The German Peasant Revolts
1521 AD — 1525 AD
In the aftermath of the Diet of Worms and Luther's exile at Wartburg Castle the Reformation that he had begun slowly spun into chaos. Among the common people, Luther had become somewhat of a messenger of hope. His ideas appealed to the people because his struggles mirrored their own which meant that the answers he offered, were, to a great extent, the same answers that the people were longing for. Others found in Luther a patriot and hero, willing to stand up to the advances and aggression of a foreign Pope. Still, others, who were scholars and northern humanists, embraced Luther's ideas of Sola Scriptura.
Then there were the German Princes who were inspired by Luther's willingness to stand up to the Papacy and Papal authority. This gave them a sense of empowerment as they considered how they too might push off the Roman yoke of bondage and take back their territories and churches. All this meant fewer taxes and less papal interference into the affairs of the German states.
Back home in Wittenberg, Luther's absence created a vacuum that a few within his inner circle attempted to fill. Foremost among these was Andrea von Karlstadt. Karlstadt took Luther's teachings to an unforeseen extreme and began leading mobs in violence against priests, the destruction of churches and images, and a blatant refusal to attend mass.
Another group, claiming to believe in Luther's teachings and calling themselves the Prophets of Zwickau engaged in acts of violence similar to Karlstadt and they claimed divine revelation as justification for their actions. Luther's painstaking and well-thought-out journey of faith, which up to this point had been based on Scripture was now, in his absence spiraling into fanaticism and chaos.
When word of the chaos reached Luther he had already been in hiding at Wartburg for nearly a year. He was appalled by what he heard and decided to come out of hiding to quell the rising rebellion. He began traveling extensively, preaching to those who were proclaiming themselves to be his followers and appealing to them to stop their violence. He appealed for moderation and a gradual Reformation. He insisted that a new church needed to be allowed to develop and form before the only one could be torn down. He also condemned those who hand engaged in acts of violence in the name of divine revelation.
Slowly his message began to trickle through to the people and the situation began to settle. But the mob violence and fanaticism raised questions that Luther had not considered up to that point. He had thought that preaching directly to the people was the right way to go about reform but when he took stock of the prevailing ignorance and illiteracy which in turn resulted in the kind of fanaticism and violence that had been on display, Luther began to wonder if he needed to rethink his strategy.
A few years later, in early 1525 a massive peasant revolt broke out across Germany. Peasant revolts were not a new phenomenon but this one had a frightening new twist to it. At its heart, the revolt was a response to increased taxes by landholding gentry and nobility but the rioting peasants claimed that they were inspired by Luther's ideas.
In his pamphlet On Christian Freedom, Luther had written about law and grace and a Christian's freedom from keeping the law as a means of salvation. The peasants conveniently misinterpreted this to extend to civil law as well and stated that they were free from the restraints of civil law and therefore could, with a clear conscience, overthrow their rulers.
Luther had also written about the priesthood of believers and stated that in the sight of God all men were equal. This was a radical and counter-cultural idea, especially at a time in history when hierarchy was ingrained into the very fabric of society. The leaders of the peasant uprising claimed that Luther's teachings gave them license to mount a social revolt, empowering them to overthrow their rulers and break free of the bondage of taxes and wage restrictions.
Luther was horrified to see his teachings being used to justify civil disobedience, violence and general lawlessness. The peasant revolt, in the name of Lutheran teaching morphed into a social revolution that led Luther to surmise that he could no longer continue to preach directly to the people. In response, he decided to take radical and decisive action in an attempt to prevent, what was shaping out to be, anarchy.
