The Lutheran Movement

One audience for Luther's writings were those who were discontented not only with the pope and the Church but with other aspects of early modern society as well. In the German region of Swabia, there was in 1524, one of the periodical peasant uprisings about which we talked last time. (German peasants had more feudal obligations than those in France, although fewer than those in Eastern Europe.)

The peasants' complaints were not theological but had to do with the tithe, with seeking freedom from feudal obligations. The leaders of the Swabian peasants linked their complaints to Luther's' complaints against the Church and, like Luther, called on princes to intervene (not against the Roman Catholic Church, but against their landlords!