71 - 27,439 BUCK, Lawrence Paul, 1944- THE CONTAINMENT OF CIVIL INSURRECTION: NURNBERG AND THE PEASANTS' REVOLT, 1524-1525. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 History, medieval i University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan s i :. Q Copyright by Lawrence Paul Buck 1971 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE CONTAINMENT OF CIVIL INSURRECTION: NURNBERG AND THE PEASANTS* REVOLT, 1524-1525 DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Lawrence Paul Buck, B.A., M.A, jjg jjg 5*5 The Ohio State University 1971 Approved by Department of History PLEASE NOTE: Some pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research for this dissertation was completed - while I was a Fulbright Graduate Fellow in Germany. I would like to acknowledge my appreciation to Dr. Gerhard Hirschmann, Director of the Nttrnberg City Archive, and to Dr. Otto Puchner, Director of the Bavarian State Archive, Nttrnberg. Both men were very generous in opening to me the vast sources in their care. I also wish to thank my family and my friends for their continual encouragement. I am deeply indebted to my adviser, Professor Harold J. Grimm, who has assisted me in every aspect of this work, and whose example as a scholar and teacher has stood as a constant source of inspiration for me. ii VITA October 6, 1944 Born - Pittsburg, Kansas 1966*......... B.A., Wichita State University, Wichita, Kansas 1966-196 7..... Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1967*..•••••••• M.A., The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio 1967-1969*••••• NDEA Fellow, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1969-1970 ,.... Fulbright Graduate Fellow, Friedrich- Alexander-Universitat, Erlangen, Germany 1970-1971••••«• Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio PUBLICATIONS "Die Haltung der Nflrnberger Bauernschaft im Bauernkrieg," AltnCrnberger Landschaft. Mitteilungen. XIX IDecember, 19^0J, 59-77* FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Renaissance and Reformation. Professor Harold J. Grimm Medieval Europe and England* Professor Franklin J, Pegues Tudor and Stuart England* Professor R. Clayton Roberts Early Modern Europe* Professor John C, Rule iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. ......................... ii VITA .......................................... ill LIST OF TABLES................................. v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS......................... vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS......................... vii INTRODUCTION .... ........................... 1 CHAPTER i. n !5r n b e r g *s c o n c e r n with THEp e a s a n t r y . 6 II. URBAN DISCONTENT, 1524 ................. 36 III. RURAL DISCONTENT, 1524 ................. 66 IV. RURAL DISCONTENT, 1525 ................. 88 V. NtiRNBERG»S REACTION TO THE THREAT OF ATTACK, 1525 ........................... 142 VI. CONCLUSION ......................... 165 BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................. 180 iv LIST OF TABLES Table Page 1. Register of Peasant Rebels .............. 114 2. Tax Values of Nttrnberg Holdings in Communi­ ties with Rebellious Peasants 131 3. Absentes: Nflrnberg peasants who did not appear to take the oath of purgation and who therefore were suspected of rebellious activity ....................... 137 v LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1. Ntlrnberg Territory in the Sixteenth Century • ••••••••• ............. 18 2. Ntlrnberg Villages with Rebellious Peasants. 136 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS ARG Archiv ftlr Reformationsgeschichte BB Letters (Briefbtlcher) of the Ntlrnberg City Council, located in the Staatsarchiv, Ntlrnberg. FI. Gulden LK Rural district (Landkreis). MQR Mennonite Quarterly Review. MVGN Mitteilungen des Vereins ftlr Geschichte der Stadt toUrnberg. NKirchA Landeskirchliches Archiv» Ntlrnberg. Pf. Gerhard Pfeiffer, Quellen zur N&rnberger Reformationsgeschichte. ("Einzelarbeiten aus der. Kircnengeschichte Bayerns,1* Vol. XLV). Nurnberg: Selbstverlag des Vereins ftlr bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 196S. PfBr Section of letters contained in Pf. PfRs Section of memoranda (Rat3chl8ge) con­ tained in Pf. PfRv Section of protocol from the Ntlrnberg City Council meetings contained in Pf. RB Minutes from the meetings of the Ntlrnberg City Council fRatsbucher); located in the Staatsarchiv, Ntlrnberg. Ratschl.b. Collections of memoranda submitted to the Ntlrnberg Council; located in the Staatsar­ chiv Ntlrnberg (Ratschlagbtlcher). RV Protocol from the Ntlrnberg City Council meetings (Ratsverl8sse h StAN. vii StAN Staatsarchiv, Ntlrnberg WA D. Martin Luthers Werke (Weimar, 1SS3- WHerzAugBibl Herzog August Bibliothek, WolfenbSttel. viii INTRODUCTION The early sixteenth century witnessed several devel- • opments of momentous importance for the future of Germany. Politically it saw the completion of the construction of territorial states, spheres of hegemony dominated by par­ ticularistic interests. Religiously, the first part of the century experienced the rapid spread of the Lutheran Reformation and the concomitant reorganization of large sections of life which it brought with it. Socially, there were discontent and revolt. The government of the free imperial city of Ntlrnberg was greatly affected by all three of these developments. During the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries it had gradually expanded its political domain so that by the early part of the sixteenth century it possessed a terri­ torial state over which it exercised judicial and ' administrative authority. It had acquired this power, however, at the expense of neighboring authorities with which the City Council had constant conflicts on questions of jurisdictional competence. If at any time a neighboring prince or bishop was able to assert his authority over a nNtirnberg" subject, he threatened the Council’s position. 1 The imperial city was also affected by the spread of the Reformation, which had its beginnings in the city with a circle of humanists whose sodality was variously known as the Staupitziana. Aug;ustiniana. and Martini ana. This group soon won the governing Council over to the ideas of the Reformation. Thus, the victory of the Protestant party at the Nttrnberg Religious Colloquy of March, 1525, signaled official sanction of the Reformation in Nflrnberg. At the same time that the Colloquy was going on the Council was facing the very real threat of the agrarian uprising known as the Peasants* Revolt. The danger came from dissatisfied inhabitants in its territory as well as from revolutionary subjects in the city, sympathetic with the rural dissidents. It was compounded by the threat of attack on the part of the peasant armies encamped to the north of the city’s domain. The Council’s response to the Peasants’ Revolt was greatly influenced by considerations growing out of the fact that it was a government which possessed a territorial state and which had adopted the teachings of the Reforma­ tion. As the ruler of a territorial state the authority over which had been recently acquired the Council was placed in a delicate position. If revolt flared up in its territory, neighboring princes might attempt to reassert their power in the Council’s domain either to repress the rebellion or to punish the rebels. As a governor which had accepted Reformation teachings it was also in a delicate position, for Catholic critics of the Reformation contin­ ually asserted that it was the preaching of the Reformers which had caused the peasants to revolt in the first place. To ward off this criticism it was therefore necessary to demonstrate by example that it was possible to propagate Reformation teachings and yet not instigate revolt. The Council’s policy, therefore, was to take what­ ever steps necessary to avoid revolt in its holdings. To retain good relations with the peasant armies and yet live up to its obligations to the Swabian League it attempted to follow a policy of neutrality toward both parties. However, the Councils position was made difficult by the presence of wide-spread dissatisfaction within its popu­ lace. The extent of dissidence and revolt in the Council’s domain has been cursorily treated by the two best accounts of Ntlrnberg’s involvement in the uprising of the peasants. Consequently, the relationship between the Council’s actions and the threat which it faced have not been made clear. The thesis of the following study is that the presence of a significant amount of revolutionary sentiment Johann Kamann, Nurnberg im Bauernkrieg (N&rnberg: Jahres-Bericht uber die KBnigl. kreis-Realschule, 1&78)* hereafter cited as Kamann; Adolf Engelhardt, ‘'Ntlrnberg im Bauernkrieg,” MVGN. XXXIII (19367. Hereafter cited as Engelhardt, MVGN, XXXIII. in the Ntlrnberg domain (heretofore largely undocumented) posed so serious a threat to the city government that it was forced to adopt a conciliatory policy toward its own dissidents. At first the Council tried to contain revolt within its populace by repeatedly issuing exhortations and warnings, by exiling radicals, and, in two instances, by executing rebels. This "repressive" policy was followed until about May 20, 1525* when the threat of attack from foreign peasant armies compounded by the fear that its own urban and rural dissidents would join the attackers made the situation so dangerous that the Council reversed itself, taking far-reaching remedial steps, hoping thereby to conciliate its rebellious populace