1 The Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants March 1525 From late February to early March 1525 peasant bands from three regions assembled at the free imperial city of Memmingen in a rudimentary peasant parliament They drew up lists of grievances and demands for reform A journeyman furrier and lay preacher in the city Sebastian Lotzer reduced these lists to twelve basic articles A Memmingen preacher Christoph Schappeler who was active in the evangelical movement and who sympathized with the peasants provided biblical citations to prove that the Word of God supported and justified the peasants articles Schappeler himself was strongly influenced by Huldrych Zwingli The Twelve Articles became the most widely influential program of the Peasants War Peasants in virtually every area where the rebellion took place used or modified it as the basis of their demands The fundamental and correct chief articles of all the peasants and of those subject to ecclesiastical lords relating to these matters in which they feel themselves aggrieved Peace to the Christian Reader and the Grace of God through Christ There are many evil writings put forth of late which take occasion on account of the assembling of the peasants to cast scorn upon the gospel saying Is this the fruit of the new teaching that no one should obey but all should everywhere rise in revolt and rush together to reform or perhaps destroy altogether the authorities both ecclesiastic and lay The articles below shall answer these godless and criminal fault finders and serve in the first place to remove the reproach from the word of God and in the second place to give a Christian excuse for the disobedience or even the revolt of the entire Peasantry In the first place the Gospel is not the cause of revolt and disorder since it is the message of Christ the promised Messiah the Word of Life teaching only love peace patience and concord Thus all who believe in Christ should learn to be loving peaceful long suffering and harmonious This is the foundation of all the articles of the peasants as will be seen who accept the Gospel and live according to it How then can the evil reports declare the Gospel to be a cause of revolt and disobedience That the authors of the evil reports and the enemies of the Gospel oppose themselves to these demands is due not to the Gospel but to the Devil the worst enemy of the Gospel who causes this opposition by raising doubts in the minds of his followers and thus the word of God which teaches love peace and concord is overcome In the second place it is clear that the peasants demand that this Gospel be taught them as a guide in life and they ought not to be called disobedient or disorderly Whether God grant the peasants earnestly wishing to live according to His word their requests or no who shall find fault with the will of the Most High Who shall meddle in His judgements or oppose his majesty Did be not hear the children of Israel when they called upon Him and saved them out of the hands of Pharaoh Can He not save His own today Yes He will save them and that speedily Therefore Christian reader read the following articles with care and then judge Here follow the articles 2 The First Article First it is our humble petition and desire as also our will and resolution that in the future we should have power and authority so that each community should choose and appoint a pastor and that we should have the right to depose him should he conduct himself improperly The pastor thus chosen should teach us the Gospel pure and simple without any addition doctrine or ordinance of man For to teach us continually the true faith will lead us to pray God that through His grace this faith may increase within us and become part of us For if His grace work not within us we remain flesh and blood which availeth nothing since the Scripture clearly teaches that only through true faith can we come to God Only through His mercy can we become holy Hence such a guide and pastor is necessary and in this fashion grounded upon the Scriptures The Other Article The Second Article According as the just tithe is established by the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New we are ready and willing to pay the fair tithe of grain The word of God plainly provided that in giving according to right to God and distributing to His people the services of a pastor are required We will that for the future our church provost whomsoever the community may appoint shall gather and receive this tithe From this he shall give to the pastor elected by the whole community a decent and sufficient maintenance for him and his as shall seem right to the whole community or with the knowledge of the community What remains over shall be given to the poor of the place as the circumstances and the general opinion demand Should anything farther remain let it be kept lest any one should have to leave the country from poverty Provision should also be made from this surplus to avoid laying any land tax on the poor In case one or more villages themselves have sold their tithes on account of want and each village has taken action as a whole the buyer should not suffer loss but we will that some proper agreement be reached with him for the repayment of the sum by the village with due interest But those who have tithes which they have not purchased from a village but which were appropriated by their ancestors should not and ought not to be paid anything farther by the village which shall apply its tithes to the support of the pastors elected as above indicated or to solace the poor as is taught by the Scriptures The small tithes whether ecclesiastical or lay we will not pay at an for the Lord God created cattle for the free use of man We will not therefore pay farther an unseemly tithe which is of man s invention The Third Article It has been the custom hitherto for men to hold us as their own property which is pitiable enough considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed us all without exception by the shedding of His precious blood the lowly as well as the great Accordingly it is consistent with Scripture that we should be free and wish to be so Not that we would wish to be absolutely free and under no authority God does not teach us that we should lead a disorderly life in the lusts of the flesh but that we should love the Lord our God and our neighbour We would gladly observe all this as God has commanded us in the celebration of the communion He has not commanded us not
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