The German Reformation and the Peasants' War ─ A Brief History With Documents

The Protestant Reformation, begun with Martin Luther’s posting of The Ninety-Five Theses in 1517, rapidly escalated into an evangelical reform movement that transformed European Christianity. Less than a decade later, a massive rebellion of German commoners challenged the social and political order in what would prove to be the greatest popular rebellion in European history until the French Revolution. In this volume, Michael Baylor explores the relationship between these two momentous upheavals — one enduring, the other fleeting — and the centuries-long debate over whether and how they might be connected. A collection of period documents — including letters, sermons, pamphlets and illustrations — offer firsthand accounts from the reformers, rebels, and the institutions they sought to topple. Document headnotes, maps, a chronology of events, questions to consider, a selected bibliography, and an index are provided to enrich student understanding.

Michael G. Baylor (Ph.D. Stanford University) is professor of history at Lehigh University, where he specializes in the history of early modern Europe and the social and cultural history of Germany at the time of the Reformation. His works include Revelations and Revolution: Basic Writings of Thomas Muntzer, The Radical Reformation, and Action and Person: Conscience in Late Scholasticism and the Young Luther, as well as a chapter on political thought during the Reformation for the Oxford Handbook of the History of Political Philosophy and numerous articles on the Reformation in Germany.