upon carrying
off their heavily-laden waggons of booty. The
onslaught was sudden and unexpected, and
resulted in the slaughter, almost without resist-
ance, of over a thousand peasants. This was
284 THE PEASANTS WAR.
the first serious check inflicted by the princely
power upon the movement in south Germany
since the Leipheim affair ; but the decisive
battle was fought on May i2th, when the
united forces under Truchsess, consisting of
6000 free-lances and 1 200 horse, met the main
body of the peasant army of Wiirtemberg,
1 2,000 strong, between the towns of Boblingen
and Sindelfingen. Ritter Bernhardt von Win-
terstetten was the commander of this section,
Matern Feuerbacher, owing to his moderate
tendencies and general indecision, having been
deposed.
Truchsess succeeded, by the aid of treachery
on the part of some of the leading citizens of
Boblingen, who opened their gates to his men,
in throwing a detachment into the castle above
the town. From this point of vantage he
opened fire upon the insurgents, who were
entrenched in a strong position behind some
marshy ground, compelling them ultimately to
gain the open. No sooner was this the case
than the horse of the Palatinate and of the
Austrians attacked them in front, whilst four
companies of foot opened fire on their flank.
The battle, which began at ten in the morning,
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 285
lasted four hours. By two o'clock the flight
was general. The fugitives were hotly pursued,
and for seven or eight miles the way was
strewed with the corpses of peasants cut down
by the horsemen of the princes' army. The
accounts of the numbers slain vary between
two thousand and six thousand. The whole of
the peasants' ordnance, thirty-three pieces, fell
into the hands of the League.
Amongst the prisoners captured after the
battle was Melchior Nonnenmacher, Helfen-
stein's former piper, who, it will be remembered,
had taken so prominent a part in the execution
of his master and the other knights outside
the walls of Weinsberg. With savage ferocity,
Truchsess, the same evening, had him bound
by chains to an apple-tree, his tether allowing
him a run of two paces, and then, faggots
having been heaped up in a circle round, they
were set alight and the wretched piper was
slowly roasted to death.
The victorious League and its allies swept
through the villages and small towns of
Wlirtemberg, plundering, burning and slaying.
At every halt made executions took place,
hangings or beheadings. Neckarsulm and
286 THE PEASANTS WAR.
Oehringen were bombarded and surrendered.
Weinsberg was reserved for a heavy vengeance ;
its few remaining inhabitants were driven out,
with the exception of one or two who refused
to go, and who therefore perished, and the town
itself with all it contained was burned to the
ground. By order of Truchsess, in the name
of the League, it was forbidden to ,be rebuilt,
and it remained for some years a witness of
princely vindictiveness. Poor Jacklein Rohr-
bach, endeavouring in vain to rally a few
defenders of the people's cause, was recog-
nised as he was passing through a village,
and delivered over to Truchsess. He met a
similar fate to that of Nonnenmacher, being,
it is stated, chained to an elm-tree and roasted
alive, whilst the assembled princes and nobles
gloated over his agony.
Meanwhile the Count Palatine had taken
the town of Bruchsal and hewn off nine heads
there. Truchsess proceeded against Wimpfen,
sending a messenger to demand the surrender
of the leaders of the movement in that town.
The council, with some unwillingness, consented
to the arrest of certain persons. The Counts
of Hohenlohe, who, it will be remembered, had
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 287
had to make a pact with the peasants, were
visited by Truchsess, and compelled to swear
never again to have aught to do with the
malcontents. One of the Weinsberg rebels
was caught in the town of Oehringen and
hanged on a tree.
Wiirtemberg was thus effectively subdued.
The property of Hans Flux in Heilbronn was
made over by Truchsess to the executioner
who accompanied him throughout his cam-
paign, and whose truculence was even a little
too much for the not too sensitive councillors
of the Swabian League at Ulm. This ruffian,
however, was safe in the sunshine of the favour
and protection of his master, who called him his
" dear Berthold ".
The peasant council in Heilbronn, of which
Wendel Hipler was the presiding genius,
hastily dispersed and fled before the approach
of Truchsess. Hipler himself hurried back to
the camp at Wiirzburg. At the end of May
Truchsess combined his forces with those of
the Count Palatine Ludwig, by which step
the League's strength was increased by two
thousand ^Toot, twehre^"1iuri3fed horse and
fourteen large pieces of ordnance. The Arch-
288 THE PEASANTS WAR.
bishop of Trier and the Bishop of Wiirzburg,
with other territorial magnates, subsequently
joined hands with Truchsess, with the ultimate
object of relieving the Frauenberg and the
town of Wiirzburg, where, as we have already
seen, the main army of the insurrection in
central Germany was massed.
Although the backbone of the movement in
Wiirtemberg was broken by the recent victories
of the League and its allies, the insurrection
elsewhere, as, for instance, in the Black Forest
and in Breisgau, not to speak of the hereditary
Austrian dominions, was still maintaining itself
with unabated vigour. Hans Miiller von Bul-
genbach was threatening all who did not join
his Christian Brotherhood with the worldly ban,
in modern phraseology a universal " boycott,"
which forbade men to eat or drink with them,
to work in their company, to offer them food,
drink, salt, or wood, and to buy or sell with
them. Freiburg, Breisach and Waldkirch were
with difficulty holding out against the bodies of
peasants by which they were being pressed.
The town of Villingen was especially in a bad
way. But the destruction of the great Fran-
conian peasant army at Wiirzburg, and above
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 289
all the relief of the Frauenberg, which it was
feared would have to surrender in a few days,
were undoubtedly of first importance at the
moment to the League and its allies. The
capture of the strong fortress that commanded
the episcopal city would have given the insur-
rection a point cTappui in the very heart of
Germany, and although, as already remarked,
the possible gain was certainly not worth the
locking up of such an enormous mass of the
peasant forces in one place, its significance for
the popular movement cannot be denied.
The successes of the princely power in Wiir-
temberg had the effect of strengthening the
Wiirzburg camp, which had thus become a
rallying point whither fragments of dispersed
contingents and companies of peasants hurriedly
took their way. It will be remembered that on
the 1 5th of May, the same day, that is, as that
on which the defeat at Frankenhausen took
place, and only three days after the overthrow
at Boblingen, the besiegers had unsuccessfully
stormed the aforesaid Wiirzburg castle of the
Marienburg. This failure, as we know, led to
recriminations between the army and its leaders,
Gotz being specially singled out for suspicion of
19
290 THE PEASANTS WAR.
treachery. In the end, however, a council of
war was held, and Gotz was sent with a detach-
ment of eight thousand men to endeavour to
prevent the union of the Palatinate force with
that of the League under Truchsess, of which
project news had already arrived. All along,
according to his own account, Gotz had been
acting from compulsion, and under present cir-
cumstances we may well believe that he wished
nothing better than to shake off his responsi-
bilities at the earliest opportunity. Thus it
happened that one dark night he disappeared,
afterwards salving his conscience for this seem-
ing treachery with the excuse that the four
weeks for which he had pledged himself to
act as peasant commander had expired.
GOn his escape becoming known, about a
irth part of his men deserted to their homes.
The remainder moved onwards in a body to
Konigshofen on the Tauber. Here, some six
thousand in number, they solemnly swore to be
avenged upon Truchsess, the League, and the
Princes. On the 2nd of June the combined
forces of the nobles reached Konigshofen,
passing over the Tauber at a place feebly
defended by the peasants. The camp was
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 291
attacked, and soon the whole contingent was
in confused flight, leaving its stockade of
waggons and its ordnance a prey to the enemy,
who soon held complete possession of the eleva-
tion on which the camp had stood. Only about
one thousand succeeded in rallying and en-
trenching themselves in a neighbouring wooc
where, quickly improvising a stockade of trees
and bushes, they succeeded in holding out for a
short time. Their stockade, however, was ulti-
mately broken through, and five hundred were
speared on the spot, shot from trees, or trampled
down by the horsemen. More than two thousand
had already fallen in the original encounter.
Most of the leaders are stated to have escaped
on the backs of the horses taken from the
munition waggons. Truchsess was wounded
in the hip by a lance.
The defeat at Konigshofen was for the
peasants little less serious than those at Bob-
lingen and Frankenhausen. The main force,
it is true, was still at Wlirzburg. Other
divisions, however, had detached themselves
with the view of checking the League's ad-
vance. At this moment some of Truchsess's
mercenaries demanded their battle-pay, not-
292 THE PEASANTS WAR.
withstanding that they had not been among
those actively engaged in the encounter. A
serious mutiny seemed inevitable, and thus a
gleam of hope showed itself for the peasants.
Enough men, however, including the military
leaders, remained to save the situation for the
League.
Florian Geyer, with his " Black Troop," to
which were joined several other peasant com-
panies, now broke from the camp at Wiirz-
burg with the intention of intercepting the
princely forces on the road to that city. He
and his men, furious at the reports that reached
them of burning villages and of peasants
strung up on every tree, the traces left of the
victorious march of Truchsess and his allies,
avowed that they would hang every knight and
cut the throat of every free-lance. Meanwhile,
the bulk of Truchsess's mutinous mercenaries
had caught him up and returned to their
allegiance. Truchsess, who would gladly have
punished them, was nevertheless compelled by
the exigencies of the situation to pardon and
reinstate them.
Florian Geyer, with his troop, appears to
have had no certain information respecting the
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 293
battle of Konigshofen and still believed that
the camp of his friends lay between himself
and the allied princes. Accompanied by a few
horsemen, Florian was riding in front, below
the castle of Ingolstatt, when the advancing
body of peasants found themselves suddenly
surrounded and attacked by the whole force of
the enemy. Taken unawares, they had scarcely
time to get their ordnance into position or to
bring their train of waggons properly into a
stockade. With the presence of mind of a
trained fighting man, however, Florian at once
rallied all his companies into some sort of battle
array, improvising a rough stockade and im-
mediately beginning a fire from such artillery
as he had. But in a few minutes it was only
too evident that his force was outmatched.
The attack of the free-lances was supported by
the entire body of horsemen, but the signal
for flight seems to have been given by the
sudden and simultaneous thunder of all the
enemy's heavy ordnance, which had just been
brought to the other side of the stockade. The
panic was immediate and general. Dispersed
in their mad flight, the insurgents were ridden
down, run down, or clubbed to death. For
294 THE PEASANTS WAR.
miles around the slaughter extended. Sixty
who were taken alive, from whom some of the
free-lances wished to extract ransom-money,
were ordered by Truchsess to be butchered in
a heap.
A remnant of the " Black Troop " alone held
together, and with Florian at their head, some
six hundred in number, succeeded in reaching
the village of Ingolstatt. Having entrenched
themselves behind a hedge stockade, they
awaited the onslaught of the Count Palatine
Ludwig, who advanced against them at the
head of twelve hundred knights. Two hun-
dred of the troopers occupied the churchyard
and the church, whilst more than three hundred
seized upon the castle above the village. Here
a continuous fire was kept up, to which was
added the hurling down of tiles and pieces
of the wall. The attacking party flung fire
brands into the church, which after some time
blazed up, all the defenders being destroyed.
The last defence was the castle, already
partly in ruins from an attack of the peasants
some weeks previously. Florian himself com-
manded the brave band within. They barri-
caded the gates and breaches so effectively
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 295
that the stormers were held in check for a long
while, besides being repeatedly driven back
by the hail of bullets that rained from every
opening. Soon the whole army of the enemy,
which had meanwhile come up, was engaged
exclusively in the attack on this stronghold,
but the thick wall of the old feudal fortress did
not yield until all the strength of Truchsess's
cannon had been brought to bear upon it.
Dismounting, knights and barons struggled
together with the free-lances for an entrance
at the breach made. More than a hundred of
the storming contingent lay killed and wounded
in the fosse below, and still the attack seemed
no nearer success. Finally, a last effort was
about to be made, when suddenly the firing
from within ceased ; the defenders had ex-
hausted their ammunition. Resistance was
still kept up with tiles and stones. Even on
an entrance being effected, a hand-to-hand
fight ensued. The besieged neither asked nor
obtained quarter. At last, fifty of them with-
drew fighting into the deep cellars, whilst from
amid the mass of dead surrounding them,
about two hundred of the " Black Troop," led by
Florian, succeeded in escaping under cover of
THE PEASANTS WAR.
the approaching darkness, just as the allied
forces poured into the heap of ruins, which
was now all that was left above ground of
the ancient castle of Ingolstatt.
The two hundred entrenched themselves in
a wood hard by, whence at intervals they made
sorties. With daylight, the men of Truchsess
burst into the wood, slaughtering all who
remained there. But even now the valiant
knight was not amongst the dead. With' a
few who were prepared to follow him to the
death, he had towards morning struck out
into the open country. All the neighbouring
villages were set on fire by Truchsess's men,
and all the inhabitants who were not consumed
were put to the sword. Amongst these villages
was Giebelstatt, the castle above which was
Florian's hereditary home. His ultimate aim
was, probably, to reach Wiirzburg. In the
neighbouring territories far and wide all the
companies, including the great Gailsdorf con-
/tingent, seven thousand strong, which had as
yet suffered no great losses, were dispersed.
Alarmed by the accounts of the disasters of
Konigshofen and Ingolstatt, their members had
fled into the woods or had returned to their
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 297
_\
homes and again done homage to their feudal
lords.
It is doubtful whether Florian Geyer ever
again saw Wiirzburg. After a few days'
wandering in company with a handful of
followers, during which days he had reached,
as the old account alleges, the Hall territory
far to the south, he and his men are said
to have been surprised by a detachment of
horsemen led by the brother of his betrothed,
Wilhelm von Grumbach. A fierce, desperate
struggle ensued, in the course of which the
chivalrous hero of the people's cause fell fight-
ing. 1 Recent researches have pointed to the
1 The above is the traditional account accepted by Zim-
mermann and other authorities. Wilhelm Bios and some
recent investigators have, however, unearthed statements
in contemporary documents which place the matter in a
different light. An old chronicle of the time states : " On
the Qth of June, Florian Geyer was stabbed on the field
near Rimpar ". It is suggested that the theory that he
fell near Schwabisch-Hall was caused by a badly-written
manuscript. Florian, it is said, fled to the castle near
Rimpar of the knight Grumbach, to whose sister, Barbara,
he was betrothed. This Grumbach is alleged to have
caused Florian to be treacherously murdered by one of his
servants in a wood as he rode away from the castle. The
story is expressly confirmed in a pamphlet issued by the
Bishop of Wiirzburg against Grumbach, when some years
later he was at feud with him : " It is the certain truth that
298 THE PEASANTS WAR.
probability that family disputes, or jealousies,
played their part in the death of Geyer. His
name has ever since been cherished in Germany
by the lovers of freedom, and his personality
has always been surrounded by the nimbus
of popular fancy, as that of the ideal hero of
revolt against oppression. For centuries after,
legend related how the figure of his bride was
to be seen flitting through the moonlit glades
in the neighbourhood of her ancestral castle.
After these bloody conflicts, Truchsess had
to make a roll-call of the forces of the Swabian
League under his command. His losses had
been considerable, a fourth of the men having
perished in several companies. The losses of
his allies can hardly have been less. The march
on Wiirzburg could now be undertaken without
danger of serious resistance. On the evening
of Whit Monday, the 5th of June, the outlying
Grumbach, a man of evil fame, did cause in the Peasants
War a nobleman named Florian Geyer, who had lodged
with him in his house, to be pierced through by one of
his servants by his command in a wood, called the Grarn-
schatz Wood. And, albeit that this murder be now some-
what forgotten of the younger people, yet are there many
old and worthy persons to whom it is not hidden, but
who are much mindful thereof."
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 299
township of Heidingsfeld was reached, and
here the princely army pitched its camp, the
ordnance being pointed against the city. There
were still, however, from five to six thousand
peasants and burghers under arms, determined
on defence, within the walls.
Meanwhile the biirgermeister and the mem-
bers of the old city council placed themselves
in negotiation with Truchsess with a view of
betraying the city together with the insurgent
leaders. They came to a secret understanding
with Truchsess and the Count Palatine, by
which the town was to pay a heavy ransom
to the latter and to the bishop. The citizens
were to be disarmed. Allegiance to the bishop
was to be resworn under the old conditions,
and last, but not least, the chiefs of the peasant
army still within the town were to be surren-
dered. At the same time the blirgermeister and
council pretended to the defenders that all they
had done had been to negotiate favourable terms
with the conquering host now before the walls,
further resistance being represented by them as
hopeless. The deception did its work, and on
the morning of the 8th of June, Truchsess and the
princes entered Wlirzburg in triumph, followed
300 THE PEASANTS WAR.
by fifteen hundred men-at-arms. The citizens
were ordered to present themselves on the
market-place. Those from the smaller country
towns in the neighbourhood and the peasants
were to appear at two other points respectively.
All three places were afterwards surrounded
by armed men. Truchsess then appeared on
horseback, accompanied by four executioners
with drawn swords. After admonishing the
crowd on their crime of disobedience and
declaring their lives all forfeit, while the
assembled citizens with bared heads knelt be-
fore him, he retired with the princes into the
Rathhaus and deliberated for more than an
hour. On returning, sentences were delivered
and the executions began. The heads of the
principal leaders of the town-democracy fell.
Truchsess and his executioners then betook
themselves to the open space where the com-
panies furnished by the neighbouring small
towns were assembled. Their leaders, to the
number of twenty-four, were beheaded. The
conquerors then went to the ditch whither the
peasants had been summoned. Thirty-seven
of the latter were singled out for death, to
gratify the blood-lust of their baronial enemies.
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 301
Altogether, eighty-one executions took place
within the town on this day. Amongst them
was that of a peasant who had not been
called, but who had pushed his way to the
front to see how it fared with his comrades.
He was seized by the executioner and be-
headed with the others. As for the rank and
file, their arms and armour had been already
surrendered. Staves were now placed in their
hands and they were driven from the town.
Of these, many were slain on their way home
by the brutal free-lances, who were prowling
about. The town had to pay 8000 gulden to
the Swabian League, whilst the bishop with
his clergy, together with the nobles who had
held fiefs of him, subsequently received more
than 200,000 gulden.
With the capture of the town of Wiirzburg
was involved the relief of its citadel, the
Marienburg, on the Frauenberg. When the
conquerors entered it, the extent of the damage
done to this powerful fortress by the peasant
attack seems to have created surprise. Hans
Lutz, the herald of Truchsess, observes in
his diary : " Afterwards beheld I the castle at
Wiirzburg, which was altogether shot through,
302
THE PEASANTS WAR.
together with the outer wall, which had a
breach in it six klafters wide, and the peasants
had made two ditches on the hill such as no
man might believe. Moreover, had they brought
up on the hill more than an hundred ladders
and had made a ditch above the church called
that of Saint Burckhardt, the which I have
measured and did number an hundred and
eighteen steps from the beginning of the ditch."
He further adds the detail that " the peasants
in this same church had smote off the heads
of all the saints and of our Lord also ".
The idea of the peasants seems to have
been to blow up the castle, and to this end
trains were apparently laid from the fosse in
question. The besieged, whose provisions and
ammunition were running low, had been ap-
prised by Truchsess by certain signs, probably
by beacon fires, of his approach. In conse-
quence they did not spare powder and shot,
but at once opened a heavy fire upon the town.
It is probable that this, combined with the
intelligence of the victories in the proximity,
of the army of the allied princes, had its psycho-
logical effect in cowing the inhabitants of the
town, including the peasant contingents, and
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 303
in inducing them to consent to surrender rather
than to insist on holding out to the last.
For eight days the " terror " in the surround-
ing districts lasted. Amongst the plundering
and murdering princes and barons, the Markgraf
Kasimir specially signalised himself. Promises
of mercy were treacherously and wantonly
broken. Executions took place everywhere,
whilst those who did not suffer by the heads-
man, or the hangman, had their hands or their
fingers hacked off, or their eyes pierced out.
To the latter victims the Markgraf observed :
" Ye swore ye would not see me again, and
I will look to it that ye shall not break your
oath ". It was forbidden under severe penalties
to shelter, to lead, or to heal them. Many died,
and others were seen long afterwards wander-
ing as beggars on the highway. For miles
around the free-lances continued to plunder
and burn the villages. Heavy ransoms were
laid upon all districts. In the country they
were usually reckoned at so much per hearth,
whilst the towns paid as a rule en bloc. In
Nordlingen, and other places which had not
collectively taken an active part in the rebellion,
only suspect citizens had to pay ransom money.-
304 THE PEASANTS WAR.
The Markgraf Kasimir alone extracted 200,000
gulden within the next two years from his own
subjects.
The free imperial town of Rothenburg was
taken by Kasimir on the 28th of June. The
populace had quite lost head and heart. A few
of the leaders in this case, however, succeeded
^in escaping. JKarlstadtjvas let down one night
by a rope from a window in a house on the
town wall, and ended his days as a respectable
professor of theology in the Basel University.
The Commenthur Christen also managed to
flee to a safe place, as did Ehrenfried Kumpf,
the old iconoclastic burgermeister. On the
-other hand, Menzinger, Deuschlin, and the
blind monk Schmidt, with other preachers of
the new doctrine and popular leaders, met
their deaths at the hands of Kasimir and the
vengeful patricians now again in office. The
latter indeed continued, after Kasimir and his
men had left, to wreak vengeance upon their
victims, slaying, branding and scourging with-
out mercy, levelling houses to the ground and
confiscating goods.
In the northern part of the Duchy of Fran-
conia, the prince-bishop of Wiirzburg, the prince-
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 305
coadjutor of Fulda and the old Count Henne-
berg, who, it will be remembered, had been
forced some weeks previously to join the
peasant brotherhood, raged from end to end of
the district, revoking charters, taking ransoms,
beheading for the pleasure of it, and enjoy-
ing the spectacle with their boon companions
over their cups. The bishopric of Bamberg
had been subdued without any difficulty by
Truchsess after he left Wiirzburg. The usual
executions followed. Here also houses were
destroyed, and the ransom of 170,000 gulden
was exacted for the bishop and his noble
feudatories.
In the towns of the Rhenish district the~
revolt collapsed almost of itself. Mainz again
did homage. Speyer made up its account with
its bishop. Worms returned to its allegiance.
Frankfurt-on-the-Main, however, whither many
fugitives of the people's cause had come for
refuge, was not visited by the soldiery of the
princes, the council having succeeded by bribes
in getting the town spared. Meanwhile the
guilds and the popular party here, alarmed
by the events occurring outside, had made
terms with the council, or, rather, had dropped
20
306 THE PEASANTS WAR.
their original demands. Truchsess had turned
his steps in the direction of Upper Swabia,
where the insurrection had, as yet, not been
crushed. Here also the peasants were destined
to undergo a similar fate to that of their
brethren in other parts of Germany.
Memmingen, the town where the peasants'
parliament had been held in the early days of
the revolt, and where the ''Twelve Articles"
were first adopted and probably drawn up, fell,
as others had done, through treachery. The
party of the Ekrbarkeit and certain councillors
held secret communications with the Swabian
League. On the Friday of Whitsun week the
watchman announced to the council that a vast
force of soldiery was bearing down upon the
town. The citizens were instantly aroused,
and the market-place glittered with armour and
halberds. But on the leaders of the approach-
ing force reaching the town, they merely asked
with fair words for quarters for one hundred
horsemen, the rest of their following to remain
outside. This was eventually agreed to, and the
citizens, imagining all danger over, laid down
their arms and went home. No sooner were
they out of the way than the League's men
SUPPRESSION Of THE INSURRECTION. 307
suddenly forced open the gates, and admitted
their fellows from outside the walls to the
number of two hundred horse and two thou-
sand foot. Several citizens compromised in the
recent rising immediately fled, among them the
supposed author of the " Twelve Articles," the
preacher Schappeler, who succeeded in reaching
his native town of St. Gallen in safety. Five
who remained were beheaded on the market-
place.
The Archduke Friedrich, who was anxious
to get the territory of Upper Swabia as a fief of
the House of Austria, and who had been nego-
tiating to this end with the Algau insurgents,
wished to prevent Truchsess, at all events
for the moment, from carrying hostilities into
this region, and wrote to Truchsess to this
effect. The latter communicated with Ulm on
the matter, but was told by the council of the
League that he was acting in their service and
not in that of the Archduke Friedrich, and that
he was to proceed without delay. He obeyed,
but seems to have been rather nettled by the
peremptory language, since a short time after-
wards, on the council's remonstrating with him
for his wholesale burning of villages and home-
308 THE PEASANTS WAR.
steads, he sent back a reply that if they were
going to teach him how to carry on war they
had better come out and take the command
themselves, and he would sit quiet at Kempten.
A portion of the Algau peasant army, on
the approach of Truchsess, withdrew after a
short skirmish to the other side of the river
Luibas, and took up their position on a steep
elevation, first destroying the ford. Here mes-
sengers were sent to call up the whole of the
Algau forces. They had good and sufficient
f ordnance. The Algau peasants enjoyed the
reputation, which seems to have been well
1 founded, of being the best and most practised
fighting men amongst the country population.
Many of them had already served as free-
lances, and a considerable body of men-at-arms^
recently back from the Italian war, had joined
them. Walter Bach, before spoken of, who
had once been in the Austrian service, and
Kaspar Schneider, who had served in Italy
under the well-known Georg von Frundsberg,
were amongst their leaders. In a few days
their number had risen to 23,000, one of the
largest masses the peasants ever succeeded in
bringing together to any one place.
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 309
The insurgents never had a more favourable
opportunity. Had they succeeded in crushing
Truchsess, as they could easily have done, the
cause of the rebellion might still, even now,
have been saved. But where mischance or
superior fighting strength did not destroy the
peasants, treachery came in to do the work.
Walter Bach opened negotiations with the head
of the League's forces, under whom at an earlier
period he had served. Truchsess was awaiting
the advent of Georg von Frundsberg, who was
on his way to reinforce him with three thousand
free-lances. These had all fought under him at
the battle of Pavia.
It was on the evening of the 2ist of July
that Frundsberg arrived with his following.
On his side, Frundsberg knew Schneider and
other of the peasant leaders, and he and
Truchsess agreed to effect their purpose, if
possible, through the treachery of these men.
The subordinate leaders were won over by
Walter Bach, and a secret meeting was ar-
ranged at which a large sum of money was
handed to the traitors. A signal having been
agreed upon, they returned to the insurgent
camp and persuaded the peasants to leave their
310 THE PEASANTS WAR.
strong position on the pretext that it was
impossible to attack the combined forces from
it ! Truchsess immediately opened a heavy
cannonade against the peasant position, which
gave Bach the opportunity of setting fire, with-
out being suspected, to the kegs containing the
store of powder.
There were now three contingents massed
on the Luibas, on the opposite side to Truch-
sess's camp. Two of these were commanded
respectively by Schneider and Bach, and the
third was under Knopf von Luibas, who was
not in the conspiracy. The two traitors had
bribed the keepers of the ordnance to leave it
behind, whilst they marched out with their
following. This occurred at midnight. No
sooner had they reached open ground than
the whole forces of the League were heard
approaching. The unexpected move caused a
sudden panic. Companies got into confusion
and began to disperse in all directions, the
peasants seeking cover in the neighbouring
valleys and woods. Meanwhile, the guilty
leaders had fled, and gained Swiss territory
within a few days. The whole ordnance fell
into the hands of the League's forces.
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 311
But the victory was not quite complete,
since the contingent led by Knopf von Luibas,
unaware of what was taking place, held to-
gether. When, at daybreak, it was perceived
treachery had been at work and that the two
contingents had melted away, Knopf and his
men hurriedly withdrew and managed to safely
reach a good position on a hill above the town
of Kempten. Truchsess, who could not attack
them there, adopted the tactics of surrounding
the hill with a sea of fire, caused by the con-
flagration of more than two hundred villages
and homesteads. Numbers of women and
children and old people perished in these
fires. At the same time, the horsemen of the
League occupied all outlets. As the result, the
peasants were on the point of being starved out.
Finally they were compelled to surrender,
and descended into the hostile camp with the
usual white staves in their hands. The con-
ditions exacted were a fresh oath of allegiance,
a tribute of six gulden from every hearth, and
a further indemnity to their lords, the amount
to be decided by the Swabian League, which
should also be the arbiter in all disputes
between them and their lords. Truchsess
THE PEASANTS WAR.
immediately had eighteen leaders executed,
besides others later on in all some thirty
persons. Knopf himself, with some other
leaders, escaped. He was seized later on, how-
ever, in Bregenz, and, with a comrade named
Kunzwirth, hanged after a long imprisonment.
Truchsess now threw strong garrisons into
the towns of Kempten and Kaufbeuren, to
overawe the country-folk. Thus ended the
peasant revolt in the districts of Upper Swabia.
In the meantime, Duke Antoine of Lorraine
had arrived with a large force of local men-
at-arms, together with German and Italian
mercenaries and others, intent on suppressing
the peasant insurrection in Elsass. With these
troops he pressed through the Vosges and
appeared before Zabern, where Erasmus Gerber
had fixed his camp. On the 1 7th of May, a body
of peasants that had come to the relief of the
main force in Zabern was defeated and driven
back into the village of Lipstein, which was
surrounded and burnt. This was not effected
without some hard fighting. There was a
desperate struggle for the position. Several
times the attack was renewed, until the ducal
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 313
army was finally successful in penetrating
through the peasant stockade into the village.
The church now became the citadel of the
defenders. Flames then burst out on all
sides, eventually reaching the defenders them
selves. The latter, seeing their case to be
hopeless, begged for grace, but it was too late.
They rushed from the flames only to be
mercilessly run through in the streets and lanes
of the village. The accounts of the numbers
slain vary between 2000 and 6000.
Amongst the mercenaries employed by the
duke were Albanians, Stratiots, and possibly
others from eastern Europe. These contri-
buted an element of cold-blooded bijtcjiery-which
was not to be found amongst the Germans
even of that age. Children of eight, ten and
twelve were ruthlessly killed. Women and
girls were dragged through the corn, ravished,
and butchered. News of these things caused a
panic throughout all the surrounding territory,
and thirty waggons conraining women and
children from the neighbouring villages pre-
sented themselves the same evening at the
gates of Kochersberg, a
Strasburg.
town belonging to
THE PEASANTS WAR.
The occurrence naturally had its effect upon
Zabern itself which surrendered. Next morning
the peasants opened the gates, and under the
solemn promise of mercy from the duke they
streamed out without their arms but with the
necessary tokens of submission the white staves
in their hands. The account of what followed
is here quoted from Hardtfelder (Geschichte des
Bauernkriegs in Siidwest-Deutschland, p. 130
sqq\ " The free-lances of the duke accom-
panied the exodus of the peasants. Suddenly
there arose a quarrel between a free-lance and
a peasant, the latter defending himself because,
as the report says, he feared to be robbed
of his money. Vollcyr also relates that the
peasants had irritated the soldiers by the cry
of ' Long^ live Luther! ' Suddenly the shout
was heard ' Strike ! It is allowed us ! ' There-
upon began a frightful massacre. The free-
lances struck down the defenceless peasants,
who sought to reach the town by precipitate
flight. The majority, however, were despatched
before they got there ; the free-lances simul-
taneously with the fugitives pressed into the
town, although Count Salm with his horsemen
tried to prevent this. The slaughter was here
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 315
continued, not only the peasants who were
in the town being murdered, but the greater
portion of the citizens sharing their fate.
Those peasants who had sought to flee from
the town in other directions fell into the hands
of the Lorrainers and were killed. Still worse
would have happened, if the princes had not
at this time hurried up and stopped further
mischief. The Geldrian mercenaries, who had
plundered Zabern, would have set fire to the
whole town had they not been prevented.
Even the wounded had now to be spared,
and the inhabitants also escaped if they fastened
on themselves the cross of Lorraine."
So great was the number of the slain that
the roads leading to the town were strewn with
corpses, and it was hardly possible to enter
the gates for the heaps of dead that lay there.
From sixteen to twenty thousand peasants
were slain on this occasion.
The brutal Bavarian chancellor, Leonhard von
Eck, reports on the 2/th of May, that the duke
had destroyed 20,000 peasants, and adds that
so many peasants lay unburied that " to write
with modesty, the self-same dead have so stunk
that many women who fled from the country
3 i6 THE PEASANTS WAR.
did leave their children untended, the which,
therefore, did perish of hunger ". He continues :
" The said duke hath on Saturday slain a band
of four thousand peasants, and now turneth
against other bands who in the same place
are rebellious, so that it bethinketh me that he
will make a wilderness of the length of the
whole Rhine".
The Duke Antoine treated the campaign as
- a kind of religious crusade against the new
Lutheran doctrines. There is some doubt as
to his guilt as regards the treacherous massacre
of Zabern. Whether it was carried out by
his positive orders or not, it is sufficiently clear
that no adequate measures were taken to pre-
vent the heterogeneous elements of his army
from getting beyond control.
The ducal forces raged, slaughtering and
plundering, throughout Elsass. Heavy ran-
soms and tributes were everywhere exacted
from the towns and villages that had taken
part in the insurrection. Everywhere feudal
homage had to be made anew. The peasants
' were again forced under the old yokes, the
original dues and corvdes being exacted from
them. In many places they were forbidden
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 317
the right of assembly and of bearing any arms
except the short dagger. Indemnity was in-
sisted upon for the religious houses plundered.
Oftentimes they had to hand over any charters
or written concessions they might have pre-
viously obtained from their feudal superiors.
In Baden, the Austrian Government at En-
sisheim showed itself merciless in the punish-
ment of all who had taken any prominent share
in the rebellion. So numerous were the execu-
tions that, playing on the name of the town,
people were wont to say that it was indeed
"the home of the sword"- Ensis-heim. Curi-
ously enough the peasants, when the insurrection
was at its height, do not seem to have made
any serious attempt to capture this small town-
ship, the seat of the Hapsburg power in the
country, although they without doubt threatened
it on more than one occasion. This is the more
remarkable seeing that Ensisheim is situated
on a plain, and hence is easy of access, and that
the walls, the ruins of which I have carefully
examined, were exceptionally thin and could
hardly have sustained themselves long, even
against the rough and imperfect ordnance at
the disposal of the peasant forces.
318 THE PEASANTS WAR.
It is interesting to note that on the manor of
Stiihlingen, the territory of Count Georg von
Lupfen, where the movement, according to
tradition, first began, in the autumn of 1524,
the peasants succumbed and were brought
again under the yoke early in July. The only
concession they seem to have obtained was the
curious one of freedom of the chase of bears
and wolves, which would seem to indicate that
these animals were common at that time in the
district. All other objects of the chase were
prohibited to the peasants. The new religious
doctrines were forbidden to be preached. A
ransom of six gulden per hearth was enforced.
The tocsins or alarm-bells on the church
towers, which in so many places had given
the signal for the rising, were ordered to be
removed. Every form of combination was
suppressed.
At the same time the movements along the
lake of Constance collapsed. The peasants of
the Hegau, as it was called, after Truchsess's
retreat into Wiirtemberg, before the battle of
Boblingen, had carried on a bitter conflict with
the garrisons of the towns Stockach and Zell.
The latter set several villages on fire, and
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 319
committed such atrocities as the burning of
women and children.
Count Felix von Werdenberg, who had re-
turned from Italy at the same time as Frunds-
berg with a force of mercenaries and others,
attacked the peasants on the i6th of July at
Hilzingen, the place where the great "church-
ale" was held in October, 1524, at which the
movement of the district was consolidated.
Here, too, the peasants were totally defeated,
and the revolt perished in slaughter and flight.
Radolfzell was relieved, and the besieging force
was scattered. The greatest of the peasant
leaders in south-western Germany, Hans Miiller
von Bulgenbach, was seized and beheaded.
Later on, one of his colleagues, Conrad Jehle,
was captured and hanged upon the nearest oak
tree without form of trial. This took place on
the lands of the Abbey of St. Blasien in the
Black Forest, which he had spared when it was
in the power of his followers. One morning
the right hand of his corpse was found nailed to
the great gate of the abbey, with the words
" This hand will avenge itself" scrawled under-
neath, evidently the writing of one of Jehle's
faithful adherents. A short time afterwards the
320 THE PEASANTS WAR
buildings of the wealthy foundation burst into
flame one night, and in a few hours the massive
pile was a heap of ruins. The cause of the fire
was never ascertained.
The Archduke Ferdinand would like to have
punished with the usual brutality those bands
of the Breisgau district which had forced the
town of Freiburg into their brotherhood.
But the peasants of the Sundgau and the
Klettgau, who had also assisted in the matter,
had appealed to the Swiss to take them into
their hands. The Baselers did not seem un-
willing to listen to their proposal, and offered
them at all events their friendly offices as
mediators. They appear to have threatened
both sides that they would interfere with the
recalcitrant party if a compromise were re-
jected. The military repute of the Swiss,
which, in spite of the defeat of Marignano ten
years before, was still sufficiently great to make
even the archduke pause before driving matters
to extremities.
egotiations were entered into with the in-
surgents, which were concluded on the i8th of
September by the treaty of Offenburg, by which
the peasants agreed to accept provisions rein-
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 321
stating their lords in their old rights as to dues
and services, and fixing a sum as indemnity for
damage done and a fine of six gulden for every
hearth. But, although compelled by the force
of circumstances to accept these terms, the
Breisgau and Sundgau peasants were by no
means cowed. " Erzwungener Eid ist Gott
leid" or, as we may translate it, 4< Forced oaths
God loathes," said they. They made no secret
of their intention to rebel again as soon as the
archduke's men-at-arms should have left the
land. So threatening did they become that
the town of Freiburg had to demand of the
Austrian authorities a standing force of three
hundred men to overawe the countryside
throughout the ensuing winter.
The most favourable conditions of all were
obtained by the peasants on the lands of the
humane Markgraf Philip of Baden, who
granted some notable ameliorations in their
condition. He had done his best to obtain
favourable conditions for those on his_ brother's
and others' territories.
The town of Waldshut, one 'of the earliest
centres of the rebellion, held ouC^g^ ms t its
Austrian masters long after the surrounding
21
322 THE PEASANTS WAR.
country had been completely subdued. But on
the 1 2th of December it, too, was taken and
suffered the usual pains and penalties. A short
time before, Balthaser Hubmayer, the re-
volutionary preacher, whom the citizens had
welcomed with such transports in the spring
of the year, succeeded in escaping, but it was
only to meet a death at the stake, in Vienna,
four years later, as an Anabaptist.
Let us now cast a retrospective glance at the
course of the Civil War. We have seen that
the rebellion, which had carried all before it
with a few noteworthy exceptions, from its
beginning up to the second week in May,
thenceforward underwent defeat after defeat.
The first of these irreparable disasters, the
battle of Boblingen, took place on the i2th of
May. This meant practically the end of the
movement in Wurtemberg. Three days after-
wards occurred the overthrow of the revolt
in Thuringia and the neighbouring countries,
effected by the fatal blow dealt the peasant
forces at Frankenhausen. The capture and
massacre of Zabern, which followed two days
later, was the decisive event in Duke Antoine's
campaign against the peasants of the far-off
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 323
lands of the extreme south-west. Then came
the battle of Konigshofen on the 2nd of June, a
disaster which delivered the Franconian move-
ment into the hands of the Swabian League and
its allies. It was not before the end of July
that treachery dissolved the powerful contin-
gents massed on the Luibas in Upper Swabia.
But by this time the movement throughout
those countries which in the present day con-
stitute the new German Empire was to all
intents and purposes crushed. " Military opera-
tions," as the modern phrase goes, were continued
in special districts throughout August, and it
was not indeed before the middle of September
that the last sparks of the active revolt were
trodden out.
The fact is, that as long as the German
territories were denuded of fighting men, and
as long as the only resistance the peasant bands
met with was the small force under Truchsess,
which was all the Swabian League could then
muster, and which could obviously only be in
one place at one time, the insurrection naturally
had things all its own way. The case was very
different when large bodies of knights, mercen-
aries, and men-at-arms of all descriptions began
324 THE PEASANTS WAR.
to troop back from Italy on the termination of
the Italian campaign after the imperial victory
at Pavia. The inability of raw peasant levies
to successfully encounter trained fighting men
their superiors alike in experience, organisa-
tion and equipment, was immediately apparent.
The demoralising influence of drink, gluttony
and general laxness, which was so much in
evidence amongst the peasant bands, was, of
course, a contributory cause of the rapid extinc-
tion of the movement, but even apart from this,
as we have elsewhere pointed out, the case was
hopeless.
Hangings, beheadings and slaughter were
at last too much even for the palate of the
governing classes, and at the Reichstag held
at the end of August, a rescript was issued
urging mercy and forbearance upon the lords
of the soil, deprecating fresh impositions or
undue exactions, and even going so far as
to threaten that those lords who acted in a
contrary sense might find themselves refused
imperial assistance when in need. For in
spite of the discomfiture he had suffered, the
"common man" had by no means even yet
lost all hope. A belief in the possibility of
SUPPRESSION OF THE INSURRECTION. 325
speedily renewing the rising 1 was active amongst
the peasantry throughout the winter of 1525
and the spring of 1526, and this hope did not
at the time seem altogether groundless. There
was, indeed, amidst the general wilderness of
disaster, one oasis in which the peasant was
still holding his own, and was even scoring
some relatively lasting successes. In the arch^
bishopric of Salzburgc the insurgents were
still practically the masters of the situation. In
Tyrol under the chief leadership of the most
afifeT and many-sided genius of the whole
insurrection, Michael Gaismayr, the peasants
had extorted noteworthy concessions from their
feudal lord, the arch-duke, at the Landtag
opened by him at Innsbruck on the i5th of
June. In the neighbouring territories, more-
over, the rebels were still active. With events
in these Austrian lands we shall deal in the
following chapter.
CHAPTER IX.
THE ALPINE GLOW IN THE AUSTRIAN
TERRITORIES.
THE revolt in Styria (Steuermarck) which Sigis-
mund Dietrichstein had partially suppressed,
broke out again later on. Encouraged from
Vienna, Dietrichstein glutted himself with the
most monstrous exactions and cruelties. All
the districts where the revolt had sprung up
were condemned to ruinous tribute and ransom
money. In addition to this, impaling, flaying
and quartering constituted the order of the
day with him. His mercenaries amused them-
selves with cutting off the breasts of the
peasant women and ripping open the abdomens
of those about to become mothers. So at last
the cup was filled to overflowing. The town
of Schladming, on the border of the Salzburg
territory, had yielded to Dietrichstein. Seeing
the situation, the united contingent of the
Styrian and Salzburg peasants sent a demand
to the town to enter the " Christian Brother-
(326)
THE ALPINE GLOW. 327
hood ". Dietrichstein, on being informed of
this, proceeded to the township with a force
which he disposed partly inside the walls and
partly before them outside. He then proceeded
to enter into negotiations with the peasants,
being, of course, on treachery intent. Suddenly,
on the morning of the 3rd of July, the alarm
was given that the enemy was approaching.
On showing himself at the window of the
inn where he was lodging, he was struck by
a missile. He succeeded, however, in rushing
downstairs and mounting his horse, and with
two hundred followers he gained the place
where fighting was going on. His horse was
stabbed under him, and he himself received a
blow on the head. By his side other knights
fell. But now most of the men he had about
him deserted to the peasants. The rest of the
knights fled and entrenched themselves in the
church, Dietrichstein himself surrendering to
his own mutinous free-lances. By a surprise, a
body of about four thousand peasants had over-
powered the camp outside the town, and had
become possessed of its ordnance and ammuni-
tion. The horsemen had fled in a panic. Of
the Bohemian mercenaries, some escaped and
328 THE PEASANTS WAR.
some were made prisoners. Numbers were
killed or driven into the stream. The town
opened its gates after three thousand of Diet-
richstein's force were killed, amongst them a
large number of Carinthian and Styrian nobles.
Eighteen knights were taken in the church alone.
The prisoners of rank were brought into
the peasant camp, Dietrichstein amongst them.
A ring was formed, and the whole body of
peasants was called together to give judgment.
The captain of the baronial forces was brought
forward, and a formal accusation of all his crimes
was entered against him. A demand was made
that he should be impaled. On the matter
being put to the vote, the whole four thousand
hands were held up in favour of the execution.
Dietrichstein pleaded the promise of knightly
treatment he had obtained from the free-lances.
Thereupon a dissension arose between the latter
and the peasants, and eventually the matter
was referred to the peasant council sitting at
Salzburg. Here again, dissension seems to
have arisen between the council and the main
body of the insurgents assembled in the town.
The council wrote recommending honourable
captivity for the noble prisoners. The general
THE ALPINE GLOW. 329
assembly, on the contrary, sent a letter demand-
ing their execution.
A compromise is stated to have been effected
in the camp outside Schladming, by which the
Bohemian and other foreigners, noble and other-
wise, were beheaded in the market-place of the
town. The German nobles, on the other hand,
including Dietrichstein, were spared, but had
to suffer every imaginabkTcontumely from their
captors. They were stripped of their knightly
raiment and dressed in peasant clothes. Peas-
ant hats were put upon their heads, and they
were led away on waggon-horses to the castle
of Werfen, already occupied by the insurgents.
The peasants found in the town all the money
which Dietrichstein had amassed through his
impositions, besides considerable property be-
longing to the imprisoned nobles.
After these events the Schladming con-
tingent proceeded to take steps to renew the
insurrection throughout Styria. In Carinthia
and the Austrian hereditary dominions an agree-
ment had been come to between the peasants
and their lords. The smaller nobles and the
townships in fact, in many cases, had themselves
urged a general reduction of the burdens of the
330 THE PEASANTS WAR.
"common man". They were lenient as regarded
ransom-money, in spite of the representations
of the archduke. The leaders fled into the
Salzburg territory.
-^ In the Landtag at Innsbruck the archduke
had succeeded in pacifying the greater part of
his own Duchy of Tyrol. He had abolished
many grievances, and had fixed the next Land-
tag to be held at Bozen. The concessions which
Ferdinand accorded the Tyrolese were in fact
sufficiently remarkable to lend colour to the
supposition that he had a sentimental affection
for his patrimonial province. Amongst other
things, a complete amnesty was granted. Gais-
mayr, however, does not seem to have been at
all satisfied with the result. As we have already
seen, he looked farther than the mere allevia-
tion of the feudal yoke. He had meanwhile
resigned the leadership, but his followers were
not inactive. Two of them were zealously
preaching at Meran and Sterzing, and inveigh-
ing against the decisions of the Landtag.
Several of the rural communities refused to
give their assent, and organised themselves
anew, notably in the Brixen territories. Having
appointed leaders, they formed themselves into
THE ALPINE GLOW. 331
a contingent and marched upon Trient, which
town they bombarded.
About sixteen thousand men were got together
to suppress the revolt. By the end of September
it was completely crushed, several of the leaders
being executed, and the rest fleeing, mostly into
Venetian territory, which at this time furnished
a refuge for numbers of the archduke's rebellious
subjects. In Trient and the surrounding dis-
trict the repression was frightful. The current
forms of torture were ruthlessly applied muti-
lation, quartering, impaling and roasting alive.
Some, according to the contemporary chronicle,
had their hearts cut out and suspended round
their necks. Every prisoner was branded on
the forehead before being dismissed. Numbers,
however, succeeded in escaping into Italy.
Gaismayrwas meanwhile arrested and brought
to Innsbruck. He was at first liberated on
parole, but, finding that the authorities neg-
lected to carry out the accepted decisions of
the Landtag and were everywhere shedding the
blood of the peasants, he probably thought him-
self absolved from his oath, and accordingly,
at the end of September, he sought refuge in
flight. He threatened that, should he be
332 THE PEASANTS WAR.
molested, he had eighteen townships and vil-
lages sworn to defend him.
Meanwhile the movement in Salzburg went
on apace. As -we have seen, Duke Wilhelm of
Bavaria was not displeased at the uncomfortable
position of his feudal neighbour, the Archbishop
of Salzburg. Indeed, he let the insurgents
clearly understand that his emissaries were sent
merely to mediate and not to intimidate. The
Bavarian chancellor, the stern old aristocrat
Leonhard von Eck, opposed this policy of his
master, which threatened at one time to bring
about a serious conflict between the Bavarian
Wittelsbachs and the Austrian Hapsburgs, but
which in the long run came to nothing. When,
towards the end of June, the Swabian League,
in response to the urgent representations of the
archbishop, claimed Bavarian assistance for the
suppression of the Salzburg rebels, the duke
succeeded in postponing the day of decision.
It was thus not until the end of August that the
terms of peace were arranged, by which the
old dues and corvdes were to be re-established,
indemnification made for loss sustained by the
rebellion, and a fine of 14,000 gulden paid to
the Swabian League. An amnesty was granted,
THE ALPINE GLOW. 333
and the Swabian League was to decide the
villeins' claims against their lords. But ominous
threatenings were still heard that " so soon as
the bushes should be green they would be rid
of nobles and gentlemen". The Duke of
Bavaria had thus to be satisfied with effecting
what proved little more than an armistice. In
fact, the peasants had shown themselves more
than a match for the League's troops sent against
them under Frundsberg in conjunction with
the reluctant assistance of the Bavarian duke.
As a result of the treaty, the nobles detained
in the castle of Werfen were released, and the
archbishop, who for months had been besieged
in his fortress above Salzburg, was, of course,,
once more free. But the remembrance of the
defeat at Schladming still rankled in the breasts
of the Archduke Ferdinand and the nobles.
The peasants were indeed magnanimous enough
in their treatment of their captives, notably of
Dietrichstein, from whom they had suffered so
much. 1 But this did not satisfy the authorities
1 Indeed, if we may believe a recent authority, the story
of the executions by the peasants on Schladming market-
place is a historical fable \Krones apud Janssen, vol. ii., p.
571, note].
334
THE PEASANTS WAR.
and territorial lords, who thought that they
ought to have a monopoly of killing. Accor-
dingly, in the midst of the peace, Count Salm
with a company of free-lances swept down
upon the town and fired it on all sides. The
wretched inhabitants rushing out were hurled
back into the flames, without regard to age
or sex. Large numbers of peasants in the
neighbourhood of Schladming were hanged
from the trees. The town itself was reduced
to a heap of ashes. This dastardly and blood-
thirsty act of treachery excited the peasants
anew. Finally, about the middle of October,
the countrymen once more met together near
the town of Radstadt, and drew up a remon-
strance against the archbishop's multitudinous
breaches of the treaty, and against the atrocities
committed by the imperial troops, presumably
at the instance of the archduke.
Similar assemblies were held in other places,
and communications were entered into with
k the Brixen district of Tyrol, special use being
\ made of the great " church-ale " of the town
1 of Brixen itself. But the inhabitants were dis-
1 inclined for the moment to break the treaty
[they had entered into with their bishop, and
THE ALPINE GLOW. 335
in fact the revolt did not burst into renewed
activity until early in the following year.
Meanwhile Michael Gaismayr Jiad escaped
into Switzerland, visiting Zurich, Luzern, and
parts of Graubunden, and entering into rela-
tions with the numerous refugees from South
Germany and elsewhere then in the Swiss
cantons. In Chur he was seen, it was alleged,
in company with an emissary of the French
court. Francis I. was at this time in league
with Venice to secretly further the rebellion
in the Alpine districts, with a view of harassing
his enemy Charles V. He was now, it is true,
a prisoner in the hands of the latter, but his
policy was, of course, being carried on by his
representatives. Towards the end of the winter,
Gaismayr took up his abode at Taufers, on
the Tyrolese frontier of Appenzell, whence he
endeavoured to stir up a revolt in order to
seize some of the Bishop of Chur's ordnance
in the neighbourhood. This plan, however,
miscarried.
In the beginning of January, 1526, he issued /
a manifesto containing the objects for which
the Tyrolese were to rise. The first demand
was the destruction of all the godless, who
336) THE PEASANTS WAR. .
.> *
persecuted the true word of God and oppressed
the " common man". Pictures, masses and
shrines were to be abolished. The walls and
towers of the towns, together with all castles
and strongholds, were to be levelled with the
ground. Henceforth, there w r ere to be only
villages, to the end that complete equality
might obtain. Each year magistrates were to
be chosen by the popular voice, who were to
hold court every Monday. All the judicial
authorities were to be paid for out of the
common treasury. A central government was
to be chosen by the whole country and a
university established at Brixen, three members
of which were to be appointed as permanent
assessors to the government. Dues and rents
were to be done away with ; the tithe was to
be retained, but applied to the support of the
Reformed Church and of the poor. The mon-
asteries were to be turned into hospitals and
schools. The breeding of cattle was to be
improved and the land irrigated. Oil-trees,
saffron, vines and corn were to be everywhere
planted. There was to be a public inspection
of wares to ensure their quality and reasonable
price. Usury and debasement of the coinage
THE ALPINE GLOW. 337
were to be punished. The mines were to be-
come the property of the whole land. Passes,
roads, bridges and rivers were to be kept in
order by the public authority and suitable
measures taken for the defence of the country
against external foes.
Such is the main substance of the manifesto
which the messengers of Michael Gaismayr
now distributed in the valleys of western Tyrol.
The ink with which he had written it was
scarcely dry before news arrived of the resus-
citation, in the archiepiscopal territories of
Salzburg, of the movement of the previous
autumn. In a few days, Gaismayr was on
his way to the seat of the struggle. Arrived
there, he soon became practically the head of
the movement, and later on its recognised
commander, whilst his friends, most of whom
he had brought with him, became his lieu-
tenants. The miners, however, remained quiet.
In fact, two companies, composed partly of
miners and partly of handicraftsmen, were
enrolled by the archbishop and induced to
march against their peasant brethren. They
were, however, defeated by the rebels.
Radstadt, a town on the frontier of Salzburg
22
338 THE PEASANTS WAR.
and the Austrian hereditary lands, Styria and
Carinthia, was besieged by Gaismayr on the
ist of May, 1526. The capture of this town
was important alike from its strategic position
and from its possession of some of the best
ordnance at the disposal of Archduke Ferdinand.
The latter, on hearing of Gaismayr's operations,
immediately sent reinforcements to relieve
Radstadt. The Swabian League also sent a
small force. Gaismayr, however, as a good
strategist, had taken the precaution of block-
ing the main roads leading to the beleaguered
town. Amidst rain and sleet, the forces of the
authorities with difficulty traversed the rough
mountain roads, but before they were half-way
to Radstadt they were fallen upon by a large
body of peasants in a narrow defile, and out
of a force of more than a thousand less than
two hundred escaped.
On the 1 4th of June, Gaismayr's men defeated
with heavy loss eight companies of the Swabian
League's best fighting men. They fled in con-
fusion, and were pursued nearly to the gates
of Salzburg. Three days later, the remainder
suffered as heavy a loss in a storm on a
mountain pass. But the League continued
THE ALPINE GLOW. 339
to send reinforcements, and on the 3rd of July
they gained their first victory in these districts,
which cost the peasants six hundred men.
Meanwhile, Gaismayr pressed closer and
closer the siege of Radstadt.^ He stormed
the town three times, but without result. At
length, he found himself borne down upon
from three sides by the forces of the League
and of Count Salm. Accordingly, he was com-
pelled to raise the siege, and retired hurriedly
but in perfect order, with a considerable
body of men, first to his former camp a little
way from the town and then over a pass into
the Pusterthal. But Frundsberg, with three
thousand mercenaries of the League, followed
close upon his heels, and eventually overtook
him, and the insurgent leader's contingent was
forced to make its way over the passes into
Venetian territory. He himself with a following
reached Venice, where he received a pension
of four hundred ducats, and where, it is said, he
lived like a cardinal for some time.
Thus ended the campaign which Michael
Gaismayr had entered upon so full of hope.
Indeed the genius of this remarkable man had
given this last episode in the peasant rising
340
THE PEASANTS WAR.
this afterglow in the Alpine lands a reasonable
probability of success which scarcely any pre-
vious enterprise of the " common man " had
possessed. He had, however, taken steps to
negotiate with the French and Venetians with
a view to military assistance, and, although his
allies failed him so far as active support was
concerned, the credit belongs to him of a more
far-sighted diplomacy than was exhibited by
ny of the other leaders of the movement. His
plan was for a simultaneous rising in the Salz-
burg district, in Tyrol and in Upper Swabia,
and the failure of this plan was not due to any
want of energy on his part.
" The nobleman of Etschland," as Michael
was called, had a brother, Hans Gaismayr,
living in a good position at Sterzing, equally
enthusiastic and with unlimited confidence in
his relative. Unfortunately this brother, with-
out having succeeded in raising the district,
was captured by the Austrian authorities at
Sterzing, and brought to Innsbruck on the Qth
of April, where he was cruelly tortured and
afterwards drawn and quartered as a traitor.
jThat this incident made Michael more un-
bending in his vow of destruction to all nobles
THE ALPINE GLOW. 341
may well be imagined. Indeed, until his death
his name was one of terror to the constituted
authorities.
In Venice, Gaismayr continued to gather
up the threads of his relations alike with the
popular leaders and with the agents of the more
powerful states, and the prospect, in spite of
the heavy discomfiture of the " common man "
throughout the German territories, seemed by
no means hopeless. On the contrary, from
many points of view the signs of success
appeared more promising than in the period
just passed through of the great spontaneous
but ill-organised and badly-disciplined upheaval
of the peasantry and poor townsmen. For the
Protestant districts and principalities were now
becoming alarmed at the turn things were
taking. There was a growing feeling that
an attempt would be made by the victorious
feudal lords, still mainly Catholic and inspired
by the archduke and the chief ecclesiastical
princes, to crush Lutheranism itself. A com-
manding personality a strong man in the
Carlylean sense had at last appeared in the
person of Gaismayr. In addition, was there
not "the Man of Twiel," Duke Ulrich, secure
342 THE PEASANTS WAR.
in his powerful stronghold on the Swiss frontier
of Wlirtemberg? Was he not surrounded by
numbers of refugees, including many of the
local leaders of the late movement, who had
fled thither ? Was he not simply waiting
his opportunity to march into his hereditary
dominions with a force sufficient to defy the
imperial power, and to re-establish himself as
Wiirtemberg's master at Stuttgart?
Meanwhile, on the collapse of the Tyrol
movement, consequent upon the retreat of
Gaismayr, the usual policy of ferocious and
bestial oppression combined with treachery was
pursued. An appearance of moderation was
affected in the treatment of the first batch of
insurgents who surrendered. They were merely
required to give up their arms and to pay a fine
of eight gulden per hearth. An appeal was
then made to those who had not yet given in
their submission to appear on a specified day at
Radstadt. The seeming clemency enticed large
numbers to offer themselves on the day in ques-
tion. On the peasants having assembled at the
town gate, the nobles rode out at the head of a
body of horse and foot. One of their number
then addressed the unarmed people, descanting
THE ALPINE GLOW. 343
on the sin of rebellion against their lords. This
ended, a list of twenty-seven names was read
out, and those who bore them were ordered to
come forward. Four executioners at the same
time appeared, and proceeded to strike off the
heads of the designated twenty-seven leaders.
The remainder of those present were compelled
to take their old oath of allegiance and obedi-
ence before they were allowed to return home.
The houses of those known to have taken a
prominent part in the rebellion, who now either
were executed or had fled, were pulled down,
and painted posts were set up in their place.
Small towns were degraded to the rank of
villages, and the alarm-bells were torn down
from the church towers.
The two towns of Radstadt and Zell, which
had closed their gates and resolutely resisted
the followers of Gaismayr, were, on the other
hand, rewarded with special privileges. They
were accorded the right of making, every Whit
Monday, a procession round the high altar of
the cathedral of St. Ruprecht at Salzburg during
vespers and there singing the songs of their
district. The same evening, they were to be
entertained from the archbishop's cellar and
344
THE PEASANTS WAR.
kitchen, the cathedral canons and the courtiers
taking part. On the Tuesday after St. Vitus's
Day, they might hang their flag from the
Rathhaus, and also received a gift of wine from
the archiepiscopal cellars, besides being allowed
to fish in the preserved streams of their feudal
overlord.
Throughout the year 1527, especially in the
early summer, the whole Catholic feudal world
was filled with dread at the return of Gaismayr
to revivify the suppressed movement, perhaps
with a French and Venetian understanding and
the co-operation or benevolent neutrality of
some at least of the Protestant states. The
peasants, the small townsmen, and the Protestant
sectaries generally were correspondingly hopeful.
The Alpine lands were looked toward on the
one side with fear and on the other with joyful
expectation as the hearth and refuge of popular
freedom. Through the whole of central and
southern Germany the name of the great
peasant leader from Tyrol became in every
village a household word. Free-lances back
from serving in the recent campaigns spoke in
terms of unconcealed admiration for the valiant
commander against whom they had been
THE ALPINE GLOW. 345
fighting. In the public room of many a
hostelry the deeds of Michael Gaismayr, and
the chances of his return to head a larger
movement than the one just defeated, were
eagerly discussed.
Various were the reports as to his probable
action. It was said at one time that he was
about to proceed from Venetian territory to
Trient, and thence by forced marches into the
Tyrol valleys, to call the people to arms under
the protection of the Venetian Republic and
its allies, who would thereby secure a free hand
against Charles V. in other directions. But
time passed on and yet there was no invasion
from the south. Finally, in the early spring of
1528, Gaismayr was reported to have been seen
in Switzerland, particularly in Zurich. The
rumour was confirmed, and it further became
known that he had received the citizenship
of this canton, and that he was regarded as
plenipotentiary for the Venetian Republic, in
which capacity he was negotiating with Count
Ulrich of Wurtemberg, with the reformed
Swiss cantons, and with other powerful Protes-
tant interests in Germany. It was believed that
he had, in short, in his hands the threads of
346 THE PEASANTS WAR.
a strong combination against the emperor.
Certain it was that extensive recruitings in
various districts, especially in Graubunden,
were being made in his name.
By the middle of June, the matter had so far
taken definite shape that it was reported that
several thousand Swiss were already on the
march to join Gaismayr in the mountain passes
leading to Austria, and that the intention was
to invade his native Etschland. This last
report was not true, and it is difficult now to
say precisely how far the negotiations for an
anti-imperial league had proceeded, but that
there were such there is no doubt. We may
reasonably suppose that affairs were in train
by August, 1528, when news arrived of
Charles's victory at Naples on the igth of
that month, and the parties concerned seemed
to have lost heart, the scheme coming to nothing
in a few weeks. Ferdinand and his councillors
had already set a price on Gaismayr's head.
One of his followers was bribed to murder him.
The man took the money, but omitted his part
of the bargain. The Bishop of Brixen now
also adopted the assassination policy, but still
no German-speaking man was forthcoming to
THE ALPINE GLOW. 347
carry it out. At last, two wretched Spanish
bravos expressed their readiness for a large
sum in gold to undertake the crime. They
repaired to Padua, in the Venetian territory,
whither Gaismayr had returned, and one night,
breaking into his apartment whilst he was
asleep, they stabbed him to the heart, subse-
quently severing his head from his body. The
head was then carefully preserved and brought
by the assassins to the archduke at Innsbruck.
Shortly afterwards, Gaismayr's chief lieutenant,
a brave man named Passler, was murdered by
one of his own followers, also bribed to the
deed by the Austrian Court. The money was
again in this case handed over on the receipt
of the head at Innsbruck.
All prospects were now gone, for the time
being, for the popular movement. The terror
of the Catholic feudal estates and the hope of
the ''common man," Michael Gaismayr, was
dead. The other leaders were dispersed in
exile or killed or imprisoned, save for a few
who remained with Duke Ulrich in the
" Hohentwiel ". The duke himself was to
regain his patrimony of Wiirtemberg, but not
as he at one time imagined by the aid of
348
THE PEASANTS WAR.
the peasants ostensibly fighting for their own
rights. In short, with Gaismayr's death the
afterglow of the Peasants War finally faded
away. The revolt of the " common man " had
been extinguished.
CHAPTER X.
CONCLUSION.
IN the foregoing pages we have followed the
chief episodes in the last great agrarian uprising
of the Middle Ages. Its result was, with some \
few exceptions, a rivetting of the peasant's V*
chains and an increase of his burdens. More
than a thousand castles and religious houses
were destroyed in Germany alone during 1525. ;
Many priceless works of mediaeval art of al^
kinds perished. But we must not allow our
regret at such vandalism to blind us in any
way to the intrinsic righteousness of the popular
demands.
Just as little should our judgment be influenced
by the fact that we can now see that much of
the peasant programme was out of the line of ]/
natural social progress, and that the war itself
was carried on from the beginning in a manner
that rendered success well-nigh impossible, if
only from a military point of view. The revolt,
as we have seen, was crushed piecemeal, just
(349)
35 o THE PEASANTS WAR.
as it had arisen piecemeal. Co-operation there
was none. Thomas Munzer found it hopeless
to connect effectively the movement in the
countries of Thuringia and Franconia, allied as
they were in many ways. In consequence of
the movements being thus territorially limited,
the forces of the authorities, such as that of
the Swabian League, had little difficulty in
defeating the several insurgent bodies one after
the other.
Of the ruthless and cold-blooded butchery
which usually followed we have seen enough.
The blow was -indeed a heavy one for the
" common man " generally, and for the peasant
more especially. As to the few exceptions
where something- was gained, one of the most
noteworthy was the case of the subjects of
Count Philip of Baden, who were granted some
solid ameliorations.
The attitude of the official Lutheran party
towards the poor country-folk continued as
infamous after the war as it had been on the
first sign that fortune was forsaking their cause.
Like master, like man. Luther's jackal, the
" gentle " Melancthon, specially signalised him-
self by urging ontKe^ feudal barons with
CONCLUSION.
Scriptural arguments to the blood-sucking and
oppression of their villeins. A humane and
honourable nobleman, Heinrich von Einsiedel,
was touched in conscience at the corvdes and
heavy dues to which he found himself entitled.
He sent to Luther for advice upon the subject.
Luther replied that the existing exactions which
had been handed down to him from his parents
need not trouble his conscience, adding that
it would not be good for corvdes to be given
up, since the " common man " ought to have
burdens imposed upon him, as otherwise he
would become overbearing. He further re-
marked that a severe treatment in material
things was pleasing to God, even though it
might seem to be too harsh. Spalatin writes
in a like strain that the burdens in Germany
were, if anything, too light. Subjects, accord-
ing to Melancthon, ought to know that they
are serving God in the burdens they bear for
their superiors, whether it were journeying,
paying tribute, or otherwise, and as pleasing
to God as though they raised the dead at God's
own behest. Subjects should look up to their
lords as wise and just men, and hence be thank-
ful to them. However unjust, tyrannical and
352 THE PEASANTS WAR.
| cruel the lord might be, there was never any
justification for rebellion.
A friend and follower of Luther and Melanc-
thon Martin Butzer by name went still
further. According to this " reforming " worthy,
a subject was to obey his lord in everything.
This was all that concerned him. It was not
for him to consider whether what was enjoined
was, or was not, contrary to the will of God.
That was a matter for his feudal superior and
God to settle between them. Referring to the
doctrines of the revolutionary sects, Butzer
urges the authorities to extirpate all those
professing a false religion. Such men, he says,
deserve a heavier punishment than thieves,
robbers and murderers. Even their wives and
innocent children and cattle should be destroyed
(ap.Janssen, vol. i., p. 595).
Luther himself quotes, in a sermon on
" Genesis," the instances of Abraham and
Abimelech and other Old Testament worthies,
as justifying slavery and the treatment of a
slave as a beast of burden. " Sheep, cattle,
men-servants and maid-servants, they were all
possessions," says Luther, "to be sold as it
pleased them like other beasts. It were even
CONCLUSION. 353
a good thing were it still so. For else no
man may compel nor tame the servile folk "
(Sdmmtliche Werke, xv., 276). In other dis-
courses he enforces the same doctrine, observing
that if the world is to last for any time, and is
to be kept going, it will be necessary to restore
the patriarchal condition. Capito, the Strass-
burg preacher, in a letter to a colleague, writes
lamenting that the pamphlets and discourses of
Luther had contributed not a little to give edge
to the bloodthirsty vengeance of the princes
and nobles after the insurrection.
The total number of the peasants and their
allies who fell either in fighting or at the hands
of the executioners is estimated by Anselm in
his Berner Chronik at a hundred and thirty
thousand. It was certainly noTTesS llia.rr~"~a~
hundred thousand. For months after, the exe-
cutioner was active in many of the affected
districts. Spalatin says : u Of hanging and
beheading there is no end ". Another writer
has it : "It was all so that even a stone had
been moved to pity, for the chastisement and
vengeance of the conquering lords was great ".
The executions within the jurisdiction of the
Swabian League alone are stated at ten
23
354 THE PEASANTS WAR.
thousand. Truchsess's provost boasted of
having hanged or beheaded twelve hundred
with his own hand. More than fifty thousand
fugitives were recoHed. These, according to a
Swabian League order, were all outlawed in
such wise that any one who found them might
slay them without fear of consequences.
The sentences and executions were conducted
with true mediaeval levity. It is narrated in a
contemporary chronicle that in one village in
the Henneberg territory all the inhabitants had
fled on the approach of the count and his men-
at-arms save two tilers. The two were being
led to execution when one appeared to weep
bitte'rly, and his reply to interrogatories was
that he bewailed the dwellings of the aristocracy
thereabouts, for henceforth there would be no
one to supply them with durable tiles. There-
upon his companion burst out laughing, because,
said he, it had just occurred to him that he
would not know where to place his hat after
his head had been taken off. These mildly
humorous remarks obtained for both of them a
free pardon.
The aspect of those parts of the country
where the war had most heavily raged was
CONCLUSION. 355
deplorable in the extreme. In addition to
the many hundreds of castles and monasteries
destroyed, almost as many villages and small
towns had been levelled with the ground by
one side or the other, especially by the Swabian
League and the various princely forces. Many
places were annihilated for having taken part
with the peasants, even when they had been
compelled by force to do so. Fields in these
districts were everywhere laid waste or left
uncultivated. Enormous sums were exacted
as indemnity. In many of the villages peasants
previously well - to - do were ruined. There
seemed no limit to the bleeding of the " common
man," under the pretence of compensation for
damage done by the insurrection.
The condition of the families of the dead
and of the fugitives was appalling. Numbers
perished from ^starva.tiQJU-_ The wives and
children of the insurgents were in some cases
forcibly driven from their homesteads and even
from their native territory. In one of the pam-
phlets published in 1525 anent the events of that
year, we read : " Houses are burned ; fields and
vineyards lie fallow ; clothes and household
goods are robbed or burned ; cattle and sheep
356 THE PEASANTS WAR.
are taken away ; the same as to horses and
trappings. The prince, the gentleman, or the
nobleman will have his rent and due. Eternal
God, whither shall the widows and poor children
go forth to seek it ?" Referring to the Lutheran
campaign against friars and poor scholars,
beggars and pilgrims, the writer observes :
" Think ye now that because of God's anger
for the sake of one beggar, ye must even for
a season bear with twenty, thirty, nay still
more ? "
The courts of arbitration, which were estab-
lished in various districts to adjudicate on
the relations between lords and villeins, were
naturally not given to favour the latter, whilst
the fact that large numbers of deeds and
charters had been burnt or otherwise destroyed
in the course of the insurrection left open an
extensive field for the imposition of fresh
burdens. The record of the proceedings of
one of the most important of these courts
that of the Swabian League's jurisdiction, which
sat at Memmingen in the dispute between
the prince-abbot of Kempten and his villeins
is given in full in Baumann's Akten, pp. 329-
346. Here, however, the peasants did not
CONCLUSION.
357
come off so badly as in some other places.
Meanwhile, all the other evils of the time, the
monopolies of the merchant-princes of the cities
and of the trading-syndicates, the dearness of
living, the scarcity of money, etc., did not
abate, but rather increased from year to year.
The Catholic Church maintained itself especially
in the south of Germany, and the official
Reformation took on a definitely aristocratic k
character.
According to Baumann (Akten, Vorwort, v.,
vi.), the true soul of the movement of 1525 con- '
sisted in the notion of " Divine justice," the
principle "that all relations, whether of political,
social, or religious nature, have got to be
ordered according to the directions of the
' Gospel ' as the sole and exclusive source and
standard of all justice ". The same writer
maintains that there are three phases in the
development of this idea, according to which
he would have the scheme of historical inves-
tigation sub-divided. In Upper Swabia, says he, |
" Divine justice " found expression in the well-
known " Twelve Articles," but here the notion
of a political reformation was as good as absent.
In the second phase, the "Divine justice"!
358 THE PEASANTS WAR.
idea began to be applied to political conditions.
In Tyrol and the Austrian dominions7~~~hlT"*
observes, trns_j3ojjtical side manifested itself
in local or, at best, territorial patriotism. It
was only m Fr^nrr>r|t^ that a ll territorial
fjjjatriotism or " particularism " was shaken off,
/and the idea of the unity of the German peoples
received as a political goaL_^ The Franconian
influence gained over the Wiirtembergers to a
large extent, and the plan of reform elaborated
by Weigand and Hipler for the Heilbron
Parliament was the most complete expression
of this second phase of the movement.
The third phase is represented by the rising
in Thiiringia, and especially in its intellectual
pead, Thomas Miinzer. Here we have the
/doctrine of " Divine justice " taking the form
/of a thoroughgoing thgocratic scheme, to be
Realised by the German people.
This division Baumann is led to make with a
view to the formulation of a convenient scheme
for a " codex " of documents relating to the
Peasants War. It may be taken as, in the
main, the best general division that can be put
forward, although, as we have seen, there are
places where, and times when, the practical
CONCLUSION, 359
demands of the movement seem to have as-
serted themselves directly and spontaneously
apart from any theory whatever.
Of the fate of many of the most active leaders
of the revolt, we know nothing. George Metzler
disappeared, and was seen no more after the
battle of Konigshofen. Several heads of the
movement, according to a contemporary writer,
wandered about for a long time in misery,
some of them indeed seeking refuge with the
Turks, who were still a standing menace to
imperial Christendom. The popular preachers
vanished also on the suppression of the move-
ment. The disastrous result of the Peasants
War was prejudicial even to Luther's cause in
south Germany. The Catholic party reaped the
advantage everywhere, evangelical preachers,
even, where not insurrectionists, being perse-
cuted. Little distinction, in fact, was made in
most districts between an opponent of the
Catholic Church from Luther's standpoint and
one from Karlstadt's or Hubmayer's. Amongst
seventy-one heretics arraigned before the Aus-
trian court at Ensisheim, only one was acquitted.
The others were broken on the wheel, burnt
or drowned.
360 THE PEASANTS WAR.
Amongst the non-clerical leaders of the
popular party, Friedrich Weigand alone seems
to have come off scot free. Hans Flux, of
Heilbron, was denounced by his own fellow-
citizens, and, for the time being, driven from
his native town. It cost him a hundred gold
gulden to be reinstated in the rights of citizen-
ship. Some of the heads of the peasant com-
panies found temporary refuge in ruined castles
and other out-of-the-way places. Some even
became chiefs of robber bands, and were at a
later date killed in conflict with the authorities.
Martin Feuerbacher was imprisoned in the
imperial town of Esslingen and suffered the
torture several times. Owing, however, to the
good repute in which he stood with certain
nobles of his neighbourhood, he was after some
years reinstated in his property.
There were some who were arrested ten or
fifteen years later on charges connected with
the 1525 revolt. Treachery, of course, played
a large part, as it has done in all defeated
movements, in ensuring the fate of many of
those who had been at all prominent. In fair-
ness to Luther, who otherwise played such a
villainous role, the fact should be recorded
CONCLUSION. 361
that he sheltered his old colleague, Karlstadt,
for a short time in the Augustine monastery
at Wittenberg, after the latter's escape from
Rothenburg. Ehrenfried Kumpf, the iconoclast
and ex-biirgermeister of Rothenburg, died of
melancholy some little while after the suppres-
sion of the insurrection. The nobility of Gotz
von Berlichingen and his treachery to the
peasants' cause did not save him from the con-
sequences of the part he had ostensibly played.
He lay for some time an imperial prisoner in
one of the towers on the town wall of N urn-
berg. He was subsequently released on a
solemn pledge not to quit his ancestral domains,
and remained a captive on his own lands for
years.
Wendel Hipler continued for some time at
liberty, and might probably have escaped alto-
gether had he not entered a process against
the Counts of Hohenlohe for having seized a
portion of his private fortune that lay within
their power. The result of his action might have
been foreseen. The counts, on hearing of it,
revenged themselves by accusing him of having
been a chief pillar of the rebellion. He had
to flee immediately, and, after wandering about
362 THE PEASANTS WAR.
for some time in a disguise, one of the features
of which is stated to have been a false nose, he
was seized on his way to the Reichstag which
was being held at Speier in 1526. Tenacious
of his property to the last, he had hoped to
obtain restitution of his rights from the assem-
bled estates of the empire. Some months later
he died in prison at Neustadt.
Of the victors, Truchsess and Frundsberg
considered themselves badly treated by the
authorities whom they had served so well, and
Frundsberg even composed a lament on his
neglect. This he loved to hear sung to the
accompaniment of the harp as he swilled down
his red wine. The cruel Markgraf Kasimir
met a miserable death not long after from
dysentery, whilst Cardinal Matthaus Lang, the
Archbishop of Salzburg, ended his days insane.
Of the fate of other prominent men con-
nected with the events described, we have
spoken in the course of the narrative.
The castles and religious houses, which were
destroyed, as already said, to the number of
many hundreds, were in most cases not built
up again. The ruins of not a few of them are
indeed visible to this day. Their owners often
CONCLUSION. 363
spent the sums relentlessly wrung out of the
"common man" as indemnity, in the extra-
vagances of a gay life in the free towns or in
dancing attendance at the courts of the princes
and the higher nobles. The collapse of the
revolt was indeed an important link in the
particular chain of events that was so rapidly
destroying the independent existence of the
lower nobility as a separate status with a
definite political position, and transforming the
face of society generally. Life in the smaller
castle, the knight's burg or tower, was already
tending to become an anachronism. The court
of the prince, lay or ecclesiastic, was attracting
to itself all the elements of nobility below it in
the social hierarchy.' The revolt of 1525 gave
a further edge to this development, the first act
of which closed with the collapse of the knights'
rebellion and death of Sickingen in 1523.
The knight was becoming superfluous in//
the economy of the body politic. The rise
of capitalism, the sudden development of the
world - market, the substitution of a money
medium of exchange for direct barter all these
new factors were doing their work. Obviously
the great gainers by the events of the momentous
364 THE PEASANTS WAR.
year were the representatives of the centralising
principle. But the effective centralising prin-
ciple was not represented by the emperor, for
he stood for what was after all largely a sham
centralism, because it was a centralism on a
scale for which the Germanic world was not
ripe. Princes and margraves were destined to
be the bearers of the territorial centralisation,
the only real one to which the German peoples
were to attain for a long time to come. Accord-
ingly, just as the provincial grand seigneur of
France became the courtier of the French king
at Paris or Versailles, so the previously quasi-
independent German knight or baron became
the courtier or hanger-on of the prince within
or near whose territory his hereditary manor
was situate.
The eventful year 1525 was truly a land-
mark in German history in many ways the
year of one of the most accredited exploits of
Doctor Faustus, the last mythical hero the
progressive races have created ; the year in
which Martin Luther, the ex-monk, capped his
repudiation of Catholicism and all its ways by
marrying an ex-nun ; the year of the definite
victory of Charles V. the German Emperor
CONCLUSION. 365
over Francis I. the French King, which meant
the final assertion of the " Holy Roman
Empire " as a national German institution ;
and last, but not least, the year of the greatest
and the most widespread popular movement
central Europe had yet seen, and the last of
the mediaeval peasant risings on a large scale.
The movement of the eventful year did not,
however, as many hoped and many feared,
within any short time rise up again from its
ashes, after discomfiture had overtaken it. In
1526, as we have seen, the genius of Gaismayr
succeeded in resuscitating it, not without pro-
spect of ultimate success, in Tyrol and other
of the Austrian territories. In this year, more-
over, in other outlying districts, even outside
German-speaking populations, the movement
flickered. Thus the traveller between the town
of Bellinzona in the Swiss Canton of Ticino and
the Bernardino pass in Canton Graubunden may
see to-day an imposing ruin, situated on an
eminence in the narrow valley just above the
small Italian-speaking town of Misox. This
was one of the ancestral strongholds of the
family, well-known in Italian history, of the
Trefuzios or Trevulzir, and was sacked by the
366 THE PEASANTS WAR.
inhabitants of Misox and the neighbouring
peasants in the summer of 1526, contem-
poraneously with Gaismayr's rising in Tyrol.
A connection between the two events would
be difficult to trace, and the destruction of the
castle of Misox, if not a purely spontaneous
local effervescence, looks like an afterglow of
the great movement, such as may well have
happened in other secluded mountain valleys.
With the death of Gaismayr, however, the
insurrectionary party lost its last hope for the
time being. Matters gradually settled down,
and the agitation took a somewhat different
form. The elements of revolution now became
absorbed by the Anabaptist movement, a
continuation primarily in the religious sphere
of the doctrines of the Zwickau enthusiasts
and also in many respects of Thomas Miinzer.
At first northern Switzerland, especially the
towns of Basel and Zurich, became the head-
quarters of the new sect, which, however, spread
rapidly on all sides. Persecution of the direst
description did not destroy it. On the contrary,
it seemed only to have the effect of evoking
those social and revolutionary elements latent
within it which were at first overshadowed by
CONCLUSION. 367
more purely theological interests. As it was,
the hopes and aspirations of the "common
man " revived this time in a form indissolubly
associated with the theocratic commonwealth,
the most prominent representative of which
during the earlier movement had been Thomas
Mlinzer. The Anabaptist sect subsequently
concentrated its main strength at Strasburg.
Driven thence, Holland and north-west Ger-
many became its chief seat, until events cul-
minated in the drama enacted at Munster in
Westphalia in 1534, with the prophet John
Bockelson as its leading figure. But neither
this serious attempt to realise the popular
conception of the Kingdom of God on earth
nor the fortunes of the Anabaptist sect in
general fall within the scope of the present
volume.
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