Title: German Peasants War (1524 – 1525): Reformation Uprising
Headings: German Peasants War (1524 – 1525): Uprising of the Poor
German Peasants War (1524 – 1525): Uprising of the Poor
Agrarian and Urban Poor Waged Class Warfare Against Their Rulers
Context
The Revolt
Twelve Articles of Memmingen
Frankenhausen
Key Figures
Resolution

Content: Some related to the church: more power of congregation members to select their own pastors, changes in tithing. Other demands were secular: stopping land enclosure which cut off access to fish and game and other products of the woods and rivers, ending serfdom, reform in the justice system. Frankenhausen
The peasants were crushed in a battle at Frankenhausen, fought May 15, 1525. More than 5,000 peasants were killed, and the leaders captured and executed. Key Figures
Martin Luther, whose ideas inspired some of the princes in German-speaking Europe to break with the Roman Catholic Church, opposed the peasant rebellion. He preached peaceful action by the peasants in his An Exhortation of Peace in Response to the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants. He taught that peasants had a responsibility to farm the land and rulers had the responsibility to keep the peace. Just at the end as the peasants were losing, Luther published his Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants.