The Renaissance: Political Renewal and Intellectual Change 241Kurfürstvereinwith many of the powers of a central gov-
ernment were defeated in 1424, 1453, and 1500. The
Common Penny, an imperial tax, was rejected by a ma-
jority of German states after it had been approved by
their representatives in the Imperial Diet or Reichstag.
The empire would remain an unstable grouping of
eighty-nine free Imperial Cities together with more
than two hundred independent principalities, most of
which continued to divide and re-form according to the
vagaries of partible inheritance. A few, such as Bavaria,
achieved near-equality with the electoral states by in-
troducing primogeniture. However, all sought to maxi-
mize their own power and to resist imperial and
electoral encroachments.
In the process, German states—and cities—imi-
tated the western monarchies by trying to increase rev-
enues at the expense of traditional rights and privileges.
The peasants, already squeezed by landholders trying
to reverse the economic effects of a declining popula-
tion, added the actions of the princes to their list of
grievances and rebelled. The last and most serious of
the bundschuhrevolts was the Great Peasant War of
1524–25 that ended with the defeat of the peasant
armies and the imposition of serfdom in many parts of
the empire (see document 13.2). Serfs had no personal
or legal rights and were usually transferred from one
owner to another whenever the property on which
they lived changed hands. Their status differed from
that of slaves only in that they could not be sold as in-
dividuals. Serfdom was the final step in the destruction
of peasant freedom.Central and Eastern Europe
Serfdom as an institution was also established in eastern
Europe. In Bohemia, Hungary, and Poland-Lithuania,
the growing power of aristocratic landholders deprived
peasants of their traditional freedoms and blocked the
development of western-style states. If western kings
may be said to have tamed their nobles, in the east the
nobles tamed their kings.
Bohemia and Hungary were in some ways politi-
cally similar, though Bohemia was part of the HolyDOCUMENT 13.2
The Twelve Articles of the German Peasants
The Great Peasant War of 1524–25 was the last in a long series of re-
volts against the claims of lords, princes, and the church. Some of the
Twelve Articles reflect the peasants’ understanding of the Protestant
Reformation. Most of them expressed grievances that had been accumu-
lating for centuries. Those abridged below would have been as valid in
1424 as in 1524.The Third Article. It has been the custom hitherto for
men to hold us as their own property, which is pitiable
enough considering that Christ has redeemed and pur-
chased us without exception, by the shedding of His pre-
cious blood, the lowly as well as the great. Accordingly, it
is consistent with Scripture that we should be free and
wish to be so....
The Fourth Article. [I]t has been the custom hereto-
fore that no poor man was allowed to catch venison or
wild fowl, or fish in flowing water, which seems to us
quite unseemly and unbrotherly.... Accordingly, it is our
desire if a man holds possession of waters that he should
prove from satisfactory documents that his right has been
wittingly acquired by purchase.The Fifth Article. [W]e are aggrieved in the matter of
woodcutting, for our noble folk have appropriated all the
woods to themselves alone.... It should be free to every
member of the community to help himself to such fire-
wood as he needs in his home.
The Eighth Article. [W]e are greatly burdened by hold-
ings that cannot support the rent exacted from them. We
ask that the lords may appoint persons of honor to inspect
these holdings and fix a rent in accordance with justice.
The Ninth Article. [W]e are burdened with the great
evil in the constant making of new laws. In our opinion
we should be judged according to the old written law, so
that the case shall be decided according to its merits and
not with favors.
The Eleventh Article. [W]e will entirely abolish the
custom called Todfall[death dues], and will no longer al-
low it, nor allow widows and orphans to be thus shame-
fully robbed against God’s will.
“The Twelve Articles of the German Peasants.” In Hans Hillerbrand,
ed., The Protestant Reformation,pp. 65–66. New York: Harper
Torchbooks, 1967.