Peasant Rebellion Research Paper

Peasant Rebellion During the years of 1524- 1525, peasants who resided in parts of central and southern Germany revolted against the lords and princes in which had long governed their lives. Peasants who lived during the 1500s were devoid of rights; they were forced to labor on the fields of their lords, while being underpaid and undernourished. When learning of Protestant reforms, which “reduced [the] independence of the Church as [the] intermediary between man and God” (Merriman 94), German peasants were inspired to rise up against their lords, in an attempt to end the oppression and enslavement brought upon them by the nobility. Empowered by the Protestant advocation of individual piety, yet pressured by their poverty and low social standings, the peasants of German states defied secular authorities and their repressive domination during the Peasant Rebellion of 1524- 1525. The German Peasant Rebellion was influenced by …show more content…
Due to the oppressed, undernourished, and destitute, nature of the German peasants, the peasants sought to increase their lives by demanding for the abolition of tithe and serfdom, and the rights to hunt and pasture freely on common lands. But when lay and ecclesiastical authorities refused to grant such provisions, peasants turned to violence, viewing it as an liberation from their social injustices. Although the peasants found their actions to be justified, Nobles and religious figures deemed their actions to be intolerable due to the ungodly and vicious nature of the revolt. Ultimately, the Peasant Revolt of 1524- 1525 established a widened division amongst Catholicism and reformed Churches. While aristocratic figures were more unyielding of their Catholic faith due to the social hierarchy set up by the Roman Catholic papacy, the peasants favored Protestant doctrines, which advocated equality between