Gothic art
Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, much of Southern and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th century. In many areas Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the 16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art. Primary media in the Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass and illuminated manuscripts; the recognizable shifts in architecture from Romanesque to Gothic, Gothic to Renaissance styles, are used to define the periods in art in all media, although in many ways figurative art developed at a different pace. The earliest Gothic art was monumental sculpture, on the walls of abbeys. Christian art was typological in nature, showing the stories of the New Testament and the Old Testament side by side.
Saints' lives were depicted. Images of the Virgin Mary changed from the Byzantine iconic form to a more human and affectionate mother, cuddling her infant, swaying from her hip, showing the refined manners of a well-born aristocratic courtly lady. Secular art came into its own during this period with the rise of cities, foundation of universities, increase in trade, the establishment of a money-based economy and the creation of a bourgeois class who could afford to patronize the arts and commission works resulting in a proliferation of paintings and illuminated manuscripts. Increased literacy and a growing body of secular vernacular literature encouraged the representation of secular themes in art. With the growth of cities, trade guilds were formed and artists were required to be members of a painters' guild—as a result, because of better record keeping, more artists are known to us by name in this period than any previous. Gothic art emerged in Île-de-France, France, in the early 12th century at the Abbey Church of St Denis built by Abbot Suger.
The style spread beyond its origins in architecture to sculpture, both monumental and personal in size, textile art, painting, which took a variety of forms, including fresco, stained glass, the illuminated manuscript, panel painting. Monastic orders the Cistercians and the Carthusians, were important builders who disseminated the style and developed distinctive variants of it across Europe. Regional variations of architecture remained important when, by the late 14th century, a coherent universal style known as International Gothic had evolved, which continued until the late 15th century, beyond in many areas. Although there was far more secular Gothic art than is thought today, as the survival rate of religious art has been better than for secular equivalents, a large proportion of the art produced in the period was religious, whether commissioned by the church or by the laity. Gothic art was typological in nature, reflecting a belief that the events of the Old Testament pre-figured those of the New, that this was indeed their main significance.
Old and New Testament scenes were shown side by side in works like the Speculum Humanae Salvationis, the decoration of churches. The Gothic period coincided with a great resurgence in Marian devotion, in which the visual arts played a major part. Images of the Virgin Mary developed from the Byzantine hieratic types, through the Coronation of the Virgin, to more human and intimate types, cycles of the Life of the Virgin were popular. Artists like Giotto, Fra Angelico and Pietro Lorenzetti in Italy, Early Netherlandish painting, brought realism and a more natural humanity to art. Western artists, their patrons, became much more confident in innovative iconography, much more originality is seen, although copied formulae were still used by most artists. Iconography was affected by changes in theology, with depictions of the Assumption of Mary gaining ground on the older Death of the Virgin, in devotional practices such as the Devotio Moderna, which produced new treatments of Christ in subjects such as the Man of Sorrows, Pensive Christ and Pietà, which emphasized his human suffering and vulnerability, in a parallel movement to that in depictions of the Virgin.
In Last Judgements Christ was now shown exposing his chest to show the wounds of his Passion. Saints were shown more and altarpieces showed saints relevant to the particular church or donor in attendance on a Crucifixion or enthroned Virgin and Child, or occupying the central space themselves. Over the period many ancient iconographical features that originated in New Testament apocrypha were eliminated under clerical pressure, like the midwives at the Nativity, though others were too well-established, considered harmless; the word "Gothic" for art was used as a synonym for "Barbaric", was therefore used pejoratively. Its critics saw this type of Medieval art as unrefined and too remote from the aesthetic proportions and shapes of Classical art. Renaissance authors believed that the Sack of Rome by the Gothic tribes in 410 had triggered the demise of the Classical world and all the values they held dear. In the 15th century, various Italian architects and writers complained that the new'barbarian' styles filtering down from north of the Alps posed a similar threat to the classical revival promoted by the early Renaissance.
The "Gothic" qualifier for this art was first used in Raphael's letter to Pope Leo X c. 1518
Mary Magdalene
Saint Mary Magdalene, sometimes called the Magdalene, was a Jewish woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles. Mary's epithet Magdalene most means that she came from the town of Magdala, a fishing town on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee; the Gospel of Luke 8:2–3 lists Mary as one of the women who traveled with Jesus and helped support his ministry "out of their resources", indicating that she was relatively wealthy. The same passage states that seven demons had been driven out of her, a statement, repeated in the longer ending of Mark. In all four canonical gospels, she is a witness to the crucifixion of Jesus and, in the Synoptic Gospels, she is present at his burial. All four gospels identify her, either alone or as a member of a larger group of women, as the first witness to the empty tomb, the first to testify to Jesus's resurrection.
For these reasons, she is known in many Christian traditions as the "apostle to the apostles". Mary is a central figure in apocryphal Gnostic Christian writings, including the Dialogue of the Savior, the Pistis Sophia, the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Philip, the Gospel of Mary; these texts, which scholars do not regard as containing accurate historical information, portray her as Jesus's closest disciple and the only one who understood his teachings. In the Gnostic gospels, Mary Magdalene's closeness to Jesus results in tension with the other disciples Simon Peter. During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was conflated in western tradition with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus's feet in Luke 7:36–50, resulting in a widespread but inaccurate belief that she was a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman. Elaborate medieval legends from western Europe tell exaggerated tales of Mary Magdalene's wealth and beauty, as well as her alleged journey to southern France.
The identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed "sinful woman" was a major controversy in the years leading up to the Reformation and some Protestant leaders rejected it. During the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church used Mary Magdalene as a symbol of penance. In 1969, the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman" was removed from the General Roman Calendar, but the view of her as a former prostitute has persisted in popular culture. Mary Magdalene is considered to be a saint by the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran churches—with a feast day of July 22. Other Protestant churches honor her as a heroine of the faith; the Eastern Orthodox churches commemorate her on the Sunday of the Myrrhbearers, the Orthodox equivalent of one of the Western Three Marys traditions. Speculations that Mary Magdalene was Jesus's wife or that she had a sexual relationship with him are regarded by most historians as dubious, it is accepted among secular historians that, like Jesus, Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure.
Nonetheless little is known about her life. Unlike Paul the Apostle, Mary Magdalene has left behind no writings of her own, nor were any works forged under her name, as was common for the other disciples, she is never mentioned in any of the general epistles. The earliest and most reliable sources about her life are the three Synoptic Gospels of Mark and Luke, which were all written during the first century AD. Mary Magdalene's epithet Magdalene most means that she came from Magdala, a village on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee, known in antiquity as a fishing town. Mary was, by far, the most common Jewish given name for females during the first century, so it was necessary for the authors of the gospels to call her Magdalene in order to distinguish her from the other women named Mary who followed Jesus. Although the Gospel of Mark, the earliest surviving gospel, does not mention Mary Magdalene until Jesus's crucifixion, the Gospel of Luke 8:2–3 provides a brief summary of her role during his ministry: Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God.
The twelve were with him, as well as some women, cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward Chuza, Susanna, many others, who provided for them out of their resources. The statement that Mary had been possessed by seven demons is repeated in Mark 16:9, part of the "longer ending" of that gospel – this is not found in the earliest manuscripts, is a second-century addition to the original text based on the Gospel of Luke. In the first century, demons were believed to be the cause of physical and psychological illness. Bruce Chilton, a scholar of early Christianity, states that the reference to the number of demons being "seven" may mean that Mary had to undergo seven exorcisms over a long period of time, due to the first six being or wholly unsuccessful. Bart D. Ehrman, a New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity, contends that the number seven may be symbolic, since, in Jewish tradition, seven was the number of completion, so the statement that Mary was possessed by seven demons may mean she was overwhelmed by their power.
In either case, Mary must have suffered from severe emotional or psychological trauma in order for an exorcism of this kind to have been perceived as necessary. Her devotion to Jesus on account of t
Veit Stoss
Veit Stoss was a leading German sculptor in wood, whose career covered the transition between the late Gothic and the Northern Renaissance. His style emphasized emotion, helped by his virtuoso carving of billowing drapery, he had a large workshop and in addition to his own works there are a number by pupils. He is best known for the altarpiece in St. Mary's Basilica in Poland. Stoss was born at Horb am Neckar before 1450. Nothing about his life is known for certain before 1473 when he moved to Nuremberg in Franconia and married Barbara Hertz, their eldest son Andreas was born there before 1477, when Stoss moved to Kraków, the royal capital of Poland, where he was commissioned to produce the enormous polychrome wooden Altar of Veit Stoss at St Mary's Church in Kraków. His son Stanisław was a sculptor. Veit worked in Kraków for the next twenty years, his name is polonized as Wit Stwosz. The altar in Kraków was completed in 1489, was the largest triptych of its time. Like Stoss' other large works, it required a large workshop including specialized painters and gilders.
Other important works from Stoss' period in Poland were the tomb of Casimir IV in Wawel Cathedral, the marble tomb of Zbigniew Oleśnicki in Gniezno, the altar of Saint Stanislaus. The Polish court was more aware of Italian styles than Nuremberg patrons of that time, some of Stoss' Polish work used Renaissance classical ornament. During World War II, on the order of Hans Frank – the Governor-General of that region of occupied Poland – the dismantled Altar was shipped to the Third Reich around 1941, it was rediscovered in 1945 in Bavaria, hidden in the basement of the bombed Nuremberg Castle. The High Altar underwent major restoration work in Poland and was put back in its place at the Basilica ten years later. In 1496, Stoss returned to Nuremberg with eight children, he resumed his work there as a sculptor. Between 1500 and 1503 he carved an altar, now lost, for the parish church of Schwaz, Tyrol of the "Assumption of Mary". In 1503, he was arrested for forging the seal and signature of a fraudulent contractor and was sentenced to be branded on both of his cheeks and prohibited from leaving Nuremberg without the explicit permission of the city council.
He was restored of his civil rights. Despite the prohibition he went to Münnerstadt in 1504, to paint and gild the altarpiece that Tilman Riemenschneider had left in plain wood ten years earlier according to his contract. Leaving wood sculpture unpainted was a new taste at the time, "perhaps the tastes of the city council were somewhat provincial." He created the altar for Bamberg Cathedral and various other sculptures in Nuremberg, including the Annunciation and Tobias and the Angel. In 1506 he was arrested a second time. Emperor Maximilian wrote a letter of pardon, but it was rejected by the council of the Imperial free city Nuremberg as meddling in its internal affairs, he was able to resettle in Nuremberg from 1506, but was shunned by the council and received few large commissions from that time onwards. In 1512, the Emperor asked Stoss to help with the planning of his tomb monument, placed in the Hofkirche, Innsbruck. During the period 1515–1520, Veit Stoss received a commission for sculptures by Raffaele Torrigiani, a rich Florentine merchant.
In 1516 he made Tobias and the Angel, a statue of Saint Roch for the Basilica of Santissima Annunziata in Florence. This wooden statue represents the saint in a traditional way: in the garb of a pilgrim, lifting his tunic to demonstrate the plague sore in his thigh. Giorgio Vasari, who did not think much of artists north of the Alps, praised it in his Le Vite and called it "a miracle in wood", though misattributing it. Veit Stoss was buried at St. Johannis cemetery in Nuremberg, his artistic legacy was continued by his son Stanisław. Veit Stoss is featured in The Black Spider, he is one of the singing sculptors in Act 3 Scene 2 inside the Wawel Cathedral. He is shown chiseling at the tomb of King Casimir IV. There is a Polish film Historia żółtej ciżemki about Veit Stoss in Cracow. Baxandall, Michael; the Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany. Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-02829-6. Bautz, Traugott, ed.. "Stoss, Veit". Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon. 11. Herzberg: Bautz. Cols. 1–5. ISBN 3-88309-064-6.
R. Kahnsitz, ed.. Veit Stoss in Nürnberg. Werke des Meisters und seiner Schule in Nürnberg und Umgebung. Munich. Kepinski, Zdzislaw. Veit Stoss. Verlag der Kunst. ISBN 83-221-0138-4. Kirkpatrick, Sidney. Hitler's Holy Relics. Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-4165-9062-0. Schultz, Ellen, ed.. Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-466-1. Skubiszewski, Piotr. "Der Stil des Veit Stoss". 41. Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte: 93–133. Snyder, James. Northern Renaissance Art: Painting, the Graphic Arts From 1350 to 1575. Prentice-Hall / Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 0-13-623596-4. Herbermann, Charles, ed.. "Veit Stoss". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Chisholm, Hugh, ed.. "Stoss, Veit". Encyclopæ
Tilia
Tilia is a genus of about 30 species of trees, or bushes, native throughout most of the temperate Northern Hemisphere. In the British Isles they are called lime trees, or lime bushes, although they are not related to the tree that produces the lime fruit. Other names include linden for the European species, basswood for North American species; the genus occurs in Europe and eastern North America, but the greatest species diversity is found in Asia. Under the Cronquist classification system, this genus was placed in the family Tiliaceae, but genetic research summarised by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group has resulted in the incorporation of this genus, of most of the previous family, into the Malvaceae. Tilia species are large, deciduous trees, reaching 20 to 40 metres tall, with oblique-cordate leaves 6 to 20 centimetres across; as with elms, the exact number of species is uncertain, as many if not most of the species will hybridise both in the wild and in cultivation. Limes are hermaphroditic, having perfect flowers with both male and female parts, pollinated by insects.
The genus is called lime or linden in Britain and linden, lime, or basswood in North America."Lime" is an altered form of Middle English lind, in the 16th century line, from Old English feminine lind or linde, Proto-Germanic *lendā, cognate to Latin lentus "flexible" and Sanskrit latā "liana". Within Germanic languages, English "lithe", German lind "lenient, yielding" are from the same root. "Linden" was the adjective, "made from linwood or lime-wood". Neither the name nor the tree is related to the citrus fruit called "lime". Another common name used in North America is basswood, derived from bast, the name for the inner bark. Teil is an old name for the lime tree. Latin tilia is cognate to Greek πτελέᾱ, ptelea, "elm tree", τιλίαι, tiliai, "black poplar" from a Proto-Indo-European word *ptel-ei̯ā with a meaning of "broad"; the Tilia's sturdy trunk stands like a pillar and the branches divide and subdivide into numerous ramifications on which the twigs are fine and thick. In summer, these are profusely clothed with large leaves and the result is a dense head of abundant foliage.
The leaves of all the Tilia species are heart-shaped and most are asymmetrical, the tiny fruit, looking like peas, always hang attached to a ribbon-like, greenish-yellow bract, whose use seems to be to launch the ripened seed-clusters just a little beyond the parent tree. The flowers of the European and American Tilia species are similar, except the American bears a petal-like scale among its stamens and the European varieties are devoid of these appendages. All of the Tilia species may be propagated by cuttings and grafting, as well as by seed, they grow in rich soil, but are subject to the attack of many insects. Tilia is notoriously difficult to propagate from seed. If allowed to dry, the seeds will take 18 months to germinate. In particular, aphids are attracted by the rich supply of sap, are in turn "farmed" by ants for the production of the sap which the ants collect for their own use, the result can be a dripping of excess sap onto the lower branches and leaves, anything else below. Cars left under the trees can become coated with a film of the syrup thus dropped from higher up.
The ant/aphid "farming" process does not appear to cause any serious damage to the trees. In Europe, some linden trees reached considerable ages. A coppice of T. cordata in Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire is estimated to be 2,000 years old. In the courtyard of the Imperial Castle at Nuremberg is a Tilia which, by tradition recounted in 1900, was planted by the Empress Cunigunde, the wife of Henry II of Germany circa 1000; the Tilia of Neuenstadt am Kocher in Baden-Württemberg, was estimated at 1000 years old when it fell. The Alte Linde tree of Naters, Switzerland, is mentioned in a document in 1357 and described by the writer at that time as magnam. A plaque at its foot mentions that in 1155 a linden tree was on this spot; the Najevnik linden tree, a 700-year-old T. cordata, is the thickest tree in Slovenia. The excellence of the honey of the far-famed Hyblaean Mountains was due to the linden trees that covered its sides and crowned its summit. Lime fossils have been found in the Tertiary formations of Grinnell Land, Canada, at 82° N latitude, in Svalbard, Norway.
Sapporta believed he had found there the common ancestor of the Tilia species of America. The linden is recommended as an ornamental tree when a mass of a deep shade is desired; the tree produces fragrant and nectar-producing flowers, the medicinal herb lime blossom. They are important honey plants for beekeepers, producing a pale but richly flavoured monofloral honey; the flowers are used for herbal teas and tinctures. Linden trees produce soft and worked timber, which has little grain and a density of 560 kg per cubic metre, it was used by Germanic tribes for constructing shields. It is a popular wood for intricate carving. In Germany, it was the classic wood for sculpture from the Middle Ages onwards and is the material for the elaborate altarpieces of Veit Stoss, Tilman Riemenschnei
Osterode am Harz
Osterode am Harz simply called Osterode, is a town in south-eastern Niedersachsen on the south-western edge of the Harz mountains. It was the seat of government of the district of Osterode. Osterode is located on the German Timber-Frame Road; the Söse river flows through the town from the Söse Dam lake about 5 km upstream. The dam was built in 1931 and has a capacity of 25.5 million m³. The Harzwasserwerke water company pipes drinking water as far away as Bremen; the following districts are part of the borough of Osterode am Harz, with populations in brackets: Dorste Düna Förste Freiheit Kazenstein Lasfelde Lerbach Marke Nienstedt am Harz Osterode am Harz Petershütte Riefensbeek-Kamschlacken Schwiegershausen Ührde The Gemeinderat or council of Osterode has 34 members: SPD: 16 CDU: 12 Grüne: 3 FDP: 3and one Bürgermeister. Klaus Becker has been Bürgermeister of Osterode since 1 June 2004, he has no party affiliation. Armentières, France. Ostróda, Poland had the same name "Osterode" and in the German territory of Ostpreußen Whitby, England The Museum im Ritterhaus displays documents from Osterode's history from the Middle Ages to the recent past, as well as occasional temporary exhibitions.
The Lichtenstein Cave is an archaeological site near Dorste, in the western part of the municipality. Two inhabitants of the village Nienstedt am Harz, 2 km north of the cave, have the same rare DNA pattern as that found in the skeletal material of a man whose bones were found in the Lichtenstein Cave dating to about 1000 BC. In the environs of Osterode there are several castle ruins, Lichtenstein Castle between Dorste and Förste; the town granary built between 1719 and 1722 is one of the most imposing buildings, built to supply the mining villages in the Upper Harz with grain. Today after a comprehensive renovation it has become the town hall. Osterode is the starting point of the 100 km long Harzer Hexenstieg, a hiking trail to Thale; the B 243 federal route, built as a divided highway, is the main western link between the northern and southern Harz area. B 241 and B 498 link Solling to the eastern Harz. Osterode lies with services to Brunswick. In November 2004 the city gained two new stations at a cost of about 1 million Euro, replacing two previous halts and providing a more central access to public transport.
Tilman-Riemenschneider-Gymnasium, Osterode am Harz Berufsbildende Schulen I des Landkreises Osterode am Harz Berufsbildende Schulen II Realschule Osterode Hauptschule Neustädter Tor Andreas Cludius, legal scholar, professor George William Alberti, essayist Paul Homeyer, concert organist Fritz Jorns, Reichstag delegate, owner of the Osteroder Kupferhammer Otto Wernicke, actor Renate Krößner, actor Regina Seeringer, politician Ulrich Schreiber, geologist and writer Petra Emmerich-Kopatsch, politician Marco Bode, footballer Tilman Riemenschneider and artist Peter Petrusch, Bass-baritone Metropolitan region Hannover-Braunschweig-Göttingen-Wolfsburg Official website Town history
German Peasants' War
The German Peasants' War, Great Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in some German-speaking areas in Central Europe from 1524 to 1525. It failed because of the intense opposition by the aristocracy, who slaughtered up to 100,000 of the 300,000 poorly armed peasants and farmers; the survivors were achieved few, if any, of their goals. The war consisted, like the preceding Bundschuh movement and the Hussite Wars, of a series of both economic and religious revolts in which peasants and farmers supported by Anabaptist clergy, took the lead; the German Peasants' War was Europe's largest and most widespread popular uprising prior to the French Revolution of 1789. The fighting was at its height in the middle of 1525; the war began with separate insurrections, beginning in the southwestern part of what is now Germany and Alsace, spread in subsequent insurrections to the central and eastern areas of Germany and present-day Austria. After the uprising in Germany was suppressed, it flared in several Swiss Cantons.
In mounting their insurrection, peasants faced insurmountable obstacles. The democratic nature of their movement left them without a command structure and they lacked artillery and cavalry. Most of them had little, military experience. In combat they turned and fled, were massacred by their pursuers; the opposition had experienced military leaders, well-equipped and disciplined armies, ample funding. The revolt incorporated some principles and rhetoric from the emerging Protestant Reformation, through which the peasants sought influence and freedom. Radical Reformers and Anabaptists, most famously Thomas Müntzer and supported the revolt. In contrast, Martin Luther and other Magisterial Reformers condemned it and sided with the nobles. In Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants, Luther condemned the violence as the devil's work and called for the nobles to put down the rebels like mad dogs. Historians have interpreted the economic aspects of the German Peasants' War differently, social and cultural historians continue to disagree on its causes and nature.
In the sixteenth century, many parts of Europe had common political links within the Holy Roman Empire, a decentralized entity in which the Holy Roman Emperor himself had little authority outside of his own dynastic lands, which covered only a small fraction of the whole. At the time of the Peasants' War, Charles V, King of Spain, held the position of Holy Roman Emperor. Aristocratic dynasties ruled hundreds of independent territories within the framework of the empire, several dozen others operated as semi-independent city-states; the princes of these dynasties were taxed by the Roman Catholic church. The princes stood to gain economically if they broke away from the Roman church and established a German church under their own control, which would not be able to tax them as the Roman church did. Most German princes broke with Rome using the nationalistic slogan of "German money for a German church". Princes attempted to force their freer peasants into serfdom by increasing taxes and introducing Roman civil law.
Roman civil law advantaged princes who sought to consolidate their power because it brought all land into their personal ownership and eliminated the feudal concept of the land as a trust between lord and peasant that conferred rights as well as obligations on the latter. By maintaining the remnants of the ancient law which legitimized their own rule, they not only elevated their wealth and position in the empire through the confiscation of all property and revenues, but increased their power over their peasant subjects. During the Knights' Revolt the "knights", the lesser landholders of the Rhineland in western Germany, rose up in rebellion in 1522–1523, their rhetoric was religious, several leaders expressed Luther's ideas on the split with Rome and the new German church. However, the Knights' Revolt was not fundamentally religious, it sought to preserve the feudal order. The knights revolted against the new money order, squeezing them out of existence. Martin Luther, the dominant leader of the Reformation in Germany, took a middle course in the Peasants' War.
He criticized both the injustices imposed on the peasants, the rashness of the peasants in fighting back. He tended to support the centralization and urbanization of the economy; this position shored up his position with the burghers. Luther argued, he could not support the Peasant War because it broke the peace, an evil he thought greater than the evils the peasants were rebelling against. Therefore, he encouraged the nobility to violently eliminate the rebelling peasants. Luther criticized the ruling classes for their merciless suppression of the insurrection. Luther has been criticized for his position. Thomas Müntzer was the most prominent radical reforming preacher who supported the demands of the peasantry, including political and legal rights. Müntzer’s theology had been developed against a background of social upheaval and widespread religious doubt, his call for a new world order fused with the political and social demands of the peasantry. In the final weeks of 1524 and the beginning of 1525, Müntzer travelled into south-west Germany, where the peasant armies were gathering.
He spent several weeks in the Klettgau area, there is some e
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