Luther and The Twelve Articles
The peasants had to burden the many encumbrances they were charged with and in Luther’s and the reformation’s stance they saw the affirmation that most of those were not provided for by the will of God.
But Luther was not happy with the peasants’ revolts and their invoking him. Possibly he also saw their negative effect on the Reformation as a whole. He called upon the peasants and urged them to keep peace. He also wrote to the gents:
“They set up twelve articles which of some are so just, that they do shame to you before God and world. But almost all of them are in their favour and not drawn up to the best. But it is unbearable to tax and slave-drive people like this forever.”
In May 1525 Luther’s script "Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants" appeared, in which he took sides for the authorities and, fearing for the godly order, called for the peasants’ destruction. It was specifically caused by the so-called “Weinsberger Bluttat”, the peasants under Jäcklein Rohrbach killing the High Governor, count Ludwig Helferich of Helfenstein and his followers after having seized the city and the castle.
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Famous quotes containing the words luther, twelve and/or articles:
“Here is everything which can lay hold of the eye, ear and imagination—everything which can charm and bewitch the simple and ignorant. I wonder how Luther ever broke the spell.”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“I have travelled a good deal in Concord; and everywhere, in shops, and offices, and fields, the inhabitants have appeared to me to be doing penance in a thousand remarkable ways.... The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve, and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured any monster or finished any labor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are several natural phenomena which I shall have to have explained to me before I can keep on going as a resident member of the human race. One is the metamorphosis which hats and suits undergo exactly one week after their purchase, whereby they are changed from smart, intensely becoming articles of apparel into something children use when they want to “dress up like daddy.””
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)