He starts off by persuading the peasants to start taking charge and rebelling against the lords and wealthy. His opinion is that slaughtering the royalty and destroying their property is acceptable to God and that it’s even condoned. Muntzer brags that four abbeys in Fulda were ‘laid waste’ and a group of peasants in the Black Forest have a total count of 3,000. (Doc 4) A month later in May of 1525, Martin Luther responded to the acts of savagery amongst the peasants with a letter to the public. He says that the peasants have forgotten their place and they are acting like ‘mad dogs.’ All of the peasants involved with the violent acts and crimes committed are subject to condemnation and death. Luther writes that they are going against their own beliefs and are contradicting their faiths. They continually sin against God and breaking the rules of the higher powers. He even goes to the point that people should be allowed to kill the rebels in order to stop the rebellion from spreading. ‘It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you, and a whole land with you.’ This disagreement between Luther and Muntzer made them rivals and forced Muntzer to turn against both the Catholic church and Luther, along with his beliefs. (Doc …show more content…
They were collectively written by Sebastian Lotzer and Cristooph Schlappeler, both preachers, in 1525. They write about many things regarding the nobility treating the peasants like serfs and they point out mistakes of the royalty as well, criticizing their daily life. One fault that is found is that the lords take gamelands and rivers and use them as their own private hunting or fishing sites. It is not allowed by God to keep others from using the natural resources, so Lotzer and Schlappeler say the nobility should be required to show credentials to prove they own that property. (Doc 2) Along with this, they talk about how the nobility has been treating the peasants like slaves instead of workers and how it’s unjust to them. Lotzer believes that it is a god-given right to have freedom and equality no matter what position a person holds, and that the royalty should recognize that they are human too. Both Lotzer and Schlappeler believe that the peasants should be relieved of their cruel masters because it is not right to keep people like animals. (Doc 3) Finally, in August of 1526 there was a formal assembly of the imperial councilors and officials advising Charles V called the Imperial Diet that met to discuss the peasant revolt and its effect. They write how each noble and lord is entitled to his or her estate, and how they