The Peasant War in Germany

of  silence,  its  initiation  ceremonies,  and  its  union  banner  with  the  legend,  “Nothing  but
God’s  justice.”  The  plan  of  action  was  similar  to  that  of  the  Alsatian  Union.  Bruchsal,
where  the  majority  of  the  population  belonged  to  the  Union,  was  to  be  overpowered.  A
Union  army  was  to  be  organised  and  dispatched  into  the  surrounding  principalities  as
moving points of concentration.
The plan was betrayed by a clergyman to whom one of the conspirators revealed it in
the  confessional.  The  governments  immediately  resorted  to  counter  action.  How
widespread  the  Union  had  become,  is  apparent  from  the  terror  which  seized  the  various
imperial estates in Alsace and in the Union of Suabia. Troops were concentrated, and mass
arrests  were  made.  Emperor  Maximilian,  “the  last  of  the  knights,”  issued  the  most
bloodthirsty,  punitive  decree  against  the  undertaking  of  the  peasants.  Hordes  of  peasants
assembled here and there, and armed resistance was offered, but the isolated peasant troops
could not hold ground for a long time. Some of the conspirators were executed and many
fled,  but  the  secrecy  was  so  well  preserved  that  the  majority,  and  also  the  leaders,  could
remain unmolested in their own localities or in the countries of the neighbouring masters.
After this new defeat, there followed a prolonged period of apparent quiet in the class
struggles. The work, however, was continued in an underground way. Already, in the first
years  of  the  Sixteenth  Century,  Poor  Konrad  was  formed  in  Suabia,  apparently  in
connection with the scattered members of the Union Shoe. In the Black Forest, the Union
Shoe  continued  in  isolated  circles  until,  ten  years  later,  an  energetic  peasant  leader
succeeded in uniting the various threads and combining them into a great conspiracy. Both
conspiracies became public, one shortly after the other, in the restless years from 1513 to
1515, in which the Swiss, Hungarian and Slovenian peasants made a series of significant
insurrections.
The  man  who  restored  the  Upper  Rhenish  Union  Shoe  was  Joss  Fritz  of
Untergrombach, a fugitive from the conspiracy of 1502, a former soldier, in all respects an
outstanding  figure.  After  his  flight,  he  had  kept  himself  in  various  localities  between  the
Lake  Constance  and  the  Black  Forest,  and  finally  settled  as  a  vassal  near  Freiburg  in
Breisgau, where he even became a forester. Interesting details as to the manner in which he
reorganised the Union from this point of vantage and as to the skill with which he managed
to attract people of different character, are contained in the investigations. It was due to the
diplomatic talent and the untiring endurance of this model conspirator that a considerable
number  of  people  of  the  most  divergent  classes  became  involved  in  the  Union:  knights,
priests, burghers, plebeians and peasants, and it is almost certain that he organised several
grades of the conspiracy, one more or less sharply divided from the other. All serviceable
elements  were  utilised  with  the  greatest  circumspection  and  skill.  Outside  of  the  initiated
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emissaries who wandered over the country in various disguises, the vagrants and beggars
were  used  for  subordinate  missions.  Joss  stood  in  direct  communication  with  the  beggar
kings, and through them he held in his hand the numerous vagabond population. In fact, the
beggar kings played a considerable role in his conspiracy. Very original figures they were,
these beggar kings. One roamed the country with a girl using her seemingly wounded feet
as  a  pretext  for  begging;  he  wore  more  than  eight  insignia  on  his  hat  –  the  fourteen
deliverers, St. Ottilie, Our Mother in Heaven, etc.; besides, he wore a long red beard, and
carried  a  big  knotty  stick  with  a  dagger  and  pike.  Another,  begging  in  the  name  of  St.
Velten,  offered  spices  and  worm-seeds;  he  wore  a  long  iron-coloured  coat,  a  red  barret,
with the Baby of Trient attached thereto, a sword at his side, and many knives and a dagger
on  his  girdle.  Others  had  artificial  open  wounds,  besides  similar  picturesque  attire.  There
were at least ten of them, and for the price of two thousand guilders they were supposed to
set fire simultaneously in Alsace, in the Margraviate of Baden, and in Breisgau, and to put
themselves, with at least 2,000 men of their own, under the command of Georg Schneider,
the former Captain of the Lansquenets, on the day of the Zabern Parish Fair in Rozen, in
order to conquer the city. A courier service from station to station was established between
real  members  of  the  union.  Joss  Fritz  and  his  chief  emissary,  Stoffel  of  Freiburg,
continually riding from place to place, reviewed the armies of the neophytes at night. There
is ample material in the documents of the court investigations relative to the spread of the
Union in the Upper Rhine and Black Forest regions. The documents contain many names
of members from the various localities in that region, together with descriptions of persons.
Most of those mentioned were journeymen, peasants and innkeepers, a few nobles, priests
(like  that  of  Lehen  himself),  and  unemployed  Lansquenets.  This  composition  shows  the
more developed character that the Union Shoe had assumed under Joss Fritz. The plebeian
element  of  the  cities  began  to  assert  itself  more  and  more.  The  ramifications  of  the
conspiracy went over into Alsace, present-day Baden, up to Wuerttemberg and the Main.
Larger  meetings  were  held  from  time  to  time  on  remote  mountains  such  as  the  Kniebis,
etc.,  and  the  affairs  of  the  Union  were  discussed.  The  meetings  of  the  chiefs,  often
participated in by local members as well as by delegates of the more remote localities, took
place on the Hartmatte near Lehen, and it was here that the fourteen articles of the Union
were adopted: No master besides the emperor, and (according to some) the pope; abolition
of the Rottweil imperial court; limitation of the church court to religious affairs; abolition
of all interest which had been paid so long that it equalled the capital; an interest of 5 per
cent  as  the  highest  permissible  rate;  freedom  of  hunting,  fishing,  grazing,  and  wood
cutting; limitation of the priests to one prebend for each; confiscation of all church estates
and  monastery  gems  in  favour  of  the  Union;  abolition  of  all  inequitable  taxes  and  tolls;
eternal  peace  within  entire  Christendom,  energetic  action  against  all  opponents  of  the
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