Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

Turk; and your snorting and raving will help you nothing. A large part

has already come true. For... the common man is learning to think,

and... contempt of princes is gathering forces among the multitude and

the common people.... Men ought not, men cannot, men will not suffer

your tyranny and presumption much longer. Dear princes and lords, be

wise and guide yourselves accordingly. God will no longer tolerate

you. The world is no longer what it was when you hunted and drove

people like so much game. `0616147

-

A Bavarian chancellor charged that this was a treasonable call to

revolution. Duke George denounced it as scandalous, and urged

Elector Frederick to suppress the publication. Frederick let it pass

with his usual equanimity. What would the princes have said had they

read Luther's letter to Wenzel Link (March 19, 1522)?- "We are

triumphing over the papal tyranny, which formerly crushed kings and

princes; how much more easily, then, shall we not overcome and trample

down the princes themselves!" `0616148 Or if they had seen his

definition of the Church?- "I believe that there is on earth, wise

as the world, but one holy, common Christian Church, which is no other

than the community of the saints.... I believe that in this

community or Christendom all things are in common, and each man's

goods are the other's, and nothing is simply a man's own." `0616149

These were casual ebullitions, and should not have been taken too

literally. Actually Luther was a conservative, even a reactionary,

in politics and religion, in the sense that he wished to return to

early medieval beliefs and ways. He considered himself a restorer, not

an innovator. He would have been content to preserve and perpetuate

the agricultural society that he had known in his childhood, with some

humane improvements. He agreed with the medieval Church in

condemning interest, merely adding, in his jovial way, that interest

was an invention of Satan. He regretted the growth of foreign trade,

called commerce a "nasty business," `0616150 and despised those who

lived by buying cheap and selling dear. He denounced as "manifest

robbers" the monopolists who were conspiring to raise prices; "the

authorities would do right if they took from such people everything

they have, and drove them out of the country." `0616151 He thought

it was high time to "put a bit in the mouth of the

Fuggers." `0616152 And he concluded ominously, in a blast On Trade

and Usury (1524):

-

Kings and princes ought to look into these things and forbid them by

strict laws, but I hear that they have an interest in them, and the

saying of Isaiah is fulfilled, "Thy princes have become companions

of thieves." They hang thieves who have stolen a gulden or half a

gulden, but trade with those who rob the whole world.... Big thieves

hang the little ones; and as the Roman senator Cato said, "Simple

thieves lie in prisons and in stocks; public thieves walk abroad in

gold and silk." But what will God say to this at last? He will do as

he says by Ezekiel: princes and merchants, one thief with another,

He will melt them together like lead and brass, as when a city

burns, so that there shall be neither princes nor merchants any

more. That time, I fear, is already at the door. `0616153

-

It was.

CHAPTER XVII: The Social Revolution: 1522-36

I. THE MOUNTING REVOLT: 1522-24

-

THE famished knights had waited impatiently for a chance to rise

against princes, prelates, and financiers. In 1522 Charles V was far

away in Spain; Sickingen's troops were fretfully idle; rich Church

lands lay open to easy seizure. Hutten was calling for action.

Luther had invited the German people to sweep their oppressors from

the earth.

On August 13 a number of knights signed at Landau a pledge of united

action. Sickingen besieged Trier, and shot letters into it inviting

the people to join him in overthrowing the ruling archbishop; they

remained quiet. The archbishop gathered troops, played general, and

beat back five assaults. Sickingen raised the siege and retired to his

castle at Landstuhl. The archbishop, with help from neighboring

princes, stormed the castle; Sickingen was mortally wounded in its

defense; on May 6, 1523, he surrendered; on May 7 he died. The knights

submitted to the princes, disbanded their private armies, and clung

with desperate severity to the peasant feudal dues that were their

main support.

Foreseeing this debacle, Luther had dissociated himself, none too

soon (December 19, 1522), from the revolt. Otherwise his star

continued to ascend. "The cause of Luther," wrote Archduke Ferdinand

to his brother the Emperor (1522), "is so deeply rooted in the whole

Empire that not one person in a thousand is free from it." `06171

Monks and priests were flocking to the new altar of matrimony. At

Nuremberg the Lorenzkirche and the Sebalduskirche resounded with

"God's Word"- the Reformers' phrase for a faith based solely on the

Bible. "Evangelical" preachers moved freely through northern

Germany, capturing old pulpits and setting up new ones; and they

denounced not only popes and bishops as "servants of Lucifer," but

secular lords as "iniquitous oppressors." `06172 However, secular

lords were themselves converts: Philip of Hesse, Casimir of

Brandenburg, Ulrich of Wurttemberg, Ernest of Luneberg, John of

Saxony. Even the Emperor's sister Isabella was a Lutheran.

Charles's old teacher had now become Pope Adrian VI (1521). To a

Diet at Nuremberg (1522) he sent a demand for Luther's arrest, and a

candid confession of ecclesiastical faults:

-

We know well that for many years things deserving of abhorrence have

gathered round the Holy See. Sacred things have been misused,

ordinances transgressed, so that in everything there has been a change

for the worse. Thus it is not surprising that the malady has crept

down from the head to the members, from the popes to the hierarchy. We

all, prelates and clergy, have gone astray from the right way, and for

long there is no one that has done good, no, not one....

Therefore... we shall use all diligence to reform before all else

the Roman Curia, whence perhaps all these evils have had their

origin.... The whole world is longing for such reform. `06173

-

The assembly agreed to ask Elector Frederick to check Luther, but it

asked why Luther should be condemned for pointing out clerical

abuses now so authoritatively confirmed. Finding the Pope's confession

insufficiently detailed, it sent him its own list of one hundred

gravamina of Germany against the Church, and proposed that these

grievances should be considered and remedied by a national council

to be held in Germany under the presidency of the Emperor.

The same Diet, dominated by the nobility, gave a sympathetic hearing

to charges that monopolists were enriching themselves at the expense

of the people. A committee wrote to the major cities of Germany asking

their advice as to whether the monopolies were harmful, and should

they be regulated or destroyed. Ulm replied that they were an evil,

and that business firms should be limited to a father, his son, and

his son-in-law. Augsburg, home of the Fuggers, submitted a classic

defense of "big business," laissez faire, and widows and orphans:

-

Christendom (or shall we say the whole world?) is rich because of

business. The more business a country does, the more prosperous are

its people.... Where there are many merchants there is plenty of

work.... It is impossible to limit the size of the companies.... The

bigger and more numerous they are, the better for everybody. If a

merchant is not perfectly free to do business in Germany he will go

elsewhere, to Germany's loss.... If he cannot do business above a

certain amount, what is he to do with his surplus money?... It would

be well to let the merchant alone, and put no restrictions on his

ability or capital. Some people talk of limiting the earning

capacity of investments. This would... work great injustice and harm

by taking away the livelihood of widows, orphans, and other

sufferers... who derive their income from investments in these

companies. `06174

-

The Diet legislated that companies should not be capitalized above

50,000 guilders; that profits must be distributed every two years, and

public accounting made; that money should not be loaned at usurious

rates; that no merchant should buy more than a stated maximum of any

commodity in any, quarter-year; and that prices should be fixed by

law. The merchants appealed to Charles V; he supported them for

reasons that have been stated; and as many city magistrates shared

in the profits of the monopolies, the edicts of Nuremberg soon

became a dead letter.

To a later session of the Diet (January 1524) a new pope, Clement

VII, sent Cardinal Lorenzo Campeggio with fresh demands for the arrest

of Luther. Crowds jeered the nuncio in Augsburg; he had to enter

Nuremberg secretly to avoid hostile demonstrations; and he had the

humiliation of seeing 3,000 persons, including the Emperor's sister,

receive the Eucharist in both kinds from a Lutheran pastor. He

warned the Diet that the religious revolt, if not soon suppressed,

would soon undermine civil authority and order; but the Diet replied

that any attempt to put down Lutheranism by force would result in

"riot, disobedience, slaughter... and a general ruin." `06175 While

the deliberations proceeded the social revolution began.

II. THE PEASANTS' WAR: 1524-26

-

The religious revolt offered the tillers of the fields a captivating

ideology in which to phrase their demands for a larger share in

Germany's growing prosperity. The hardships that had already spurred a

dozen rural outbreaks still agitated the peasant mind, and indeed with

feverish intensity now that Luther had defied the Church, berated

the princes, broken the dams of discipline and awe, made every man a

priest, and proclaimed the freedom of the Christian man. In the

Germany of that age Church and state were so closely meshed- clergymen

played so large a role in social order and civil administration-

that the collapse of ecclesiastical prestige and power removed a

main barrier to revolution. The Waldensians, Beghards, Brethren of the

Common Life, had continued an old tradition of basing radical

proposals upon Biblical texts. The circulation of the New Testament in

print was a blow to political as well as to religious orthodoxy. It

exposed the compromises that the secular clergy had made with the

nature of man and the ways of the world; it revealed the communism

of the Apostles, the sympathy of Christ for the poor and oppressed; in

these respects the New Testament was for the radicals of this age a

veritable Communist Manifesto. Peasant and proletarian alike found

in it a divine warrant for dreaming of a utopia where private property

would be abolished, and the poor would inherit the earth.

In 1521 a pamphlet circulated in Germany under the title of

"Karsthans"- i.e., Pitchfork John. This "Man with the Hoe" and a pen

pledged peasant protection to Luther; and a continuation published

in the same year advocated a rural insurrection against the Catholic

clergy. `06176 Another pamphlet of 1521, by Johannes Eberlin, demanded

universal male suffrage, the subordination of every ruler and official

to popularly elected councils, the abolition of all capitalist

organizations, a return to medieval price-fixing for bread and wine,

and the education of all children in Latin, Greek, Hebrew,

astronomy, and medicine. `06177 In 1522 a pamphlet entitled "The Needs

of the German Nation" ( Teutscher Nation Notturft ), and falsely

ascribed to the dead Emperor Frederick III, called for the removal

of "all tolls, duties, passports, and fines," the abolition of Roman

and canon law, the limitation of business organizations to a capital

of 10,000 guilders, the exclusion of the clergy from civil government,

the confiscation of monastic wealth, and the distribution of the

proceeds among the poor. `06178 Otto Brunfels proclaimed (1524) that

the payment of tithes to the clergy was contrary to the New Testament.

Preachers mingled Protestant evangelism with utopian aspirations.

One revealed that heaven was open to peasants but closed to nobles and

clergymen; another counseled the peasants to give no more money to

priests or monks; Munzer, Carlstadt, and Hubmaier advised their

hearers that "farmers, miners, and cornthreshers understand the Gospel

better, and can teach it better, than a whole village... of abbots and

priests... or doctors of divinity"; Carlstadt added, "and better

than Luther." `06179 Almanacs and astrologers, as if giving a cue to

action, predicted an uprising for 1524. A Catholic humanist,

Johannes Cochlaeus, warned Luther (1523) that "the populace in the

towns, and the peasants in the provinces, will inevitably rise in

rebellion.... They are poisoned by the innumerable abusive pamphlets

and speeches that are printed and declaimed among them against both

papal and secular authority." `061710 Luther, the preachers, and the

pamphleteers were not the cause of the revolt; the causes were the

just grievances of the peasantry. But it could be argued that the

gospel of Luther and his more radical followers "poured oil on the

flames," `061711 and turned the resentment of the oppressed into

utopian delusions, uncalculated violence, and passionate revenge.

Thomas Munzer's career caught all the excitement of the time.

Appointed preacher at Allstedt (1522), he demanded the extermination

of the "godless"- i.e., the orthodox or the conservative- by the

sword; "the godless have no right to live except in so far as they are

permitted to do so by the elect." `061712 He proposed to the princes

that they should lead the people in a communistic revolt against the

clergy and the capitalists. When the princes did not rise to the

opportunity, he called upon the people to overthrow the princes too,

and "to establish a refined society such as was contemplated by

Plato... and Apuleius of The Golden Ass. " `061713 "All things are in

common," he wrote, "and should be distributed as occasion requires,

according to the several necessities of all. Any prince, count, or

baron who, after being earnestly reminded of this truth, shall be

unwilling to accept it, is to be beheaded or hanged." `061714

Elector Frederick tolerated this gospel humorously, but his brother

Duke John and his cousin Duke George joined with Luther in having

Munzer expelled from his pastorate (1524). The irate apostle

wandered from town to town, announcing the deliverance of "Israel,"

and the imminent Kingdom of Heaven on earth. `061715

He found a congenial political climate in the free city of

Muhlhausen in Thuringia, where the textile industry had gathered a

numerous proletariat. Heinrich Pfeiffer, an ex-monk, had already begun

there, with the support of the lower middle class, a movement to

capture the municipal council from the patrician oligarchy. Munzer

preached his radical program to the workingmen of the town and to

the neighboring peasantry. On March 17, 1525, the armed followers of

Pfeiffer and Munzer deposed the patricians and set up an "Eternal

Council" to rule Muhlhausen. According to Melanchthon the victorious

radicals drove out the monks, and appropriated all the property of the

Church; `061716 however, no theologian in this age could be trusted to

report impartially the activities or views of his opponents. No

communist commonwealth was established; Pfeiffer proved abler in

practice than Munzer, and tamed the revolt to the needs of the

middle class. Anticipating attack by Imperial troops, Munzer organized

workers and peasants into an army, and had heavy artillery cast for it

in the monastery of the Barefoot Friars. "Forward!" was his call to

his men; "forward while the fire is hot! Let your swords be ever

warm with blood!" `061717

About the same time peasant uprisings were convulsing South Germany.

Perhaps a ruinous hailstorm (1524), which destroyed all hopes for a

harvest in Stuhlingen, served as the trigger of revolt. This district,

near Schaffhausen, was not too far from Switzerland to feel the

example of the sturdy peasants who had there freed themselves from all

but the formalities of feudal power. On August 24, 1524, Hans

Muller, acting on a suggestion from Munzer, gathered about him some

Stuhlingen peasants, and bound them into an "Evangelical

Brotherhood" pledged to emancipate farmers throughout Germany. Soon

they were joined by the discontented tenants of the abbot of

Reichenau, the bishop of Constance, the counts of Werdenburg,

Montfort, Lupfen, and Sulz. By the end of 1524 there were some

30,000 peasants in arms in South Germany refusing to pay state

taxes, church tithes, or feudal dues, and sworn to emancipation or

death. At Memmingen their delegates, under the guidance or influence

of Zwinglian Protestants from Zurich, formulated (March 1525) the

"Twelve Articles" that set half of Germany on fire.

-

To the Christian reader peace, and the grace of God through Christ.

There are many anti-Christians who have lately taken occasion of the

assembly of the peasants to cast scorn upon the Gospel, saying, Is

this the fruit of the new evangel? Is no one to be obedient, but all

are to rebel... to overthrow, or perhaps to slay, the spiritual and

temporal lords? To all these godless and wicked critics the

following articles make answer, in order, first, to remove this

reproach from the Word of God, and second, to justify in a Christian

way the disobedience, nay the rebellion, of the peasants.

First, It is our humble petition and request, as also the will and

intention of all of us, that in the future we should have authority

and power so that a whole community should choose and appoint a

pastor, and also have the right to depose him....

Second, Since the tithe is appointed in the Old Testament and

fulfilled in the New, we will... pay the just tithe of grain, but in a

proper way.... We will that for the future this be gathered and

received by our church provost, whom the community appoints; that

out of it there shall be given to the pastor... a modest, sufficient

maintenance for him and his... that the remainder shall be distributed

to the poor and needy who are in the same village.... The small

tithe we will not give at all, for God created cattle for the free use

of men....

Third, It has been the custom hitherto for men to hold us as their

own property, and this is pitiable, seeing that Christ has redeemed

and bought us all with the precious shedding of His blood, the lowly

as well as the great.... Therefore it agrees with Scripture that we be

free, and will be so.... To our chosen and appointed rulers (appointed

for us by God) we are willingly obedient in all proper and Christian

matters, and have no doubt that, as true and real Christians, they

will gladly release us from serfdom, or show us in the Gospel that

we are serfs....

Sixth, We have a heavy grievance because of the services which are

increased from day to day....

Eighth, We are greatly aggrieved, as many of us have holdings that

will not support the rents we pay, and the peasants suffer loss and

ruin. Let the lords have honorable men inspect said holdings, and

fix fair rent... for every laborer is worthy of his hire....

Tenth, We are aggrieved because some have appropriated to themselves

meadows out of the common fields, which once belonged to the

community....

Eleventh, We would have the death dues entirely abolished. We will

not suffer it, nor allow widows and orphans to be so shamefully

robbed....

Twelfth, If one or more of the articles here set forth... can be

shown to us by the Word of God to be improper, we will recede from

it if this is explained to us with arguments from Scripture. `061718

The peasant leaders, encouraged by Luther's semi-revolutionary

pronouncements, sent him a copy of the Articles, and asked for his

support. He replied with a pamphlet printed in April 1525: Ermahung

zum Frieden ( Admonition to Peace ). He applauded the peasants' offer

to submit to correction by Scripture. He noted the charges, now

rising, that his speeches and writings had stirred revolt; he denied

his responsibility, and referred to his inculcation of civil

obedience. But he did not withdraw his criticism of the master class:

-

We have no one on earth to thank for this mischievous rebellion

except you, princes and lords, and especially you blind bishops and

mad priests and monks, whose hearts are hardened against the Holy

Gospel though you know that it is true and that you cannot refute

it. Besides, in your temporal government, you do nothing but flay

and rob your subjects, in order that you may lead a life of splendor

and pride, until the poor common people can bear it no longer....

Well, then, since you are the cause of this wrath of God, it will

undoubtedly come upon you, if you do not mend your ways in time....

The peasants are mustering, and this must result in the ruin,

destruction, and desolation of Germany by cruel murder and

bloodshed, unless God shall be moved by our repentance to prevent

it. `061719

-

He counseled the princes and lords to recognize the justice of

many of the Articles, and urged a policy of kindly consideration. To

the peasants he addressed a frank admission of their wrongs, but

pleaded with them to refrain from violence and revenge; a resort to

violence, he predicted, would leave the peasants worse off than

before. He foresaw that a violent revolt would bring discredit upon

the movement for religious reform, and that he would be blamed for

everything. He objected to the appropriation of tithes by each

congregation. The authorities should be obeyed, and had a right to tax

the people to pay the expenses of government. The "freedom of the

Christian man" was to be understood as a spiritual liberty, consistent

with serfdom, even with slavery.

-

Did not Abraham and other patriarchs and prophets use slaves? Read

what St. Paul teaches about servants, who at that time were all

slaves. Therefore your third article is dead against the Gospel....

This article would make all men equal... and that is impossible. For a

worldly kingdom cannot stand unless there is in it an inequality of

persons, so that some are free, some imprisoned, some lords, some

subjects. `061720

-

His final advice, had it been followed, would have spared Germany

much bloodshed and devastation:

-

Choose among the nobles certain counts and lords, and from the

cities certain councilmen, and have these matters dealt with and

settled in a friendly way. You lords, let down your stubbornness...

Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

Подождите немного. Документ загружается.