One does not live by bread alone

Rural Reform and Village Political Strategies after the Peasants' War

Bibliographic Data

ID3593382
AuthorsChristopher W Close (corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume79
Issue3
Pages556-584
Publication date2010-09-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueChurch History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0009-6407 • E-ISSN: 1755-2613
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0009640710000624
OpenAlexW2134312006
LanguageEN
References cited17

On July 17, 1539, the evangelical preachers in the free imperial city Augsburg petitioned the town council to thoroughly evangelize the surrounding countryside. The clerics bemoaned the treatment of "the poor peasantry, which has been lamentably misled and left to flounder without the word of God. The peasants are very confused, for they recognize papal teachings as deceptive yet are robbed of the Gospel's healthy teaching." It was unnatural that "so many subjects in the countryside are separated, divided, and alienated from their divinely established magistracy in matters of faith." To remedy the situation, the pastors exhorted Augsburg's councilors to provide the villagers "with fatherly care" through "the preaching of the Gospel." They followed this injunction with a warning. If it took no action, "then truly the honorable council will have to answer before God, since the council collects tithes and taxes (zins und gult) from the poor people as its subjects, but it does not supply them with the food of souls

Ancient history · Archaeology · Faith · Gospel · Political science · Politics · Rural area · Sociology · Theology · Historical Economic and Social Studies · Historical Legal Studies and Society · History · Law · Philosophy · Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

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