In a quick study, Michael G Baylor says in his intro that the case of Hans Behem was the first in a "mounting series of localized revolts" in Germany [p. 8]. His book The German Reformation and the Peasant's War: A Brief History With Documents gives, in example, a document that shows some of the characteristics of one of these local revolts. This document was edited and translated for English by one Gerald Strauss in his book, Manifestations of Discontent in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1971).
Baylor continues saying simply, "Several of these disturbances adopted as their name and sign the Bundschuh, the bound (laced) shoe that was a symbol of the peasantry, and took place in the Upper Rhine region in the empire's southwest...." [p.8]
The shoe was a symbol of their (often illegal) organizations and generally, the peasant's plight and desire for reform.
In 1502, Joss Fritz, whether he was a real person or just a name used by the authorities to have someone to blame "... organised a peasant rebellion in the bishopric of Speyer to protest the bishop's exactions. " [p. 35]
The church needed money for the church, the Emperor needed money for wars and inflation had been going up. More coin was being imported but trade was advancing and causing disparities and tensions between merchants, landlords and serfs. But it was the church, the local authority that wrote things down and remembered these disturbances. They had to gain confessions from the participants to make legal cases against them. So they tortured them.
Baylor also mentions that for Joss Fritz, the "... plan was to attack the city of Bruchsal and towns and castles in the principality of Baden. The slogan on the rebel's flag summarized their fundamental aim: "Lord, stand by Thy divine justice"; in other words they wanted to do away with all human laws and to be subject only to godly law, a demand that later resurfaced in the Peasant's War." [pp. 35-6]
According to confessions extracted from over a hundred members of this conspiracy [Baylor's term], the aim was to overthrow the 'yoke of servitude' and to force the issue through the use of arms, as soon as they could organize and gain confidence in using those arms. [p. 36]
The following then are some of those confessions from that same Gerald Strauss book listed above.
"They confessed that they had decided among themselves to come together at dawn on [April 22] Friday, the day before St George's day, to launch their assault on the city of Bruchsal. And they would have succeeded in their objective, due to the number of sympathizers among the citizens, had a chance occurrence not prevented the plot from being carried out."
Editor's footnote: "According to Gerald Strauss, a conspirator divulged the plans for the conquest of Bruchsal during confession. Notified by the priest, the authorities arrested the ringleader and suppressed their followers with the common punishments for treason of death for men and exile for women and children." [p. 37]
Baylor tells us the scribe that wrote these down was hostile to the cause. This is a part of the record.
"They chose Our Lady, the Virgin Mary, and St John as patron saints. In order to have a secret sign of recognition, they decided on the following password: One conspirator asks another, "What is your name?" The other, if he belongs to the conspiracy, replies, "The priests are to blame." Oh, the sinfulness of the peasant mind! What a bane it has always been to the clergy!"
"During and after torture they confessed that it was their intention to annihilate all authority and government. They had decided that, as soon as their number had grown large enough, their bands would fall upon anyone opposed to them and kill without mercy all those who dared resist."
"They said that they had decided to attack first the city of Bruchsal in the bishopric of Speyer, where, they boasted, half the inhabitants were sympathetic to them. Having gained Bruchsal, they planned to proceed, armed, against the Margraviate of Baden and devastate everything that lay in their path." [p. 36]
"They had resolved to pillage monastic and ecclesiastical possessions, also the property of the clergy, and to divide the booty among themselves. They wished to humiliate the servants of the Church and to reduce them in number by killing and driving out as many as possible." [pp. 36-7]
"Such great confidence had they in their endeavor that they took it for certain that, once the war had broken out, no subjects would resist them; they believed, on the contrary, that peasants, burghers, and townsmen would freely join their association out of the love of liberty which all men share."
"They confessed that they had decided among themselves to take by force of arms all the freedoms they desired and would henceforth refuse to tolerate any man's dominion over them. They would no longer pay interest, remit tithes or taxes, nor pay tolls or dues of any kind. They wished to be completely quit of all duties and tributes." [p. 37]
"They demanded that hunting, fishing, grazing, lumbering, and every other thing that had become a princely prerogative be returned to the public so that a peasant might hunt and fish whenever and wherever he had a mind to, without being hindered or oppressed by anyone." [pp. 37-8]
"... Whoever undertook to resist them would be killed mercilessly as a disobedient and seditious enemy of divine justice." [p. 38]
all quotes from Michael G Baylor, The German Reformation and the Peasant's War: A Brief History With Documents, Boston, NewYork, Bedford/St Martin's Press , 2012
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