Saturday, March 14, 2009

The Difference between Luther and Muntzer...



The Reformation was a reaction to the Catholic Church and ways of connecting the people to God. Many of the reason for the reformation had to do with the religious side of following the seven sacraments and having the Pope is the bridge for the soul to God but some use the social reasons and political reason to start a revolt. Many of the peasants during the Reformation could not read but instead had wood carving to understand what Luther was preaching; Luther would preach that peasants and clergymen were no different in the eyes of God and they should have the same respect and surroundings. Peasants took this a step further and demanded that they enjoys the spoils of life, where they took it into their own hand a rioted and saying that it was in the name of God.

Thomas Muntzer uses the bible as a way to spread the demand for equal rights among the lords, nobles, and peasants; he preached that the lords and nobles would have nothing if it was not for the peasants. So he and peasant took it to violence where they would destroy what they thought was wrong and took anything that they wanted. Luther who wanted equal rights among people, was with them as first but soon after he learned of the bloodshed and how God name was used in the blood revolt then turned his back. Luther said that God did not want his name used for selfish greed but only for the saving of one’s soul.

The revolt quickly fizzled away since there was no help for the peasants, over a hundred thousand peasants were taken to their deaths.

1 comment:

  1. I agree with you, I also wrote about Thomas Muntzer and the peasant war. Luther preached that everyone was equal in the eyes of God and Muntzer said that peasants were basically the backbone of everything and at some point was organizing the peasant war. He was first a follower of luther but then turned against his beliefs.

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