The Peasant War in Germany

two forms of mediaeval heresy, we find as early as the Twelfth Century the precursors of
the  great  division  between  the  middle-class  and  the  peasant-plebeian  opposition  which
caused  the  collapse  of  the  peasant  war.  This  division  is  manifest  throughout  the  later
Middle Ages.
The heresy of the cities, which is the actual official heresy of the Middle Ages, directed
itself primarily against the clergy, whose riches and political importance it attacked. In the
very same manner as the bourgeoisie at present demands a “gouvernement à bon marché”
(cheap  government),  so  the  middle-class  of  mediaeval  times  demanded  first  of  all  an
“église à bon marché” (cheap church). Reactionary in form, as is every heresy which sees
in  the  further  development  of  church  and  dogma,  only  a  degeneration,  the  middle-class
heresy demanded the restoration of the ancient simple church constitution and the abolition
of  an  exclusive  class  of  priests.  This  cheap  arrangement  would  eliminate  the  monks,  the
prelates, the Roman court, in brief, everything which was expensive for the church. In their
attack  against  papacy,  the  cities,  themselves  republics  although  under  the  protection  of
monarchs, expressed for the first time in a general form the idea that the normal form of
government  for  the  bourgeoisie  was  the  republic.  Their  hostility  towards  many  a  dogma
and  church  law  is  partly  explained  by  the  foregoing  and  partly  by  their  conditions.  Why
they were so bitter against celibacy, no one has given a better explanation than Boccaccio.
Arnold  of  Brescia
[5]
 in  Italy  and  Germany,  the  Albigenses
[6]
 in  south  France,  John
Wycliffe
[7]
 in  England,  Huss
[8]
 and  the  Calixtines
[9]
 in  Bohemia,  were  the  chief
representatives of this opposition. That the opposition against feudalism should appear here
only  as  an  opposition  against  religious  feudalism,  is  easily  understood  when  one
remembers that, at that time, the cities were already a recognised estate sufficiently capable
of  fighting  lay  feudalism  with  its  privileges  either  by  force  of  arms  or  in  the  city
assemblies.
Here, as in south France, in England and Bohemia, we find the lower nobility joining
hands  with  the  cities  in  their  struggle  against  the  clergy  and  in  their  heresies,  a
phenomenon  due  to  the  dependence  of  the  lower  nobility  upon  the  cities  and  to  the
community  of  interests  of  both  groups  as  against  the  princes  and  the  prelates.  The  same
phenomenon is found in the peasant war.
A totally different character was assumed by that heresy which was a direct expression
of  the  peasant  and  plebeian  demands,  and  which  was  almost  always  connected  with  an
insurrection.  This  heresy,  sharing  all  the  demands  of  middle-class  heresy  relative  to  the
clergy, the papacy, and the restoration of the ancient Christian church organisation, went far
beyond them. It demanded the restoration of ancient Christian equality among the members
of the community, this to be recognised as a rule for the middle-class world as well. From
The Peasant War in Germany
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the equality of the children of God it made the implication as to civil equality, and partly
also as to equality of property. To make the nobility equal to the peasant, the patricians and
the privileged middle-class equal to the plebeians, to abolish serfdom, ground rents, taxes,
privileges, and at least the most flagrant differences of property – these were demands put
forth with more or less definiteness and regarded as naturally emanating from the ancient
Christian doctrine. This peasant-plebeian heresy, in the fullness of feudalism, e.g., among
the Albigenses, hardly distinguishable from the middle-class opposition, grew in the course
of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries to be a strongly defined party opinion appearing
independently  alongside  the  heresy  of  the  middle-class.  This  is  the  case  with  John  Ball,
preacher of the Wat Tyler insurrection in England alongside the Wycliffe movement. This
is  also  the  case  with  the  Taborites  alongside  the  Calixtines  in  Bohemia.  The  Taborites
showed even a republican tendency under theocratic colouring, a view later developed by
the representatives of the plebeians in Germany in the Fifteenth and at the beginning of the
Sixteenth Century.
This form of heresy was joined in by the dream visions of the mystic sects, such as the
Scourging  Friars,
[10]
 the  Lollards,
[11]
 etc.,  which  in  times  of  suppression  continued  the
revolutionary tradition.
The plebeians of that time were the only class outside of the existing official society. It
was  outside  the  feudal,  as  well  as  outside  the  middle-class  organisation.  It  had  neither
privileges nor property; it was deprived even of the possessions owned by peasant or petty
bourgeois,  burdened  with  crushing  duties  as  much  as  they  might  be;  it  was  deprived  of
property and rights in every respect; it lived in such a manner that it did not even come into
direct  contact  with  the  existing  institutions,  which  ignored  it  completely.  It  was  a  living
symptom of the dissolution of the feudal and guild middle-class societies, and it was at the
same time the first precursor of modern bourgeois society.
This  position  of  the  plebeians  is  sufficient  explanation  as  to  why  the  plebeian
opposition  of  that  time  could  not  be  satisfied  with  fighting  feudalism  and  the  privileged
middle-class  alone;  why,  in  fantasy,  at  least,  it  reached  beyond  modern  bourgeois  society
then  only  in  its  inception;  why,  being  an  absolutely  propertyless  faction,  it  questioned
institutions, views and conceptions common to every society based on division of classes.
The  chiliastic  dream-visions
[12]
 of  ancient  Christianity  offered  in  this  respect  a  very
serviceable starting-point. On the other hand, this reaching out beyond not only the present
but  also  the  future,  could  not  help  being  violently  fantastic.  At  the  first  practical
application, it naturally fell back into narrow limits set by prevailing conditions. The attack
on  private  property,  the  demand  for  community  of  possession  had  to  solve  itself  into  a
crude  organisation  of  charity;  vague  Christian  equality  could  result  in  nothing  but  civic
The Peasant War in Germany
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