Martin Luther

More documents

Recommendations

Info

MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY PROF. M. M. NINAN The peasants turns violent Peasants torturing monks who tried to sell indulgence during the peasant war. (Niklaus Manuel) Revolts that broke out in Swabia, Franconia, and Thuringia in 1524 and gained support among peasants and some disaffected nobles. Frustrated by lack of favorable response and sympathy the struggle as usual turned into squabbles and later into all out fight. We cannot call it war since the peasants never had any weapons of war. Gaining momentum and a new leader in Thomas Muunzer, the revolts turned into an all-out “war’, Initially, Luther seemed to many to support the peasants, condemning the oppressive practices of the nobility that had incited many of the peasants. Swabian League had its own army whose commander was Georg Truchsess. He took advantage of the lack of unity and division among uprisers and bring to the end the uprising in Swabia. Relatively easy his army put down the uprisings in other areas. Peasants’ army was losing one battle after another. On 29 April 1525, the peasant grumbling and protests in and around Frankenhausen culminated into an open revolt. Large parts of the citizenry joined the uprising. more peasants of the surrounding estates camped on the fields and pastures: the final strength of the peasant and town force is unclear, but estimated at 8,000–10,000. The Princes’ troops included close to 6,000 mercenaries, the Landsknecht. As such they were well equipped, well trained and had good morale. They were also experienced. The peasants, on the other hand, had poor, if any, equipment, and except for those 300 fighters who had arrived with Müntzer, many had neither experience nor training. The peasants were caught off guard and fled in panic to the town, followed and continuously attacked by the mercenaries. Most of the insurgents were slain in what turned out to be a massacre. Casualty figures are unreliable but peasant losses have been estimated at 3,000–10,000. 68
MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLUTIONARY PROF. M. M. NINAN Thomas Müntzer (1489 – 1525) was a radical German preacher and theologian of the early Reformation whose opposition to both Luther and the Roman Catholic Church led to his open defiance of late-feudal authority in central Germany. Müntzer was foremost amongst those reformers who took issue with Luther’s compromises with feudal authority. He became a leader of the German peasant and plebeian uprising —commonly known as the German Peasants' War— of 1525, was captured after the battle of Frankenhausen, and was tortured and executed Müntzer, a former Roman Catholic priest who became Lutheran soon after the Reformation began in 1517. In 1520, he ended up in Zwickau and there met Niklas Storch, a weaver with apocalyptic expectations of Christ’s imminent return filled with all visions, signs and wonders associated with the imminent return of Jesus to establish his egalitarian system. The visions were very contagious and Müntzer soon became one of them “Muntzer was a propheta obsessed by eschatological phantasies which he attempted to translate into reality by exploiting social discontent.” Norman Cohn 69
Page 2 and 3:
MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLU
Page 4 and 5:
Page 6 and 7:
Page 8 and 9:
Page 10 and 11:
Page 12 and 13:
Page 14 and 15:
Page 16 and 17:
Page 18 and 19:
Page 20 and 21:
Controversy MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELU
Page 22 and 23: Other traditions MARTIN LUTHER: THE
Page 24 and 25: MARTIN LUTHER: THE RELUCTANT REVOLU
Page 48 and 49: Luther’s Antilegomena MARTIN LUTH
Page 110 and 111: Published Books by Prof.M.M.Ninan w
show all

Martin Luther

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?