How Important Was the Peasants Revolt in the Spread of Lutheranism to 1525?

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How important was the peasants revolt in the spread of lutheranism to 1525? Plan: - Intro (How lutheranism started, who supported it and how far had it spread) - What was the revolt (brief) - Causes of the revolt - Memmingen Articles - Luther & the peasants - Consequences for Luther - Other factors (printing press, knights war) - Conclusion (how important was it in spreading - turned everyone against him) Lutheranism began when Luther pinned his 95 theses to the Wittenberg Church door. Many of his supporters were humanists who were renaissance scholars wanting to go back to the original texts, the princes were also supporters of Luther as they liked his teachings of princes being divinely appointed by God. By the start of the Peasants Revolt, Lutheranism had already spread quite far and many were believers in his teachings. The peasants’ revolt was a number of local uprisings that became a widespread general rising in 1525; hundreds of castles and religious houses were ransacked but there was no attempt to replace any authority with anything other than mob rule, making it easy for princes to re-establish their control. There was little leadership in the peasants so lacked planning and coordination so ultimately failed in their revolt, Thomas Munzer was the closest thing to a leader the revolt had. He argued that the ‘priesthood of all believers’ meant all men were equal and therefore the princes had no right to control them. Most peasants were deeply religious but were growing tired of the economic demands made by the church so Luther’s ideas were gladly received, however the peasants misinterpreted Luther’s ideas and believed that the Church demands were unjustified. They believed that Luther would lead them in their fight and so took up arms only to find that Luther was actually hugely against the Peasants’ Revolt as he believed you should protest
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