Comparing The Peasants War And The German Reformation

The Peasants’ War was a time of violence and rebellion; there is no question about that. But who can be seen as responsible for instilling the use of force as a solution for the injustice by the Church and lords? Arguably the two largest leaders in the Peasants’ War and the German Reformation were Martin Luther and Thomas Müntzer. Although they both wanted to fix injustices, they used very different forms of rhetoric to do so. Martin Luther’s writings condemned violence and asked rebels to trust in God rather than force. On the other hand, Müntzer’s writings encouraged the peasants to take up arms and invoke violence. By looking at Martin Luther’s writings in A Sincere Admonition to Guard against Rebellion and Against the Murdering and Robbing Hordes of Peasants, it can be seen very clearly that Luther had …show more content…
It had gotten so bad that Luther wrote a pamphlet titled Against the Murdering and Robbing Hordes of Peasants in which he went a step further than condemning the peasants’ actions, but told lords and princes to stop the insurrection. This time can be seen as a turning point of the Peasants’ War because Luther would rather call for defense against those he originally sought to lose power than condone the actions of those who were using violence to accomplish his goals. At this point, Luther disassociated himself from those who he originally was a leader for. Luther did not consider the peasants followers of himself anymore because the peasants were not contending for the Gospel, but instead had become ruthless, disobedient, and savage murderers (133). Luther even went as far to say, “I think there is not a devil left in hell; they have all gone into the peasants” (132). Especially later in the Peasants’ War, Luther had not only lost all respect for the peasants’ cause, but showed great hate for constantly using unlawful