German Peasants Dbq

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German peasants faced monetary injustices and oppression from their lords during the 16th century which sparked revolts to occur in 1524. The peasants sought to overthrow the feudal system as they realized that they were being treated unjustly by their lords with the unsuitable compensation they were receiving for their labor and the heavy taxes that were being placed on them. Religious teachings such as of those of Martin Luther were also a motive behind the revolts. The primary causes of the German peasants’ revolts were based off of economic and religious factors. These revolts provoked many responses by figures of nobility and citizens that varied from disapproval to those of sympathy.

A major factor that caused the peasant revolts …show more content…

In a report to Duke Ludwig of Bavaria from Leonhard Von Eck, the Chancellor of Bavaria, he writes that the source of the revolts comes from Lutheran teachings (doc 1). He wrote that the peasants’ tactics of revolting were based off of Lutheran and biblical teachings, thus the motive behind the peasants’ violent actions were religiously influenced. Leonhard was the Chancellor of Bavaria, a predominantly Catholic region, thus he himself may have been a Catholic, which would be reasonable as to why he would blame Lutheran teachings for being a main source in causing the revolts. At the time Catholics rejected Lutheran teachings because it went against Catholic teachings and did not believe that the pope held any divine authority. It would only make sense for Leonhard to say that Lutheran teachings were to blame because it went against his own religion. Seeing as the actions of the peasants’ were influenced by religious teachings, in an open letter to the people of Allstedt, Thomas Müntzer justifies the actions of the peasants and the revolt as “God’s will” (doc 6). Thomas was a theologian and a preacher and so he wrote an open letter to the people because he has a major influence on the people as they will listen to him and most likely support what he will say. Thomas’ message was to support the peasants and so he knew the influence he had on the public hence why he wrote an open letter telling people to support the peasants knowing that there will be individuals who are willing to support them as

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