"In the eyes of the German working-classes, Muntzer was and is the most brilliant embodiment of heretical communism".- Karl Kautsky
"Luther had given the plebeian movement a powerful weapon—a translation of the bible. Through the bible, he contrasted feudal Christianity of his time with moderate Christianity of the first century. In opposition to decaying feudal society, he held up the picture of another society that knew nothing of the ramified and artificial feudal hierarchy. The peasants had made extensive use of this weapon against the forces of the princes, the nobility, and the clergy. Now Luther turned the same weapon against the peasants, extracting from the bible a veritable hymn to the authorities ordained by God—a feat hardly exceeded by any lackey of absolute monarchy. Princedom by the grace of God, passive resistance, even serfdom, were being sanctioned by the Bible".
F Engels[1]
Wu Ming, the Italian authors collective have in this
collection brought to a wider audience the work of the revolutionary pastor
Thomas Muntzer. This Verso publication forms part of its revolution series.
The collective is best known for its excellent bestselling
novel Q which was published under the pseudonym Luther Blissett. Wu
Ming examines how Müntzer has continued despite the passage of years to be
relevant for today's revolutionaries.
Thomas Müntzer was a radical pastor who had religious and
political differences with the leaders of the Reformation. He was especially
opposed to Martin Luther whom he called "brother soft life" it was one
of the more polite phrases used against Luther by Mutnzer.
Mutnzer was critical of Luther's reforms believing they did
not go far enough. Muntzer believed that the Kingdom of Heaven should be on
Earth. To facilitate this end, he led the Peasants War in Germany. Muntzer and
the war itself were a part of a wider movement of the Anabaptists. They
constituted the revolutionary wing of the Protestant Reformation in Central
Europe and were opposed to Luther's very limited reforms.
Muntzer was not only a powerful orator but a gifted writer. In
his "Sermon To The Princes" Muntzer ransacked the bible in order to
attack the greed and institutional corruption of the Vatican.
Muntzer was always a capable organiser, and many of his
ideas for agitation and organising would find their echo in later political
movements such as the 17th-century Levellers and Diggers and 19th
and 20th-century political movements. As Engel's states "Just
as Cromwell in England would be challenged from the left by the Levellers and
the Jacobins in France likewise by the Enrages, Luther and his political
patrons faced a revolt of the voiceless led by Thomas Muntzer.[2]
While the Peasants Revolt of 1525 took many by surprise, the
discontent had been simmering in Germany for decades. Even the conservative
historian G R Elton believed that the revolt was caused "by various
landlords to re-impose feudal rights that had fallen into disuse".
Elton was hostile to both Muntzer and the Peasants Revolt in
general. As Wu Ming points out "G. R. Elton, in his Reformation Europe
1517-1559, memorably introduces Muntzer as a 'youngish man full of violent
hatred for all things other than they should have been, university-trained, an
idealist of the kind familiar in all revolutions', dubs him 'the demonic genius
of the early Reformation and concludes, in terms wholly congruent with the
tradition initiated by Luther and Melanchthon, that he was 'not so much a
constructive revolutionary as an unrestrained fanatic, and in his preaching of
violence a dangerous lunatic'.[3]
Elton was also opposed to any Marxist understanding of
history writing "history deals with the activities of men, not
abstractions'. As Geoffrey Roberts points out "In Elton's concept of
history as a story of human existence and activity there was little place for
those large-scale forces, trends, structures, and patterns beloved by social
scientists. Everything in history--the events of the past--happens to and
through people. Sociological categories may be useful descriptive shorthands of
movements and outcomes over the long-run, but they remained abstractions unable
to explain specific actions and events--the details and particularities of past
happenings created by real people doing something".[4]
Real people in this struggle were dealing with a rapidly
declining population after the Black Death had ravaged Europe. While some peasants
and serfs had enjoyed both higher wages and better conditions, for the majority, it was a time of growing
misery. On a broader note, serious economic changes had begun in the economy in
Germany as it transitioned from a feudal based economy to a capitalistic one.
These changes had brought about a series of local uprisings and peasant riots
across Germany and all over Europe.
As Franz Mehring explains the early origins of capitalist
development "World trade arose in a number of cities because of especially
favourable historical and geographical conditions. It started in Lower Italy
through the overseas trade with the Orient, with Constantinople and Egypt, but
spread from there to the North. It brought into circulation great fortunes
which seemed almost immeasurable at the time and aroused the greed of all the
ruling classes of Europe. Here modern capital appears for the first time, and
it appears still essentially as merchant capital. But it immediately exerted a
disruptive effect on the feudal mode of production.
The more commodity exchange developed, the greater became
the power of money, for which anybody could obtain anything, which everybody
needed and everybody took. At the source of the capitalist mode of production
stood not the craft guild master, who with his limited number of journeymen
could only achieve moderate prosperity, but the merchant whose capital was
capable of unlimited expansion and whose lust for profit was therefore
boundless. With merchant capital – the revolutionary force of the 14th, 15th
and 16th centuries – new life came into medieval society, and new ways of
viewing things were born".[5]
Mehring believed that the social and political position of
the clergy began to be seriously undermined by the development of the printing
press and the translation of the Bible into German. The clergy's feudal based
ideology rapidly came into conflict with the development of commerce, and the
rising of a new capitalist class. When the clergy's Intellectual positions were
taken from it, they became lazy and ignorant which in turn was reflected in the
intimate relationship between the higher clergy and the princes so much, so
they became indistinguishable.
Muntzer was scathing towards the clergy saying "What a
pretty spectacle we have before us now – all the eels and snakes coupling
together immorally in one great heap. The priests and all the evil clerics are
the snakes...and the secular lords and rulers are the eels... My revered rulers
of Saxony...seek without delay the righteousness of God and take up the cause
of the gospel boldly".[6]
The number of riots and revolts increased when the Reformation
reached large parts of Germany and then spread to the rest of the empire. The revolt
was feared and hated not only by the German princes and knights but also the
leaders of the Reformation itself. The peasant revolt was entirely progressive.
The twelve articles of Memmingen issued by the peasants, although religious in
content were highly democratic. They came out of the "ecclesiastical shell
of which inside the more profound growing political and class differences
amongst the different sections of the Ruling elites were to be fought out".
The 12 articles[7]
which were demanded from the Swabian League were one of the
early examples of the "sighs of the oppressed". Unfortunately what the German
peasants wanted in 1525 was only achieved by the French Revolution in
1789.
As Mehring states their demands were for "electing and
recall of the clergy by the congregation, the abolition of serfdom and noble
hunting and fishing rights, the limitation of excessive labour services and
taxes, the restitution of the woods and pastures taken from individuals or
communities, and the removal of arbitrary justice and administration".[8]
In the beginning, the peasants were able to keep their
revolt largely peaceful. While this remained, it won support from the leaders
of the Reformation. When the Peasant's revolt started to become violent, it
caused considerable anger and violence amongst the princes. While the revolt
was relatively peaceful, it also won the support of Luther who put forward that
there should be a settlement based on the 12 articles. He said 'Not the
peasants, but God himself was in revolt against the bloodthirsty tyranny of the
princes'.[9]
Once the princes saw that the peasants were not going to be
peaceful, they moved to drown the revolt in blood. They were spurred on by
Luther who saw like the Princes that the revolt would be violent quickly
changed his tune.
He gave the Princes his full support in the form of a
pamphlet published on May 6th entitled Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes
of Peasants'. Luther in this pamphlet blamed the Peasants for the violence "Since
the peasants, then, have brought both God and man down upon them and are
already so many times guilty of death in body and soul, since they submit to no
court and wait for no verdict, but only rage on, I must instruct the worldly
governors how they are to act in the matter with a clear conscience".
He then cleared the way for the brutal crackdown saying "The
rulers, then, should go on unconcerned, and with a good conscience lay about
them as long as their hearts still beat. It is to their advantage that the peasants
have a bad conscience and an unjust cause, and that any peasant who is killed
is lost in body and soul and is eternally the devil's. But the rulers have a
good conscience and a just cause; and can, therefore, say to God with all
assurance of heart, 'Behold, my God, thou hast appointed me Prince or lord, of
this I can have no doubt; and though hast committed to me the sword over the
evildoers (Romans XIII). It is thy Word, and cannot lie. I must fulfill my
office, or forfeit thy grace. It is also plain that these peasants have
deserved death many times over, in thine eyes and the eyes of the world, and
have been committed to me for punishment. If it be thy will that I be slain by
them and that my rulership be taken from me and destroyed, so be it: thy will
be done. So shall I die and be destroyed fulfilling thy commandment and thy
Word, and shall be found obedient to thy commandment and my office. Therefore
will I punish and smite as long as my heart bears. Thou wilt judge and make
things right.' From then on the princes needed no extra encouragement.
Thomas Muntzer
The leader of the Peasants revolt, and for that matter, one
of the leaders of the Reformation was Thomas Munzer, who was the embodiment of
all that was courageous and progressive in the revolt. He was a secular priest
who called for social equality and did not hold back in ordering violence
against all those who opposed the change.
In Mulhausen, he laid the basis for a commune that was only
able to last barely two months. He and his army of peasants were defeated in a
battle by superior armed soldiers with access to significantly larger volumes
of armaments.
Despite fighting with much bravery, the one-sided nature of
the battles was evident. Some historians have said that the revolt failed
because the demands put forward by the peasants were out of date, on the
contrary, they were far ahead of the time and were an anticipation of future
communist movements.
The revolt had support from a few towns, and some workers
such as miners gave support to the rebellion, but the urban centres were still
too far underdeveloped to lend the support needed to defeat the knights and
princes.
Also, in general, the movement was beset by internal
disputes and problems. Battles remained local and provincial in their character.
Many peasants refused to come to the aid of their sisters and brothers fighting
in other parts of Germany.
The princes utilised trickery and outright deception against
the Peasantry, which they had through years of serfdom had grown accustomed to
trusting their so-called betters. On many occasions, the princes made promises
to them, and when the peasants laid down their arms, they were slaughtered by
the Princes' armies. It has been said upwards of 100,000 peasants was killed
during the entire conflict.
When the rebellion was over, it would be fair to say that
apart from escaping with their lives, not much had changed for the peasants.
Although they lost some of their self-government in many respects, they had
been so poor at the start of the war that after it, their life had not been
made worse. Many richer middling sort peasants had been ruined. For the Princes
the war was a financial bonanza, it had allowed them to seize vast tracks of
the clergy's land, and they levied huge fines on the towns which had supported
the uprising.
The persecution after the war did not just stop at the general Peasantry, the Anabaptists which took their name from the fact that they opposed the baptism the church carried out on newborn children were treated no less harshly and were virtually killed off as a movement. The Anabaptists were considered a religious peculiarity and were seen by the Princes to be a dangerous enemy and in some quarters were correctly considered revolutionaries. They were driven out of most parts of Germany and were finally pushed to Holland. To survive the movement took up arms. In the old town of Munster, the movement albeit for a short while had done what the Peasant's revolt had failed to do in setting up and controlling a complete town. It had, however, taken the whole might of the German empire to drown the Peasants revolt in blood.
While the Peasant's revolt took place at the time of the Reformation, its political inspiration was more of a democratic nature. In other words, embryonic form communism. The war had significant social consequences. An important part of late medieval Germany disappeared overnight. In the merchant dominated areas, you saw the beginnings of the capitalist nation-state. A National language began to replace Latin. The power of gold and money began to change social and economic relationships, and even agriculture began to be organised along capitalist lines. The knights and general aristocracy felt threatened by these developments.
The church was the most to be affected by these changes and had to adapt. Agricultural lands were developed to make profits. To increase its wealth, it seized common lands and attacked the Peasantry. The new capitalist mode of economic development had little need for the clergy except to keep the masses in their place. The rising bourgeoisie began to take responsibility for science and education. Monasteries increasingly became obsolete and served no function. Priests became lazier, and baseness and vice became commonplace.
As David North writes "Religion began to encounter the
type of disrespect it deserved, and the gradual decline of its authority
introduced a new optimism. All human misery, the bible had taught for
centuries, was the inescapable product of the Fall of Man. But the invigorating
scepticism encouraged by science in the absolute validity of the Book of
Genesis led thinking people to wonder whether it was not possible for a man to
change the conditions of his existence and enjoy a better world".[10]
Current
historiography
Much of the current Reformation historiography is dominated by a collection of conservative revisionist historians who downplay the revolutions which were a by-product of the Protestant Reformation. They certainly oppose the concept that the Reformation can be seen in the context of the transition from Feudalism to Capitalism.
Whether you agree with a Marxist interpretation of the Reformation as Karl Marx said "Germany's revolutionary past is theoretical, it is the Reformation. As the revolution then began in the brain of the monk, so now it begins in the brain of the philosopher. But if Protestantism was not the true solution, it was at least the true setting of the problem".[11] On his death bed while being tortured Muntzer stayed true to the revolution saying "Omnia sunt communia" – "all things are to be held in common and distribution should be to each according to his need". While there is no reason to idealise Wu Ming's or Verso's politics, this collection of Thomas Muntzer's sermons and letters can still inspire today's revolutionaries.
[1] The Peasant War in
Germany, trans. Moissaye J. Olgin (New York: International Publishers, 1966),
p. 62.
[2] Quoted in https://www.counterfire.org/articles/opinion/19289-thomas-muntzer-from-reformation-to-revolution
[3] Wu Ming Presents Thomas
Muntzer Sermon to the Princes / Part of
the Revolutions series / Verso Paperback / 176 pages / May 2010 / £8.99
[4] Defender of the Faith: Geoffrey
Elton and the Philosophy of History. http://xml.ucc.ie/chronicon/elton.htm
[5] Franz Mehring-Absolutism
and Revolution in Germany
1525–1848 Part One -The German Reformation and its consequences -Merchant Capital
[6] Müntzer, Thomas (1988).
Matheson, Peter (ed.). The Collected Works of Thomas Müntzer.
[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_Articles
[8] Franz Mehring-Absolutism and Revolution in Germany-1525–1848
[9] Taken From-Martin Luther: Shaping and Defining the Reformation, 1521-1532 By Martin Brecht
[10] https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1996/10/lect-o24.html
[11] Quoted in Martin Luther: A Christian between Reforms and Modernity (1517-2017) edited by Alberto Melloni
