Once upon a time, in a land far away, lived a man, a man who believed that he, alone among all men, was anointed by God.
In fact, this man believed he was God. This man took it upon himself to organize and lead a great and holy crusade, a vast and powerful movement of the oppressed and victimized. This movement had a powerful symbol – the rainbow.
This man and his select group of followers would redefine everything in the world in which they lived, from the most basic human relationships such as marriage and property, to the ultimate question of whom would live and whom would die. But this story is not some lost fanciful legend or children’s fable. It is one of the most profound lessons in history.
The ideas of this man and his followers are not confined to a remote dustbin of the past, but are very alive today. They have impacted the world (and continue to impact our world) such as few ideas before or since. Such ideas have consequences. Are we prepared to face them?
Some observers believe the Twelve Articles that emerged from the German Peasants’ War outweigh the character flaws of Müntzer and the principles of Anabaptists. Müntzer may have lit the fuse, but it was a fuse rolled by Martin Luther. They assert Rothbard makes some critical accusations about SOME Anabaptists including Müntzer, BUT Rothbard also notes that most Anabaptists were anarchists of various degrees. In retrospect, The Twelve Articles set forth the foundations of our freedoms later enshrined in the Bill of Rights and other human rights many today still don’t enjoy around the world.
1 – Each community had the right to choose and dismiss its minister instead of having one appointed, and this minister should preach only from the Bible, not from church liturgy.
2 – The church tithe should be used to pay for a community’s minister, and any surplus used for the poor of that community instead of going elsewhere.
3 – Every peasant should be recognized as an autonomous being equal to any lord in the eyes of God.
4- Peasants should be allowed to fish, hunt, and make use of their own land.
5- Peasants should have access to the forests and be allowed to harvest wood for hearth fires or for their trade, such as carpentry.
6 – Daily labor should conform to the demands previously set for peasants prior to the enactment of new laws.
7- Compulsory labor should be abolished as it is unchristian and was never agreed to by the peasantry.
8 -Excessive rent for fields should be abolished as many peasants wind up working only to pay rent.
9 – Laws should be made more equitable so that all are equal before it and no one gets harsher or more lenient treatment for the same crime.
10 – Fields and meadows previously owned by the community, which have been taken by nobles, should be returned.
11 – The ‘heriot’ – inheritance tax – should be abolished as it leads to the poverty and suffering of widows and orphans.
12 – If any of the above demands are not in accordance with scripture, they will be removed only after the scripture is explained clearly and the article is shown to be in error.
(Below is the Peasants’ War Panorama, a monumental panoramic painting about the Peasants’ War entitled Early Bourgeois Revolution in Germany by the Leipzig painter and art professor Werner Tübke . It is housed in the Panorama Museum , a specially constructed building complex on the Schlachtberg near the small Thuringian town of Bad Frankenhausen at the foot of the Kyffhäuser Mountains . The work was created between 1976 and 1987, originally to commemorate the German Peasants’ War and the peasant leader Thomas Müntzer. With an area of 1722 m², it is one of the largest panoramas in the world.)
