Title: Where Luther Got It Wrong: The Peasants' Revolt - Way To LEAD
Headings: Where Luther Got It Wrong: The Peasants’ Revolt
Where Luther Got It Wrong: The Peasants’ Revolt
Content: In Stülingen, in the middle of the harvest, the Countess of Lupfen ordered her serfs to collect snail shells to use as thread spools. Over a thousand peasants gathered, formed a committee and drew up a list of complaints. Other concurrent events blended into a large scale revolt running across southwest Germany. In time they formed a confederation and drew up the Twelve Articles, stating their cause. They wanted to elect their own pastors. They wanted to use their tithes (10% or more of their crops) to pay their pastor rather than sending those tithes on to an external church entity that sent them a pastor not of their choosing. They called for an end to serfdom, and the restoration of hunting and fishing rights. Luther sympathized with the peasants’ plight. He denounced the unjust practices. Many peasants found a ringing voice in Luther’s writings, especially his most famous treatises, On Christian Freedom, which had been published in 1520, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation and The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.