The theme for this weeks reading is about the 12 Articles and it shows of how the German Peasants were actually being treated during 1524. The peasants were being treated unfairly, and when ever they did their jobs as slaves they never received anything back. They did not have peace , living conditions were very harsh for them because of the taxes that were being raised and they wanted to be treated fairly and have peace. They also wanted to have a better life and serve God. During this time they did serve God they followed based on what was meant for them to do based on the what God believed was true. This was also about Martin Luther preaching about what is to come to peasant's and what is going to effect him along with the peasant's reaction towards Martin Luther.
Some background information that I have found based on this reading was that the Peasant's war took place during the 15 century of 1524-1526. The Peasant's were a poorer class towns particularly in Franconia,Swabis, and Thuringia. The peasants had demands they wanted economic and political power than to have religious power. Another research that I have found was about Martin Luther, he was born into the peasant stock on Nov 10,1483 in Eisleben which was a in the Holy Roman Empire. He also had two brothers who had died from the out breaks of the plague, and he had one that have lived up to his adulthood. Martin Luther then started to want to reform the the church and home to be turned into schools, he wanted to establish education for which this came to be his first reformation. His last reformation took place in Eisleben, and it ha was the place where he had died in 1546. After Luther had died Melanchthon, Zwingli, Bucer, Bullinger and Calvin had promoted in writings and their works. They had continue of what Luther had started and now they wanted to continue it.
There was a lot of things that have stood out to me and they were the articles. The articles that stood out were the Third, Fifth, Seventh, and Eighth articles. The third article I thought was interesting because it mentions that slaves were under authority of some kind. It is said that we should be absolutely free under no authority, that it mentions that God does not teach us that we should have an authority, that he teaches us to love him and love others around us. If we have an authority of some kind then we should be humble. I thought about this for just a few minutes and thought this is actually true in life today. We serve God and love one another, but then again we would have authority from bosses of jobs, or even in politics. Weather we like the authority we have to learn to accept and be humble or we choose another job to do. The next article is Fifth this one mentions if a man who is poor and needs wood he should pay to have it. This it led me to think that if the peasants wanted to have wood or any needs to survive on they must pay some kind of tax for it. When this came into mind it led me to think that the more they payed for taxes the poorer they were. The peasants believe that if when getting wood it should be free to all man and not treated unequally to one another. The Seventh article mentions that the peasants shall not be forced to work with out any kind of payments for them to have. They should also have peace and quiet for themselves to a holding place, but they should still help their lord at proper times when they are needed and it should not have no disadvantages for them when doing the work. This was also interesting to me, it made me think of today people work for a living and people also work freely to help those in need. Back then they were not getting the rights that they wanted economically and politically, it became something that had lasted for a long time for them and they wanted freedom from the horrible things that were happening to them.
Ideas that had generated for me was slavery and it made me really think of how long slavery has been through our history which seems like centuries to me. They were the peasants that were the lower class people who became to be treated unequally on several different levels to working, threatening, or even killed if they did not obey some of the rules. They wanted to be treated fairly and during this time they revolved and went into war to have freedom. While they were serving their masters of some kind they also served God by loving him and those around them. This was interesting because all of the pain that they have suffered through they still believed in God that he will take care of them. This was really something good that they never gave up hope in anything weather it was a good or even bad situations they still have love of God in their lives.
Modern parallels that I made of this would be to compare it to other countries that are being treated today. They were not necessarily slaves, but they had to follow certain kinds of laws. Such countries that I would compare to is some countries in Africa and Iraq. Some of them who live there are treated unfairly, they do not have rights or even peace in their own lives and a lot conflicts is war in their lives. They are being ruled by different authority that control them, and different governments that wants them to things that they do not want to do. They are being controlled constantly, in ways that need to end some how.
Relation to the context is that it relates to Martin Luther's reformation or even known as his preaching. He had a fear to the lower class because he as afraid of what he would expect from the situation of the peasants. His position was social and the economic issues, with his authority the peasants felt betrayal from him. Martin Luther went on to have support of the upper class or the princes, he ordered for the peasants to be killed in any way. The war went out and the peasants revolved against Martin Luther.
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