Similarities Between English And German Peasants

Brett Stoneman
HST 102
10/22/17
The English and German peasants faced economic difficulties and oppression and referred to the Christian scriptures to justify their actions. The leaders of the revolts used sections from the Bible (scriptures) to provide evidence that the actions of the nobles are clergy were wrong and inhumane. Because their leaders argued their points referencing Scriptures, the peasants believed it was the way God intended it to be and therefore the correct way. The revolts performed by the English and German peasants led to enormous amounts of collusion to bring down the clergy and nobles and change the way of living for the lower class.
The English lords depended on their peasants to finance the Hundred Years’ War against the

He encouraged a truer faith and interpretation of the bible. He also specifically referenced parts of the Scriptures that showed nobles were doing wrong according to the word of God. An example of this is Martin Luther saying that God suffers so that crops can grow and by restricting the usage of crops it is ungodly and not loving thy neighbor (Twelve Articles of German Peasants). Another is that the sale of indulgences isn’t included anywhere in Scriptures, yet the clergy began selling them which was an obvious sign of corruption in the church (95 theses). Luther’s ideas promoted equality within the social order and were seen as valid because they had backing from Christian Scriptures. They were also more beneficial to the majority of people at the time (peasants) because they were less exclusive and less expensive. This resulted in him having an enormous following and Protestantism becoming a major religious practice (Hubler,