Ap Euro Dbq Essay

The peasants disliked quite a few things and in 1524-1526 they expressed the ideas of them being equal with their lords (masters), and to be led and taught about the Lutheran religion. Document One states, “The peasants are blinded, led astray, and made witless.” meaning that they had no guide or source of the Lutheran teachings. The peasants wanted to be with the lords in church to get a proper knowledge of Lutheranism,. However, the lords did not want them to cause trouble in their church

(Martin Luther, Doc. 4) In document 5 even, it says how the peasants lutheran beliefs say everyone are brothers and sister and that the rich should share with the poor, and the extremist thought of this belief could spark a tremendous revolt such as this

Furthermore, being a peasant was not a choice for peasants. Articles of the Peasants of Memmingen refers to Christ sacrificing blood for both the peasants and the emperor (Document 5). His say is that if God discriminated peasants like people do then he wouldn’t have offered them the same thing as he offered the

He says that the revolt has taken place to repress the nobility and that the rebellion itself has its roots in Lutheran teaching, for they relate their demands to the Gospel

The Protestant Reformation broke out in Germany in the beginning of 1517. The Church and the Pope began to lose power and authority and people began to question the teachings and ways of the Catholic Church. Ideas of new religions, such as Protestant, Lutheran, and Calvinists, started to spread throughout Europe. The Church was corrupt and started to lose followers. These problems led to people speaking out against the Church and it became a revolution of political and religious debates.

One of the main contributors of the peasant riots, Thomas Müntzer, wrote to the peasants of Allstedt encouraging them to unite with the rebels and God’s will, by demolishing the princes’ towers (Doc 4). Müntzer was notoriously known for his violent onslaughts in the name of God and his theologian ideas, akin to Luther’s. He sustained the peasant resistance by declaring and modeling the revolt after the Protestant Reformation. Initially, the nobility ignored the peasant rebellion, as it only challenged the clergy; however, after the peasants ravaged the Church, they proceeded to barrage the nobility (Doc 7). Count Wilhelm wrote to the Duke of Prussia to criticize the nobility for downplaying and failing to control the revolts.

Social DBQ Beginning in the 16th century, there was a growing unrest among the serfs primarily in modern day Germany. High taxes, joined with the fact that peasants had no opportunity to increase their social standing, let alone the right to do so, gave an atmosphere of disaccord between the noble, and lower class. Internalizing the egalitarian ideologies of Martin Luther, it was easy for the peasants to feel like they had greater place in among society. However, due to semi-feudalistic attitudes of those days, peasants were the lowest social class and needed to stay that way for such a social structure to function. Martin Luther’s teachings that through faith everyone could be equal in God’s eyes gave peasants a false sense of equality,

The Protestant Reformation: An Ununited Cry for Change The Protestant Reformation was an outbreak of resentment toward the Catholic Church in Europe starting in 1517. Catalyzing this era of reform was a man named Martin Luther, as he posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The Ninety-five

Historians argue that there were many causes of the Protestant Reformation, but there was one main issue that instigated its formation. Economically, resentment of the Church’s wealth and taxes influenced the drive for reformation and particularly, other European leaders. In the same respect, the Church’s growing political authority and push for power troubled such leaders. Despite the perceived supreme power of the Church in Europe, the religious affairs and corruption amongst the Church’s leaders were more important causes of the reformation. An increased disdain and mistrust of the Church dominated the opinion of the public and further supported the idea of reformation.

One example, is when Leonhard von Eck, the Chancellor of Bavaria, explains how the peasants are acting “blinded, led astray, and made witless”, he tries to make the peasants look bad and tries to put all the blame on him. I think that Leonhard is likely not a reliable source of information as he may be making false claims to try to control the situation in his report to the Duke of Bavaria (Doc. 1). Similarly, Martin Luther says ,in the Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants ,that the peasants are out of place, and use the Bible to express their desire for freedom. I think that this displays how the religious figures might view the revolt. Martin Luther likely wrote Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants so he is not held accountable for the revolt, since Luther had written about Christian religious freedoms he didn't want anyone to link him directly to the revolts (Doc. 5).

Describing the chaos that had occurred during the Holy Easter week, he encouraged the peasants to further revolt: “Hammer away on the anvils of the princes and lords, cast down their towers to the ground!” What started off as a call for justice and rights, resulted in a violent, bloody, and thoughtless attack. Müntzer used religion to gain new recruits, but what Eck had said ended up true. As time went on, the peasants were “blinded, led astray, and made

Most all rebellions stem from the idea of creating a better society. Both Satan and Oliver Cromwell understand that by establishing a society superior to what once was, equality might be achieved. In the case of Oliver Cromwell’s rebellion, this equality applied to the masses. This is similar to that of Satan, whose rebellion gives equality to the angels. Both movements largely impact the whole of creation and humanity.

Thomas Muntzer said “How long are you going to resist God’s will? … Hammer away on the anvils of the princes … cast down their towers” (Doc 4) Muntzer's message is that people need to fight against the princes and officials, it is God’s will, a religious cause. This viewpoint is reasonable given that Thomas Muntzer wanted to better peasants lives, and was a celebrated theologian, and his audience was the lay people in Europe, it was understandable that many peasants would turn to Muntzer, believe in his extremism, and rebel. One other example, was the Peasant Parliament of Swabia, which claimed that “Hitherto we have been held as your poor serfs …

Martin Luther was very angry about this, he believed that they forgot their place in the society, and how they are just peasants, nothing more (Document 5). Luther believed they were liars, and their Articles were not inspired by God. Lastly, Caspar Nützel hoped that God would grant peace throughout the society. As said by him in document 6, “It is indeed true that the poor, blind, and ignorant peasants have overstepped the mark with their unseemly behavior.” Caspar’s perspective of religion, along with the others, caused the uprising of peasants in

In German nobleman Christoffel von Lichtenstein’s legal plea for leniency to Count Wilhelm von Henneberg on August 24, 1525, German peasants’ cruelty and estranged behavior is apparent. From Lichtenstein’s perspective and being a nobleman most anything the peasants did came out as evil and rebellious. He goes to say that even though he had grown up with peasants’ parents, and was a very old age, this held nothing with the peasants and that they went on to force him into signing an allegiance to them. In the last year that would experience the terrible rebellions committed by the peasants, most of them in southern Germany, Emperor Charles V and the formal assembly of imperial councilors and officials advising Emperor Charles V came to the