Social Background of the Reformation in the German States 97Luther and his followers denied the special status of the clergy as a group
marked off from the rest of the population. In the early days of the Reforma
tion, some reformers undertook expeditions to “rescue” nuns from convents.
A number of former priests began to take wives, which at first shocked
Luther, since this represented the end of clerical celibacy, which the Church
had proclaimed in the eleventh century. Luther asserted in 1521, “Good
Lord! Will our people at Wittenberg give wives even to monks? They w ill not
push a wife on me!” But by 1 525 he changed his mind, and married a former
nun. The marriage of clerics further broke down the barrier between the
priest and the people, symbolizing the “priesthood of all believers” by elimi
nating the clerical distinction of celibacy. Nonetheless, Luther limited the
task of interpreting the Scriptures to professors of theology.
The Peasants' Revolt
In the southern German states, some burghers worried that law' and order
would collapse, and that the poor might rise up. Some lords and burghers
expressed concern that the villagers might “turn Swiss,” referring to the
Swiss towns that lived without lords and were self-governing and indepen
dent. News of several strange and alarming prophecies circulated.
In 1524-1525, peasants rose up against their lords in parts of the cen
tral and southern German states (see Map 3.1). They demanded the return
of rights (such as to hunt freely and to pasture their animals on the com
mon lands) that lords had usurped. They also asked for the abolition of
serfdom and the tithe, which they declared to be against God’s will. Bands
of poor people burned castles and monasteries.
The peasants’ revolt spread into Austria and Carinthia, and up into
Thuringia and Saxony. Pamphlets called for social as w;ell as religious
reform. Thomas Miinzer (c. 1491-1525), a priest and theologian, merged
religious reform with social revolution. He preached against the Church and
Luther with equal fury, for he believed that both the Church and Luther had
humbled themselves to lay authorities. Miinzer led a peasant army in
Thuringia, where Luther’s reform movement had made many converts.
In the northwestern German states, also in 1525, some towns that had
been won over to religious reform rose up against Catholic princes. Swabian
peasants promulgated twelve articles against their lords, princes, and bish
ops, demanding that communities have the right to choose their ow'n pas
tors. But here, too, the demands of the rebels had a social content. They
asked for an end to double taxation by both lay and ecclesiastical lords and
the “death tax” by which heirs had to give up the deceased’s finest horse,
cow, or garment. They demanded the end of serfdom, the return of common
lands to their use, and free access to forests and streams.
Luther had some sympathy with the plight of the poor. Some of his fol
lowers began to see in his teaching a means of resistance against the pow
erful. But Luther rejected the idea that his central theological idea of