German Society at the Close of the Middle AgesBax, Ernest Belfort
History
German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages
Bax, Ernest Belfort
Germany -- Social conditions; Reformation -- Germany
In the year 1502, nine years later, the bishopric of _Speyer_, the
court of which was noted for its extravagance and tyranny, had to face
another _Bundschuh_. This second movement had able men at its head,
and extended over well nigh all the regions of the Upper and Middle
Rhine. It similarly took the nature of a conspiracy, rather than of
an open rebellion. Within a few weeks, 7000 men and 400 women had
been sworn into the league, from a large number of villages, hamlets
and small towns, for the larger towns were purposely left out, the
movement being essentially a peasant one. The village and _mark_ of
Untergrünbach was its centre. Its object and aim was nothing less
than the complete overthrow of the existing ecclesiastical and feudal
organisation of the Empire. The articles of the association declared:
"We have joined ourselves together in order that we may be free. We
will free ourselves with arms in our hands, for we would be as the
Swiss. We will root out and abolish all authorities and lordships
from the land, and march against them with the force of our host and
with well-armed hand under our banner. And all who do not honour and
acknowledge us shall be killed. The princes and nobles broken and done
with, we will storm the clergy in their foundations and abbeys. We will
overpower them, and hunt out and kill all priests and monks together."
The property of the clergy and the nobles was to be seized and divided;
as in the former case, all feudal dues were to be abolished, the
primitive communism in the use of the land, and of what was on it, was
to be resumed. The pass-word, by means of which the members of the
organisation were known to one another, was the answer to the question:
"How fares it?" The question and answer were in the form of a rhyme:--
"Loset! Was ist nun für ein Wesen?"
"Wir mögen vor Pfaffen und Adel nit genesen."
This may be paraphrased as follows:--
"Well, now! And how doth it fare?"
"Of priests and of nobles we've enough and to spare."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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