THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
their standards. After the defeat of the separate bodies on the Danube, at Wurzach, and at Gaisbeuren, the movement was no longer one, even in regard to its aim. Besides the purely agrarian question, other views and evil elements entered.
This is evident in considering a second group made up of the Franconians and Swabians in the Main and Rhine districts and the inhabitants of the Palatinate. Leaders and followers were characterized by violent passions, inhuman cruelty, and absurdly extravagant objects. The idea appeared of a radical political reconstruction of
2. West- Germany, of the abolition of the countem Germany less petty lords and a constitution of
and the an empire which should leave the
Heilbronn emperor alone as ruler of all. This
Plan. " Heilbronn Plan," as it was called,
was not in itself so unreasonable; its
weakness lay in the fact that, instead of solving the
agrarian questions, it made them more difficult by
involving them with political matters.
This only increased the confusion, which reached its climax in a third group, forming around the famous Thomas Miinzer (q.v.) and the theocratic and communistic radicalism which he preached among the Thuringian and Saxon peasantry. Never has the indiscriminate hatred 4. In Thur- of the mob for everything and every-
ingia and body been more fully expressed, never
Saxony; has a war of extermination been more
Miinzer. warmly preached, than in the incendiary pamphlet (ascribed without sufficient evidence to Miinzer), An die Versammlung gemeiner Bauerschaft. Referring to James v. 1-6, it prophesies a day of slaughter for the fat cattle who have nourished their hearts on the misery of the common people. God has heard the cry of the laborers, and will take pleasure in the destruction of Moab, Agag, Ahab, Phalaris, and Nero. As a consequence or parallel of this may be cited the Landesordnung of the Tyrolese Michel Gaismair which appeared in Jan., 1526; it demanded complete equality, and pushed a strictly agrarian socialism to its utmost consequences.
III. Luther and the Peasants' War : It will easily be seen how far this movement departed from the moderate and logical demands of the Twelve Articles, and how this anarchical insanity could not fail to alienate the sympathies of every reasonable man, even if he had been previously disposed to favor the amelioration of the condition of the oppressed peasantry. This aspect of the struggle must be borne in mind in order to do justice to Luther's position. The more his opponents tried to father the whole movement upon him and his gospel, the more he felt obliged to explain his position. In his " Exhortation to Peace " he expressed the hope that by speaking the plain truth to both parties, he might bring them both to a better understanding. He found some of the Twelve Articles reasonable and just; but the injustice of the authorities could not excuse riotous turbulence. Because both parties were in the wrong and sought to avenge or defend themselves they would only destroy themselves, and God will scourge them both. A commission of councilors from the nobility and the towns was suggested
to advise means of conciliation. He would not hear of himself and other theologians being made the " mouthpieces of divine justice," but saw in the attempt to mix the Gospel with these disturbances only another device of the devil, who sought to destroy him through bloodthirsty prophets of murder when he had failed through the pope. He defends his point of view and hopes for good results from his admonitions, though his proposition was not likely, especially at that moment, to lead to the desired end. He has been unduly blamed; but it only shows that he failed to understand the real nature of the movement, as did Melanchthon, who wrote a counterblast to the Twelve Articles in which he put forth the unlimited right of the government and duty of obedience on the part of the governed as the immovable foundation of the social and political order. This was Luther's honest view and it explains his later behavior. When his admonitions were unheeded and the die was cast for bloodshed, he threw himself with all the passion of his strong nature on the side of the State and of order, and published his terrible tractate Wider die mordischen und raubischen Rotten der Bauern, in which he called upon the authorities to crush the " brands of hell " and " limbs of the devil." The peasants would have been crushed even without his exhortation; and it was unfortunate for him that he was forced by the circumstances and by his convictions to speak such hard and even terrible words.
IV. Open Hostilities and Repression: Affairs meanwhile ran their destined course. Truchsess defeated one body of peasants after another; he crushed those of Wiirttemberg on May 12, 1525, between Boblingen and Sindelfingen, and those of the Neckar valley and the Odenwald at Konigshofen on June 2; two days later Florian Geyer and his followers fell before him at Sulzdorf and Ingolstadt; and Wiirzburg on the 7th. Philip of Hesse, George of Saxony, and other princes and nobles had met Miinzer and a considerable mass of Thuringian and Saxon peasants at Frankenhausen on May 15, routed them, executed their leader, and severely punished the town of Miihlhausen, which had been a center of the insurrection. In Alsace, in the Breisgau, around Rothenburg, in the bishopric of Bamberg, in the Franconian margravate, and elsewhere, the peasants had risen and, spreading terror by their numbers, forced nobles, clergy, and citizens to join them or treat with them. But their temporary successes were soon avenged a hundredfold. After the Elector Palatine Ludwig had suppressed the
■ rising on the left bank of the Rhine at Pfeddersheim on June 23, that in southern and central Germany was almost entirely put down. In Swabia the peasants made one last stand of desperate rage; but Truchsess hastened to bring up the League's forces and conquered them once more. The survivors retired to the mountainous country of the Tyrol and around Salzburg, where the revolt lasted into 1526, and only ceased with the " Bloody Assizes " of Radstatt on July 20 of that year.
V. Results of the Insurrection: The lot of the German peasantry was even worse after the rising. With diabolical zeal all who were in the slightest degree to blame were pursued and punished. It is