The Peasants Revolt Dbq Analysis

During the late 1520s and 1530s, the Reformation was transformed into a set of laws people had to obey as the Protestant faith was circulated through Germany as it was seen as a political and economic opportunity the German princes would use against the Roman Catholic Church. Because of Germany’s exposure to Lutheranism, peasant leaders at this time saw Luther’s criticism of monastic landowners as a motive to their revolt. Prior to the peasants’ revolts in the German states during the years 1524 to 1526, both the uprising of the Protestant Reformation and the conflict between lords and peasantry both acted as a stimulus to the peasants’ revolt. Obtaining support from the lay people, the peasants’ revolt were met with the merciless opposition …show more content…
Support of the peasants was shown in Casper Nützel’s letter to Duke Albert of Prussia as he expresses the merciless, unchristian way the nobility crushed the peasants when they should be nurtured. An example of their support is Sebastian Lotzer’s Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants as he criticizes the nobility for forcing unnecessary labor without compensation(Doc. 2). It is crucial to take the document into consideration as the Twelve Articles of Swabian Peasants was written with the purpose of diffusing the animosity of both sides. In agreement with Lotzer, the Peasant Parliament of Swabia’s Articles of the Peasants of Memmingen resembles the idea of peasantry acknowledging the authority of nobility as they explain that peasants will be obedient as long as the demands are reasonable and in agreement with God (Doc. 3). Although the peasants’ revolt had some support, they clashed with the rivalry of nobility and Luther. In further explanation, Martin Luther’s document also reveals that the rabid peasants acted against the name of God as “the assertions they made in their Twelve Articles were nothing but lies presented under the name of the Gospel” while they violently acted like animals against the nobility (Doc. 5). Because this document was written by the individual who planted the Protestant Reformation seed, it is safe to assume that the document is a reliable source of information on what follows the Scripture. Martin Luther deemed the peasants who associated their revolt under the name of Luther and the Scripture “unchristian” and prompted the German princes to subjugate the revolt which later resulted in the deaths of many peasants before the revolt was finally suppressed (The Peasants’ Revolt p.364).In attempts

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