Is There A Social History of The Reformation PDF

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Is there a social history of the

reformation?
a
Bob Scribner
a
Portsmouth Polytechnic
Published online: 30 May 2008.
To cite this article: Bob Scribner (1977) Is there a social history of the
reformation?, Social History, 2:4, 483-505, DOI: 10.1080/03071027708567391
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DISCUSSION
Bob Scribner
Is there a social history of
the Reformation?
This article has been suggested by several recent works, all of which deal in some sense
with the ' social history ' of the German Reformation. The most recent is Steven Ozment's
The Reformation in the Cities, which claims to bring together the approaches embodied
in 'two dominant trends in Reformation studies', namely intellectual and social history
(47: p. i). 1 One places the Reformation in medieval perspective, the other in an urban
context. Ozment analyses the appeal of Protestantism during the first half of the
sixteenth century in terms of lay religious attitudes and expectations. Briefly, his
argument is as follows.
Late-medieval religion was characterized by an anguished lay piety through which lay
people sought to cope with a burdensome structure of religious observance. Their failure
to do so only created a sense of guilt and inadequacy, which led to widespread
scepticism of the institutions of religion. It was felt that both church and clergy were so
implicated with this failed religious practice that a major redefinition of religion was the
only means of reform. The original Protestant message was a perceptive response to this
religious anxiety, offering not only individual freedom in the matter of religion, but also
a lessening of the religious demands upon men's lives. In this sense it was a desacralization
of daily life, ideally suited to the outlook of the sixteenth-century city. It provided a new
communal and work ethic which strengthened secular life, while it created a more
self-confident attitude towards the achievement of salvation.
It is not to denigrate what is otherwise a very rich and rewarding book to say that
its approach touches only the periphery of social history. It stands in a tradition of
American writings on the 'social history ' of the Reformation begun by Harold J. Grimm
(35, 36), and represented by a recent Festschrift for Grimm. This deals, to quote from
its preface, with 'the impact of the Reformation upon social problems and societal
institutions, and upon classes or "estates" of men.. .of sixteenth century Europe' (25:
p. xvii). It is the manner in which this approach poses its problems that calls into
question the validity of its use of the term 'social history'. Society is taken very much
as a given and static phenomenon with which the Reformation 'reacts', and which itself
exerts little influence on the nature of the Reformation.2 Such assumptions were directly
1
Numerical references in parentheses in the text the article.
and footnotes refer to the bibliography at the end of 2 A notable exception here is J. C. Stalnaker (52).
484 Social History NO 4
challenged in 1962 by Bernd Moeller's Reichstadt und Reformation, which argued that the
nature of the late-medieval urban community had a decisive influence on the nature of
the Reformation adopted by various German towns. This shifted the question from how
the Reformation shaped society to the prior issue of how the Reformation was shaped
by the social context in which it arose. But Moeller also assumed that society was static,
and adopted as his norm a simplistic and idealistic picture of the late-medieval city state.3
Ozment's book is a vast improvement on Moeller, in that it begins with the analytical
concept of the 'original Protestant message', and asks why it appealed to the men of the
sixteenth century. However its answers are cast in terms of mental outlook, and it fails
to investigate the social roots of the response it describes. Indeed, the book contains only
one piece of social-historical insight, the statement that upwardly mobile social groups
were more inclined to Protestantism (47: p. 116).
Recent American work on the Reformation has shared one view in common with the
mainstream of German studies, that the work of marxist historians of the Reformation
is beyond consideration.4 Ozment is typical-his chapter on 'Trends in Reformation
Research' makes no reference to them, and they are mentioned only in a footnote later
in the book (47: p. 208, n. 3). The smugness implicit in this outlook was first challenged
in 1972 by a collection of essays edited by Rainer Wohlfeil, Reformation oder frühbürgerliche
Revolution! (11). This collection made accessible the most important formulations about
the Reformation of the historians of the German Democratic Republic. It had the merit
of challenging West German historians to assess the arguments of their GDR colleagues
on academic grounds, rather than in terms of anti-marxist prejudice.
The GDR conception of the Reformation is contained in the label 'the early bourgeois
revolution in Germany, 1476-1535 '.5 This is based on two notions regarded as
intrinsic to marxist views of historical change: economic causation as the fundamental
factor on which all others are dependent, and the primacy of class interest and class
struggle. The periodization 1476-1535 is based on a combination of both elements. During
the last quarter of the fifteenth century Germany passes through a period of rapid
economic change characterized by a significant upturn of commercial production. This
is evoked by new technical inventions and by the opening up of new mineral resources,
and is favoured by extended long-distance trade routes. This causes a development of
capitalist forms of production and the decline of feudal modes. There appears in West,
South-west and Central Germany an accumulation of capital through appropriation of
surplus production. A corresponding stagnation of agricultural and guild production, and
a strengthening penetration of a money-goods relationship leads increasingly to the
oppression of the lower classes, the peasantry and the plebeian strata of the towns.
3
Certain features of Moeller's argument have been tion II.
5
criticized (cf. 30, 50, 55), but no alternative argument This summary is based on the theses prepared by
of such coherence has been advanced by non-marxist M. Steinmetz for the conference of the Deutsche
historians. Historiker-Gesellschaft in Wernigerode in 1960 (25).
4
An exception is Á. Friesen (5) who has devoted The proceedings of this conference (14) present the
considerable time to attacking marxist views. The most extensive formulation of this approach until the
major works of marxist interpretation come from the recent publication of an illustrated history devoted to
German Democratic Republic, cf. Bibliography, Sec- the topic (17).
January igrjy Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 485
These economic developments create a 'rising line of class conflict', dating from the
1476 movement of the Drummer of Niklashausen, and the first printing in the same year
of the socio-critical work, the Reformatio Sigismundi. This conflict reaches its high point
in the Reformation and the Peasant War of 1524-6, which is characterized in its class
nature as a middle-class revolt, ' the first great action of the rising bourgeoisie '. The defeat
of this revolution occurs largely through the disunity and the defection from the cause
of the bourgeoisie, which is not yet fully formed as a coherent capitalist class. The line
of class conflict then falls away. The defeat in 1531 of Zwingli's attempt to reshape the
Swiss confederation, in 1532 of Michael Gaismair's rebellion in the Habsburg lands, and
in 1535 of the Anabaptist rising in Munster mark the end of the early bourgeois revolution.
The Reformation is the expression on the ideological plane of these basic class conflicts.
Luther's Reformation shatters the feudal dominance of the church over spiritual life, and
provides the cheap salvation demanded by the emergent middle class. By condemning
the peasant revolt as inimical to the Gospel, Luther realigns himself with the opponents
of the revolution of 1524-6. He thus places the Reformation behind the feudal dominance
of the resurgent princes, which is to condemn Germany to backwardness and division
for another three hundred years.
Within the framework of this interpretation, seven distinct areas of interest can be
identified :
(i) Thomas Muntzer has attracted perhaps a disproportionate amount of attention
for an interpretation concerned with supra-individual social forces; somewhat
less has been given to Luther and his role (cf. Bibliographie in 16: Section
5)-6
(ii) The course of the Peasant War, its military and organizational features (Biblio-
graphie, Section 4.2-4.5 in 16).
(iii) Ideological features, including political ideology (ibid., Section 5.1.5), litera-
ture and art (ibid., Section 7 and 20) ; also editions of contemporary pamphlets
(ij) and socio-critical works.7
(iv) Movements of urban dissent, especially in the Baltic and central German areas
(Bibliographie, Section 4 . 2 . 2 in 16passim; and IQ).
(v) Anabaptism seen as a continuation of the revolutionary impulse, but increas-
ingly expressing itself in religious-fanatical forms, gradually becoming a paci-
fist, lower middle-class movement, especially after the collapse of the
Anabantist rising at Munster.8
6
The most important works are those by Bensing provides an interesting point of contrast between
(12, 13) and Zschäbitz (28). On variations in the GDR and West German interpretations, cf. H.
GDRMiintzer-Luther interpretation, cf. (5: chs.8-9). Buszello, Der Deutsche Bauernkrieg von 1525 als poli-
7
The most important have been Das Buch der tische Bewegung. Mit besondere Berücksichtigung der
hundert Kapitel und der vierzig Statuten des sogenann- anonymen Flugschrift an die Versamlung gemayner
ten Oberrheinischen Revolutionärs, ed. and introd. A. Pawerschaft (Berlin, 1969).
8
Franke and G. Zschäbitz (Berlin, 1967): and An die The most significant work has been that of
Versammlung gemeiner Bauernschaft. Eine revolutionäre Zschäbitz (29) ; for non-marxist criticism, cf. (5:206-
Flugschrift des deutschen Bauernkrieg1525,,S. Hoyer9) and A. Friesen, 'The Marxist interpretation of
and B. Rüdiger (eds.) (Leipzig, 1975). The latter Anabaptism', Sixteenth-Century Essays and Studies, 1
(vi) Studies of economic developments which feature prominently in the GDR
interpretation, but concentrating largely on the socio-economic position of the
peasants (Bibliographie, Section 6, in 16).9
(vii) Discussion of the GDR interpretation and its problems, with frequent reference
to the marxist classics (ibid., Sections 1, 3.1-3.4).
There are numerous criticisms which can be made of the GDR interpretation. Its
description of socio-economic developments often seems over-simplified, especially the
links between the crisis of feudalism and the growth of early capitalism. The class nature
of events has also been taken too much for granted, and too much attention paid to
ideology. A central difficulty concerns the concept of 'early bourgeois revolution'. The
peasant revolt of 1524-6 can scarcely of itself be categorized as a bourgeois movement.
As an anti-feudal revolt, its relation to urban movements of dissent needs to be more
carefully investigated, especially since the latter seem to be largely a matter of internal
conflict within the urban classes. Certainly, the notion 'early bourgeois revolution'
conceives of the Peasant War and Reformation as a single process, and this entails seeing
the Reformation as an attempt by an emergent middle class to establish a structure of
religious belief and practice conformable to its social and economic interests. But this
has yet to be shown to be more than a possibility at an ideological level.10 It is thus
easy to fault the GDR interpretation as lacking empirical underpinning.
More importantly, it displays certain weaknesses within the framework of marxist
presuppositions. The nature of the social classes concerned has not been carefully enough
defined, and the tension between the objective formation of a class and its consciousness
of its class interests is more often taken as an established fact than as a problem to be
investigated. Yet this point is central to a marxist explanation of how both peasants and
bourgeoisie could be so easily diverted from their class roles in the events of the early
sixteenth century. Many GDR historians have long been aware of these problems, and
future work will doubtless see substantial revision or development of the
interpretation.11 West German historians appear to be far more impatient with such
failings. Indeed, it is informative to compare the eagerness and alacrity with which
(1970), 17-34. C. P. Ciasen (32) has provided a long- sufficient to argue that neither the Peasant War nor
needed overview of Anabaptism and its social origins the Reformation as separate entities have 'bourgeois
and implications. GDR work has taken account of character' (1: pp. 98-103; 3: pp. 100-14), ignoring that
Clasen's work by stressing the diversity of Anabaptism both of these are seen as aspects of broader historical
more prominently than in the past, cf. (16) : pp. 324- processes. Not surprisingly, Ernst Engelberg feels
44- that the position of the historical materialist argument
9 Two key monographs here are G. Heitz, Länd- has been misunderstood and distorted by such criti-
liche Leinenproduktion in Sachsen 1470-1555 (Berlin, cism (1: p. 106).
11
1961) and A. Laube, Studien über den erzgebirgischen Rainer Elkar, 'Geschichtsforschung der frühen
Silberbergbau von 1470 bis 1546 (Berlin, 1974). Neuzeit zwischen Divergenz und Parallelität' (10:
10
Many similar criticisms to these have been made pp. 219-45) has discussed the considerable variations
by the West German critics, although in general they amongst the GDR historians which seem to be leading
tend to regard the GDR holistic approach with sheer towards modifications of their interpretation.
incomprehension. Wohlfeil, for example, thinks it
January igjy Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 487
Moeller's thesis was adopted, despite an equal lack of empirical confirmation, with the
suspicion with which the GDR interpretation has been regarded.
Given the centrality of the Peasant War to this interpretation, it was no surprise when
Wohlfeil issued another collection of essays to mark the 450th anniversary of this event
in 1975 (10). This enabled a review of the reactions evoked in both German states by.
the first collection, and it was clear that, despite Wohlfeil's desire to make a gesture of
goodwill, no rapprochement of views had been achieved. The West Germans recognized
that a certain amount of convergence was possible on the level of empirical research,
but in general dismissed GDR approaches to history as flawed in conception and method.
It seemed to be a justified response from the GDR side to feel that no common approach
to history was therefore possible. The dialogue seemed to be merely another way of
demonstrating that the GDR approach was wrong, while showing how open-minded West
German historians could be.12 Significantly enough, in the postscript to his second
collection Wohlfeil dismissed GDR views on the Peasant War as contradicted by the
empirical findings. These show, he declared, that the Peasant War was merely a variety
of local, regional and territorial movements, unified only by the common military and
political measures taken by the opposing princes, which thus shape them into a 'war'
(10: pp. 280-2). In the light of the incompleteness of modern studies, exemplified by
the contributions in his own collection, this seems to be an unjustified conclusion.13
Peter Buckle's Die Revolution von 1525 (2) approaches the problem more open-mindedly.
He has much in common with the GDR interpretation in arguing that peasant grievances
were not purely local, nor just a subjective reaction to immediate need. On the basis
of a study of the dissemination and reception of the Twelve Articles, he maintains that
there was an essential unity of purpose in the peasant rebellion which justifies calling
it a revolution. The Twelve Articles represent a reaction to the social effects of an
economic crisis of agrarian feudalism, and contain a conscious challenge to the structure
of this feudalism. The Reformation provides this movement with a legitimating principle
for rebellion and demands for a reshaping of the social order. The evangelical reading
of the divine Word and of Christian liberty provides a biblical basis to break through
the limitations of the feudal idea of order. This process unites all the oppressed groups
of society around the notion of the 'common man'. The movement of 1525 becomes not
just a peasant revolt, but the 'revolution of the common man', encompassing the
discontented in town and country (2: pp. 21-7). u
12
The debate has been continued in other publica- bution by J. C. Stalnaker, 'Auf dem Weg zu einer
tions (cf. 1, 2, g). Wohlfeil's positive contribution in sozial-geschichtlichen Interpretation des Deutschen
commencing the debate has given way to a determina- Bauernkrieges 1525-1526' (9: pp. 38-60). The work of
tion to prove the GDR historians to be wrong, which David Sabean (8) has also raised fruitful new lines of
has led merely to wrangling based on misunderstand- inquiry.
14
ing of positions on both sides. Cf. the pertinent com- Blickle has since formulated his views more
ments by Steinmetz in his contribution to the succinctly in 'Thesen zum Thema-Der "Bauern-
conference held in Memmingen in March 1975 (2: pp. krieg" als Revolution des "gemeinen Mannes"' (2:
115-26, esp. 126). pp. 127-31).
13
This is most clearly shown by the useful contri-
This view shows similarities to the GDR interpretation, but diverges from it in
important respects. First, Blickle does not recognize class conflict in the revolution, which
he interprets rather as an attempt to restore the genuinely corporative basis of society.
Again, he sees it as making important gains, even if it is defeated in its wider objectives.
The most important gain is found in the idea of the provincial estates or Landschaft,
which included not only nobility, clergy and towns, but also the common man, to whose
consent the territorial prince was to be bound, especially in the south of the Empire.
These gains are certainly lost through later developments, but he sees no reason to link
causally the defeat of the peasants and the emergence of absolutism (2: pp. 181-206).
Blickle's work is a major contribution to the debate initiated by Wohlfeil because, more
than any other West German historian, he has approached the problems posed by the
GDR marxists with a genuine openness of conceptualization and method. This is seen
most clearly in his analysis of peasant grievances, which looks beyond apparently local
or political issues to ask whether they arose from the changing nature of feudal social
structure. Thus where Günther Franz, in his standard work on the peasant war (4), sees
only isolated and 'subjective' grievances, Blickle discerns 'objective' changes in the
structure of social relations. Central to the crisis of the feudal economy is an attempt
to reimpose serfdom, which finds expression in legal, private and economic areas of life
(2: pp. 104-18). Equally, Blickle is willing to ask if Reformation doctrines did not
provide an ideological basis for social discontent, and so a dynamic impulse to revolt
(2: pp. 135-43). Here he is willing to argue on lines parallel to the GDR historians.
There are several issues in the West German-GDR debate of considerable importance
for a social history of the Reformation, and it is worth examining some of the West German
criticisms at greater length. The discussion has been conducted largely in terms of a sharp
polarization between 'marxist' and 'non-marxist' method. The former is said to be
founded on assumptions labelled as systemsimmanent (JO: p. 17). This means that marxist
historians operate with analytical categories drawn not from the sources, but from a
predetermined philosophical position, that of historical materialism. Concepts such as
'class', 'class society' and 'class conflict' are therefore of limited importance, because
they are not used as descriptive concepts. They are thus ' not at all suited to discern social
reality with its so manifold and colourful differentiation' (w: p. 18).
The content of such statements is clearer if one spells out what 'historical materialism'
is taken to mean. It involves a dogmatic assertion of economic causation as a one-
dimensional process to which all other phenomena can be reduced. It means the
continual assertion of class and class conflict as normative elements in history, forcing
all other elements into a monocausal mould. It means ascribing to history a Hegelian
'rationality', and the creation of unreal categories such as 'subjective' and 'objective'.
All these features, taken in the Wohlfeil collections to be normative for 'marxist history',
fit exactly what Eric Hobsbawm has described as 'vulgar marxism' and have been
repudiated from the GDR side as a distortion of their approach to historv ( / : PP. 106-7) . I5
15
Cf. E. J. Hobsbawm, 'Karl Marx's contribution marxist theoretical approaches (72: p. 43, n. 47), but
to historiography', in R. Blackburn (ed.), Ideology in the point has not been taken by his colleagues amongst
Social Science (1972), 270. Hans-Ulrich Wehler seems the Reformation historians.
to be aware of the inadequacy of refuting parodies of
January igyj Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 489
This distinction has gone unnoticed by West German historians, much less any further
distinctions between 'marxist' and 'marxian' approaches to history. It is also most
striking how casually marxist history is equated with that written in the GDR, or at best,
within Eastern Europe. There seems to be no recognition that there is a wide and varied
body of marxist history outside this area. This leads to the curious instance of Wohlfeil,
in the course of elaborating on an alternative approach to 'marxism', citing Hobsbawm
and E. P. Thompson in apparent unawareness that both are professed marxists (10: p.
47. n - I2 3)-
Another basic assumption is seen when GDR history is characterized interchangeably
as 'marxist' and 'marxist-leninist'. This is rarely defined, although reference is made
to Lenin's idea that a bourgeois revolution can be made by an alliance of middle classes
and peasantry (//: p. 218.) Again, the relation between a revolutionary vanguard and the
masses as a constituent element in revolution (in the Peasant War, applied to Thomas
Muntzer and his Covenant) could be taken as defining a marxist-leninist analysis (11: p.
220). Often, however, the term is used to mean a view associated with historical
materialism. The point of view underlying these varying usages seems to be that GDR
history is regarded as history written in the service of the state, and so as politically
motivated. The ideological foundations of the GDR are marxist-leninist, and the term
is then applied uniformly to its history writing (11: pp. 268-70; also ¡g: p. 121; 62: p.
107).le This is taken as sufficient evidence of the basic methodological weakness of GDR
history. By eschewing a value-neutral stance in approaching its material, the results are
axiomatically flawed.
To someone standing outside this 'two Germanies' debate this is a curious claim, for
West German historiography has been far from value-free in its assumptions, and this
has had a truncating effect on its conception of social history. Throughout the twentieth
century- German historiography has been both politically conservative, and dominated
by deeply rooted traditions of idealism and historicism. Any cross-fertilization between
history and the developing social sciences was rigidly excluded by the certainties of
Rankean orthodoxy. During the Weimar Republic the impulse towards a social science
approach lay mostly outside the historical Establishment. This was predominantly
right-wing, and treated liberal pro-republican historians as heretics to be kept at arm's
length. During the Nazi period most of these 'outsiders' were forced into exile, and few
returned to their homeland after 1945. The restoration of normal academic life after the
Nazi collapse was the restoration of this conservative tradition (61: pp. 327-8; 66: pp.
112-13; 72: pp. 12-13).
The tasks of post-war historiography in the Western-occupied zones were set by the
modified interests of the pre-war Establishment. On the one hand, the classic themes
of the Weimar period were continued: the primacy of politics and foreign policy, the
emphasis on individuality as the key to historical understanding, and the presumed moral
16
The variety of marxist approaches within both has been set more by H. G. Koch, Luthers Reforma-
Germanies and elsewhere has been discussed by tion in kommunistischer Sicht (Stuttgart, 1967), which
P. C. Ludz, 'Der Strukturbegriff in der marxistischen relates the development of the GDR interpretation to
Gesellschaftslehre' (65: pp. 419-47). But this has only the development of state policy and ideology.
rarely been reflected in the 'marxist debate'. The tone
49° Social History NO 4
worth of historical knowledge. On the other hand, the political structures in the new
West German state were to be legitimated in terms of past history (61: pp. 339-41; 62:
p. 104; 67: p. 114). (The GDR set about the same task, but its job was more daunting.
How could it claim to be a legitimate heir to centuries of progressive German history
when the historical record faced in the opposite direction? It could only seek to draw
together the sparse strands of Germany's revolutionary history, with all the stridency of
a young state still in the process of formation.) The coming to terms with the problem
of Nazism was achieved without posing any questions about the nature of German
society, explaining it in terms of 'Hitlerism', or from the context of international or
parliamentary politics (61: pp. 328-64; 65). The arrival of the Cold War, and the attempt
to identify Nazism and Communism as variants of the theory of totalitarianism, reinforced

this blindness to social analysis. Some impulses towards social history did appear during
the 1950s, but hostility towards the Ostblock ensured that this would exclude any
consideration of marxist history. Even the Annales school, which at times seemed to share
some basic 'marxist' presuppositions, found little response (61: p. 352; 66: pp. 142-5;
67: pp. 118-19).
Such tendencies were not entirely unchallenged on the West German academic scene.
The development of Critical Theory and the work of the Frankfurt School should have
challenged historians to take a more open-minded look at marxist views of social
processes. But although Critical Theory sparked off a heated debate with Positivism, it
exerted little influence on the writing of history.17 This is in part political - the fear of
the left-wing student movement, and the alleged dangers of a 'politicization' of history
have been uppermost in the minds of the existing historical Establishment.18 It has
remained strongly hostile to marxist approaches to history, and it is significant that there
has been no marxist historian appointed to a chair of history in West Germany since 1945
(66: p. 145). Given the savage and widespread operation of the laws against 'Radicals
in the Public Service ' (Berufsverbot) during the past few years, which have systematically
denied academic posts to those of even mildly left-wing views, this is unlikely to change.
There has been considerable progress in West German attitudes towards social history
during the past five years, with lively debate about its nature and methods. There has
17
The position of Critical Theory, represented in there was considerable interest in this school of
the thought of Adorno, Habermas and Horkheimer thought at the German Historical Association annual
can be seen in J. Habermas, Zur Logik der Sozialwis- conference in 1967 (68: p. 498). To date only two re-
senschaften (Tübingen, 1967), and in English in M. cent studies, both dissertations inliterary history, show
Horkheimer, Critical Theory (New York, 1972) and the influence of this approach: B. Balzer, Bürgerliche
H. Marcuse, Studies in Critical Philosophy (1972). The Reformationspropaganda. Die Flugschriften des Hans
debate with Karl Popper over 'holistic' vs. 'pluralist' Sachs in den Jahren 1523-1523 (Stuttgart, 1973); J.
approaches to social theory has recently been made Schutte, 'Schympff red.' Frühformen bürgerlicher
available in English in T. Adorno et al., The Positivist Agitation in Thomas Murners ' Grossem Lutherischen
Dispute in German Sociology (1976). Wehler (72: p. 43, Narren' (1522) (Stuttgart, 1973).
n. 48) has also commented on the weakness of the 18
This fear was openly voiced in 1971 by Hans
Frankfurt School in the area of 'historical-empirical' Mommsen (68: p. 504).
studies. According to a report from Hans Mommsen
January igyy Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 491
also been a clear shift from a conservative to a liberal democratic stance amongst some
historians. Commitment to the idea of a pluralist society has led to an emphasis on
methodological pluralism, reflected in West German contributions to the Wohlfeil
collections.19 But this is a tentative and selective pluralism, still more responsive to
anti-marxist than to marxist theories and methodologies.20 Certainly, as represented in
Wohlfeil's second collection, it appears on two points to be a naive pluralism. First, it
has yet to abandon claims to a morally superior 'value-free' history, and to recognize that
history is always in some sense systemsimmanent}1 Second, it must recognize that history
written from a politically committed stance has proved to be immensely creative, as
witnessed by the resurgence of marxist history in England during the past decade. Indeed
such writing has formed the mainstream of the European historical tradition since
Herodotus.
The current flowering of interest in social history in West Germany has none the less
left the notion of the subject alarmingly vague. Two articles by Werner Conze and Hans
Mommsen from 1966, much referred to in the Wohlfeil collections, merely discuss
developing attitudes towards social history, without offering any illuminating definitions
(§8, 6g). More recently Jürgen Kocka has tried to define it in terms of three basic
approaches (64: pp. 494-6). The first sees social history as a partial discipline analogous
to 'economic history'. This was largely a reaction to history understood as the history
of states and politics with little attention to the socio-economic dimension, and produced
the subject 'social and economic history', where the emphasis fell more on the latter part
of the title. Significantly, it was institutionalized in German universities in institutes
attached to the Faculty of Economics, rather than in the Philosophy Faculty alongside
traditional departments of History. A second concept of social history Kocka defines as
a socio-economic interpretation based on a materialist conception of society, of which
the marxist interpretation is one example. The third is a structuralist approach, influenced
partly by the Annales school, partly by certain schools of sociology. This presupposes
the 'dependence of individual events, actions and persons on alleged supra-individual
structures and processes which change only slowly over time, and which are often
unperceived by the actors' in the historical process (64: p. 495).
The first of these is being supplanted by the broader views of social history which
see it as a discipline seeking ' to comprehend and synthesize all historical areas - the
economy, the state, society, law, foreign policy, ideas, e t c ' (64: p. 496). The structuralist
approach has been the most favoured, although it is difficult to see that Kocka's
distinction between this and a ' socio-economic ' approach has much validity in practice
- the structures chosen for study have been predominantly socio-economic. Moreover,
19 20
T h e contribution by Heide Wunder, ' Z u r T h e Memmingen Conference commemorating
Mentalität aufständischer Bauer. Möglichkeit der the Peasant War on 24-7 March 1975 (proceedings in
Zusammenarbeit von Geschichtswissenschaft u n d 3) has been the most hopeful sign of a broader
Anthropologie, dargestellt a m Beispiel des Samlän- approach.
21
dischen Bauernaufstandes von 1525' (9: p p . 9-37) is Engelberg (1: p . 106) and Steinmetz (3:. 125-6)
a good example of this approach. have made similar comments.
the notion of 'structure', unless it is given a metaphysical or idealist content, skates very
close to a materialist conception of society, and many marxists are also ardent
structuralists.22 One cannot avoid the feeling that Kocka's categories are simply a way
of fencing off acceptable views of social history from non-acceptable marxist views.23
The West Germans are at least implicitly aware of this problem. While agreeing that
such 'structures' are disclosed 'by interpretations competing in a pluralism' of approach
(72: p. 32), some have sought to adopt the notion of structure as a heuristic concept only.
Wohlfeil is typical here. For him social history is a 'way of viewing history ' which serves
as an 'integrating methodology and theoretical stance'. It thus becomes a 'research
strategy' which 'demonstrates the relations, dependencies and interactions between the
factors of historical events, and so causalities and correlations'. Its methodology is to be

largely a heuristic application of pluralistic conceptualizations and methods (JO: pp.
25-8) .24 The inherent difficulty of this definition is its lack of any integrating analytical
principle which would enable it to rise above naive relativism or mere eclecticism.
One would expect such views to have led to an increased interest in the methods of
the social sciences, and some West German historians such as Hans-Ulrich Wehler seem
to have developed their views on social history under a strong social science influence.
Others occupy a more ambivalent position. They accept that the methods of the social
scientist may be useful to the social historian, but seem unwilling to embrace the wider
implications. This seems to underlie their disquiet with marxist methodology. It is
accepted that marxist concepts have been valuable for analysis of nineteenth- and
twentieth-century social history (66: p. 144), but there appears to be a historicist
inhibition about applying them to the pre-industrial period, where they are claimed to
be 'anachronistic' (62: p. 109). But this reasoning can be applied not just to marxist
method, but to that of the social sciences in general. These operate most frequently with
analytical tools which the historian may feel involve the imposition of arbitrary notions
onto historical reality. Here the historian faces the problem of reconciling his interest
in the individual and the particular with the social scientist's concern with the typical
and the universal. Kocka has identified it as a major problem of the social historian (64:
p. 502).
West German historiography of the Reformation is wrestling with this problem,
without being fully aware of its nature, for the 'marxist debate* has obscured the broader
1CC11A Tt KQC }t*A trt m í t i v o mAtitai Kaianfinor apt en/»K ae \Ä/r*Vi1f*»i1'c d t t p m n t tr\ At*cnn\\t*
22
Cf. especially the essay b y P . C . Ludz, cited in
dividing line can be drawn between academic know-
note 12. Recent examples of t h e application of t h e ledge in East and West, a presumption which seems
structuralist approach to the Reformation period can be continually to intrude into discussions of social
seen in t h e essays by Bücking (9: p p . 168-92) a n d history.
24
Rammstedt (49). Another interesting suggestion is that by Wunder
23
A more systematic exposition of Kocka's views that social history should link structures and events
appeared in the 'comparative encyclopaedia' Sowjet- (Strukturgeschichte und Ereignisgeschichte) (9: p. 10),
system und Demokratische Gesellschaft, C. D. Kernig although the implications with regard to the other
(ed.), 6 vols. (Freiburg/Breisgau, 1966-72) - cf. (63). views discussed here are not clear until the notion
This work, which bears the stamp of cold war preoc- is expounded in more detail.
cupations, is organized on the principle that a sharp
January igyy Is there a social history of the Reformation? 493
'social history', mentioned above. To take another example, Winfried Schulze has
suggested a test for arbitrarily chosen analytical concepts, a kind of ' verification principle '
which he labels ' operationally '. This is defined in negative terms. An analytical concept
becomes inoperational - that is, it fails in its purpose of analysing historical reality - when
'its specific criteria are not related to real history, but only to constructed concepts about
history', or else when its use is dependent on the construction of such concepts (yi: p.
264). This principle rests however on the shaky assumption that the features of what
is ' real history ' and what is a subjective imposition of the historian are readily discernible.
In essence it seems to suggest that social history can become a form of neo-positivism.
The weakness of such theoretical considerations is that they conceive of social history
primarily as a methodology, and by itself a methodology cannot fulfil the kind of inte-
grative function required for any such ' way of viewing history '. This can be achieved only
by recourse to an adequate theory explaining both the nature of and the relations between
social phenomena, and which takes adequate account of the processes of social change.
The discipline of sociology, to which historians might look to provide this understanding,
is going through a self-confessed period of crisis,25 and the social historian might well
be cautious about any over-eager acceptance of theoretical models. However he can
contribute to the formulation of these models by ensuring that they take account of
the complexities of historical change, and by not remaining content to operate only with
static structures or ideal types. It has been a weakness of the structuralist emphasis in
West German social history that it has tended to regard society, especially in the early
modern period, as something fixed and given from which change and conflict is absent.26
Events such as the Peasant War are seen as a dysfunction which present no challenge to
the stable equilibrium of existing social structures, as a Systemskonflikt, to use Wohlfeil's
most recent term (9: p. 354). Where manifest revolutionary tendencies do appear, as in
the case of Thomas Muntzer, these are held to be peripheral or dismissed as 'Utopian'.27
One is thus able to avoid consideration of any dynamic elements which bring about social
change through conflict, such as those stressed in marxist analyses. It has been one of
the strengths of marxist historiography, conceived in the broadest sense, that it has sought
to combine explanation of historical change with explanation of social structures and
relations. Any integrating social theory used by social historians must at least be of this
nature.28
25 27
Cf. A . Giddens, The Class Structure of Advanced In repudiation of GDR views that Thomas
Societies (1973), 13-15. Also the comments b y E . J . Muntzer heads a radical party of chiliastic revolution-
Hobsbawm, ' F r o m social history t o t h e history of aries, West German historians argue that Muntzer and
society', Daedalus (Winter, 1971), 25-8. This impor- his Thuringian revolutionary movement, which links
tant article for t h e social historian has been translated both urban and rural revolt, is a 'special phenomenon,
into German (73: p p . 331-53). which is not typical for the whole of the peasantry'
26 (11: p. 301). On the Utopian dimension of Muntzer,
This is an underlying assumption of three recent
essays by O. Rammstedt (49), J. Bücking, 'Der cf. (5: p. 40).
28
"Bauernkrieg" in den habsburgischen Ländern als T h i s point has been made cogently b y Hobs-
sozialen Systemskonflikt, 1524-1526' (9: pp. 168-92), bawm, loc. cit., p p . 36 ff.; Wehler (72: p p . 29-30)
and W. Schulze, 'Die veränderte Bedeutung soziale recognizes t h e attractiveness of marxist theory in this
Konflikte im 16. und 17. Jahrhunderte' (9: pp. 277- respect.
3°2)-
How do these considerations relate to the social history of the Reformation? There
has been a persistent reluctance to concede that the Reformation, a 'religious event',
may have been shaped by social influences. Where this has not been influenced by fear
of conceding hard-fought ground to marxism, it has arisen from a conviction that
recognition of social influences would diminish the religious nature of the Reformation.29
This is a false fear. While upholding that the Reformation was primarily concerned with
religious issues, it is also true that we can never avoid examining such a major historical
event in terms of man's collective life and its organized forms. The most fundamental
assumption of a social history of the Reformation is therefore that it was socially con-
ditioned and mediated. Exactly in what sense constitutes the problem to be investigated.
The first step is to look at the nature of the society in question. As already mentioned,
there is a tendency to regard pre-industrial society as more static than industrial society.
While the latter is caught up in the ferment of social change, the former is more or less
frozen in time. This is expressed through the conventional wisdom that early modern
European society was essentially hierarchical, based on the notion of estates or orders.
This is described by Conze as
a personally conceived structure of independent lords or patriarchs, from monarchs,
over nobles and patricians, down to the urban guildmaster and - within limits, since
freedom and legal status were restricted - manorial peasants as village confederates.
It is therefore a patriarchal system whose order is assured through multiple rule
of person over person, and through politically responsible cooperation of citizens
or estates in corporative institutions from provincial assemblies to village com-
munes. (58: 21).
This is summed up in the notion of the res publica, in German gemein nutz, expressed
by our common weal or common good. Thus any notion of society based on economic
criteria (modes of production) or class divisions is dismissed as not corresponding with
the reality of pre-industrial society. We also have a society from which conflict should
be absent, except in so far as men respond blindly to sheer deprivation, or protest at
a 'dysfunction' in the system. As Rodney Hilton has commented, this view accepts a
social theory elaborated at the end of the middle ages as though it were an accurate social
description, rather than an ideal evaluation by certain upper levels of the society.30
Let us assume for the moment that this reflects at least a contemporary ideal, a
reasonable account of how 'traditional' society saw itself. Within the German towns the
ideal was often far from the reality. Here the corporative principle was the organization
of citizens into a sworn confederation, expressed in the communal oath. But this did
29
Cf. especially, Koch, op. cit., pp. 191 ff. where H. A. Oberman's essay "Tumultus rusticorum: Vom
concern is expressed that material factors should be "Klosterkrieg" zum "Fürstensieg'" (7: pp. 157-72)
seen as primary, and spiritual factors as secondary in is a strong assertion of theological influences, even
historical explanation. This concern is also expressed interpreting the Peasant War itself as a religious
in M. Brecht's call for church historians to rescue the movement.
30
theological aspects of the Reformation from being R. H. Hilton, The English Peasantry in the Later
submerged by the social and political (7: p. 31). Middle Ages (Oxford, 1975), 9-12.
January igyj Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 495
not encompass all who lived in the town, for many were not citizens or allowed to become
such. Ideal and reality corresponded, as a legal definition, only where all who exercised
an economic activity were forced to join a guild, and so to enter the civic community.
Elsewhere the circle of citizens could be more or less restricted, so that large sections
of the population were forced into a situation of subjection where they enjoyed no
'politically responsible cooperation.. .in corporative institutions'.31 Certainly the rulers
of these towns still upheld the ideology of the 'common good', but this rested on an
assertion of a basic inequality amongst men. Participation in government was attained
by virtue of belonging to a certain order, to which one was ordained by the will of God.
Thus Christoph Scheurl expounded it for Nuremberg in 1516:
The government of our city and the common weal rest in the hands of ancient
families, people whose ancestors even back in the earliest days were members of
the government and ruled the city. Foreigners who have settled here and common
people have nothing to say, nor ought they to, for all power is of God, and only
those may exercise it whom the Creator has endowed with special wisdom, (cited
55: P- 6 l ) -
Felix Fabri in his Treatise on the City of Ulm (c. 1490) even argued that a structured
social inequality was essential for the common good. A rigid distinction must be
preserved between patrician and guild ranks in the city, in order that the richest and
most talented of the lower orders would not forsake their estate for that above them.32
This indicates a major point of conflict in the cities of the period. Guildsmen were
acquiring wealth, and demanding a share of the power and status they felt was their due.
This is a prominent feature in the civic disturbances of the years 1480-1517 (38), and
ruling élites were forced to come to terms with the phenomenon of social mobility. Later
in his treatise Fabri makes a virtue of necessity, recognizing the merchant estate as a
source of social revitalization. Men from the upper ranks who 'begin to decline, so
descend into this fifth estate in order to regain strength; and when one from the lower
estates advances, he at once lifts himself up into this estate, in order to advance
further'.33 Indeed the idea of fixed estates or orders has so broken down by the second
decade of the sixteenth century that social mobility is now seen as a safety valve to avoid
social conflict. Seyssel expresses in La Monarchie de France of 1519 what has become
a commonplace. It is necessary to allow movement between the three estates, he argues,
to encourage and give hope to those of this middle estate to reach the said estate
of the nobility... and similarly to those of the popular and lowest estate to reach
the middle one, and through the middle one to rise yet again to the first, which
hope ensures that each is content with his estate and has no cause to plot against
31
Work on stratification in the late-medieval town thesis proposed b y Erich Maschke (3: p p . 323-4).
32
(42, 43) has already challenged this picture implicitly. K . D . Hassler, 'Brüder Felix Fabris Abhand-
T h e Memmingen Conference devoted some time t o lung v o n d e r Stadt U l m ' , Ulm und Oberschwaben
discussion of the influence of capitalism in creating an XIII/XV (1908/9), 48.
'open society' allowing greater social mobility, a 33
Ibid., 83.
the others, knowing that he can reach them by good and lawful means, and that
he would place himself in danger if he wanted to arrive at them by other ways.34
The motor of this social dynamic is wealth and its acquisition, and suggests the need
to look closely at the economic changes occurring during the Reformation period.
Two developments at least appear to be going o n - a crisis of feudalism and a
development of capitalism - but our knowledge of the economic detail of the period is
still too limited to know how to relate this to social changes. GDR work has stressed
the primitive accumulation of capital and the development of new entrepreneurial forms
characteristic of an early stage of capitalism. This is accompanied by the emergence of
capitalist relations of production in mining and smelting, involving the use of a substantial
wage-labour force, the growth of the putting-out system in metal trades and textile
production, and prototypical forms of capitalist production in the printing industry. This
is said to lead to a growth of plebeian groups in town and country dependent on wage
labour (18: pp. n-34). Christopher Friederichs has recently indicated an important
modification to this picture. He points to the role of the putting-out system in depriving
the middling and poorer artisan of his economic independence and control over the means
of production, so creating a distinct lower middle class within the towns.35 For the
countryside, Blickle and Sabean have indicated the lines along which investigation of
the social effects of economic changes might be carried out (2, 8), but a major point of
contention is still how capitalist developments may have influenced the countryside at
large. Here we must look more closely at the involvement of the feudal nobility in
capitalist investment, and at the effects of a money-goods relationship intruding into the
rural economy.36 The nature of rural-urban social and economic relations must also
be examined, especially within a regional framework.
Allowing for the incompleteness of our knowledge on many of these points, there is
still a prima facie case for looking at the development of classes, rather than continuing
to think only in terms of estates. Even those who accept the theory of the société d'ordres
concede that there seems to be a change from an order-based to a class-based society,
a movement which Roland Mousnier sees as commencing in England from the end of
the fifteenth century.37 There is certainly some value to be drawn from an analysis of
society in terms of modes of production. Indeed Seyssel's three estates come close to being
34
C . d e Seyssel in J . Poujol (ed.), La Monarchiede produce. Any shortfall in feudal dues could also be
France (Paris, 1961), 125. paid in this manner, rather than being forced back
35
C. F. Friederichs, 'Capitalism, mobility and onto a cash loan. The classic process involved in the
class formation in the early modern German city', Past latter is seen in the 1521 Dialogue on Interest, cf. G.
and Present,LXIX(1975), 24-49, esp. 32-4. Rammstedt Strauss (ed. and trans.), Manifestations of Discontent
(49: p. 254) has discussed some of the broader prob- in Germany on the Eve of the Reformation (London and
lems raised here in the context of the 1525 disturb- Bloomington, 1971), 110.
37
ances. R. Mousnier, Social Hierarchies (1973), 41. This
38
Sabean (8: p. 119) calls attention to two possibi- problem was also discussed at the Memmingen Con-
lities with regard to the latter. A peasant unable to ference (3: pp. 323-5), with Maschke making a point
produce a surplus adequate for his own needs in goods similar to Mousnier's, although unwillingness to use
may be forced to sell his labour for cash, or he may the term 'class' led to it being called a 'restratification
sell it to another better-off farmer for payment in (Umschichtung) process'.
January içjj Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 497
just such a grouping. His nobility by implication live on the surplus product of others'
labour; his middle classes depend on commerce and profits; and his third estate are those
whose vocation 'is principally the tilling of the soil, the mechanical trades and other
inferior occupations', or direct production. However, the fluidity of social groups is so
great that it is difficult to discern any clear-cut class divisions in any "vulgar marxist'
sense. This is not to say that to talk of classes is irrelevant: Marx insisted that in periods
of transition the delineation of classes was confused, and in any case the emergence of
a clearly defined class structure depended on the development of a distinctive 'class
consciousness'.38 More attention should be paid to the implications of this point.
Let us assume that Seyssel's three groups are by analogy valid for Germany. What
determined the aspiration to move from one to another? For the urban middle classes
of the larger towns, there was the desire to gain the status of the nobility; for the lower
orders, the commercial opportunities of the city were seen as a means of advancement.
But for both this remained often on the level of aspiration alone. However much the
urban patriciate aped the nobility there was still a deep gulf between them. The only
way in which urban élites could achieve a position akin to the nobility was collectively,
either to become a feudal estate in their own right, or to establish themselves as sovereign
authorities. Thus there occurred in the towns a movement parallel to that Blickle sees
in the countryside. In the latter the voluntary association of lord and loyal follower (Herr
und Getreue) was being replaced by the subordinating relation of sovereign and subject
(Obrigkeit und Untertan) (2: p. 38). In the city the town council emerged as Obrigkeit
over its citizens, who were regarded as subjects (41, 46). In marxist terms, this
would indicate that urban rulers had become assimilated to the hegemony of the ruling
feudal classes.39 The urban classes did have their own appropriate ideology, that of the
essential unity and community of the city, but it was clear by the beginning of the
sixteenth century that this was breaking down.
This is evident in the wave of urban disturbances during the decade before the
Reformation, which were frequently fought out in terms of the Council versus the
Commune. This reflected a belief that rulers were not following the common good, but
their own self-interest, embodied in the slogans of gemein nutz versus eigen nutz. This
illustrates an important growth of a 'bourgeois consciousness' in that the middle and
lower ranks of the citizenry were demanding that the ideology of the common good and
the equality of citizens should also become a social and political reality. The means
towards this envisaged by the urban opposition was politically to broaden the circles of
power to include the entire commune, sometimes by extending the range of those eligible
for office, sometimes by setting up control organs and watchdog bodies. Economically,
they sought to broaden economic opportunity and access to communal wealth. Such
attemnts at reform were often defeated. The new members of government either cnuld
38
Cf. the illuminating comments on Marx's theory attention amongst West German historians such as
of classes in Giddens, op. cit., c h . 1. Wohlfeil (10: p. 47). and Wunder (9; p . 14; 10: p .
39
O n e must note the relevance in this context of 176), but without it being seen in any wider theo-
Thompson's concept of the 'moral economy' of the retical context, o n e of the intrinsic weaknesses of the
eighteenth-century crowd, which has attracted some 'methodological pluralism' favoured b y both.
not afford the economic strain of office-holding, or were wealthy enough to gain equal
status with the old élite, and were absorbed into it. The opposition movements were
rarely successful in creating fundamental structural change in the distribution of power,
and this often negated whatever economic gains they had made. There remained a
simmering conflict between rulers and ruled, which burst with full force only during
the early years of the Reformation.40
How did the Reformation affect this situation ? One consistent tradition, running from
the Social Democrat Friedrich von Bezold writing in the 1880s, down to the GDR
historians and Peter Blickle, sees it in terms of legitimation of rebellion.41 Social
discontent remains undirected and incoherent until the Gospel provides a unifying
principle. This is no radically new departure, but the completion of a growing conscious-
ness. The latter part of the fifteenth century saw an elevation of the status of productive
labour through a revaluation of the role of the peasant as the nourisher of society. In
part this was a religious idealization of labour, finding the biblical origins of agricultural
work in Adam as the first farmer, rather than in the sons of Ham, whom Noah had cursed
to be the slaves of their brothers (cf. Gen. 9, verses 20-4). This legitimated labour in
terms of an egalitarian principle outside the hierarchical structures of feudal society. This
ideal is seen assimilated into an urban context in Hans Rosenblut's On Idlers and
Workers, from the end of the fifteenth century.42 The concept of the ' common man ' unites
all these overtones, linking the labouring classes of town and country. The Lutheran
Reformation, with its stress on the liberty of the Christian and the priesthood of all
believers, confirms and extends these principles. Moreover, Reformation propaganda
during the years up to the Peasant War places this at the centre of its appeal, choosing
the figures of Karsthans, the Evangelical Peasant and the Common Man to carry the
propagandist thrust of its message.43 Above all it is a concept which appeals readily to
the discontented urban classes, and can easily be merged with the bourgeois notion of
the 'common good'. These lower orders of society find a new and liberating principle
by which to adjudge social order and justice. In its terms the existing order stands
condemned, and rebellion is justified.44
One weakness of this line of argument must be pointed out - that it operates on the
40
Maschke has provided figures on urban distur- A. von Keller (ed.), Fastnachtspiele aus dem 15.
bances for the period 1301-1550, which show that the Jahrhundert (Stuttgart, 1853), part 111, 1152-7, esp.
peak decade was 1521-30, with 45 disturbances in all, 1155.
cf. 'Deutsche Städte am Ausgang des Mittelalters', 43
Cf. K . Uhrig, ' D e r Bauer in der Publizistik d e r
in W. Rausch (ed.), Die Stadt am Ausgang des Mittel- Reformation bis z u m Ausgang des Bauernkrieges',
alters (Linz, 1974), 40, n. 206. Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, XXXIII (1936),
41
Blickle's term Legitimationszwang (3; p. 129) is 70-125, 65-225. Balzer, as note 13, complements this
clearly Weberian, although Gramsci's notion of hege- argument with a study of the bourgeois-urban
mony is also relevant, as well as Hobsbawm's 'moral features.
economy'. 44
Oberman, as note 24, disagrees that there was any
42
F. von Bezold, 'Die "armen Leute" und die notion of a new order, a n d maintains that the peasants
deutsche Literature des späteren Mittelalters', His- looked backwards towards t h e restoration of a n old
torische Zeitschrift, XLI (1879), 1-37; 20: pp. 203-4. order. The pertinent point is their discontent with the
Rosenblut's Von den Mussiggengern und Arbeitern is in existing order.
level of ideology alone.45 Its delineation of the common man is drawn largely from
literary sources, and its image of the evangelical peasant from Reformation tracts, without
any analysis of their actual social impact. The argument jumps therefore from ideology
to the events, without showing anything about a social reality in between. That the Gospel
could provide legitimation for rebellion is not to show that it did, although Blickle has
shown at least that the concept of the ' common man ' and the legitimating appeal to the
Gospel was frequent enough in peasant grievances (2: Section 2.2). So far, therefore,
any attempt to relate the Reformation and social change along these lines must remain
a useful hypothesis to be tested by further research. Its investigation will form one of
the major tasks confronting the social historian of the Reformation.
There is however another no less important task. If sixteenth-century German society

must be taken as a problem to be investigated, so too must the ' Reformation ' itself. Our
concept of it has been shaped far too much by the received orthodoxy of confessional
history. Here Ozment has opened upa broader range of questions by asking simply ' What
was the original evangelical message? ' (I have avoided his own formulation 'the original
Protestant message' deliberately; this confines the analysis to confessional history alone,
and does injustice to Ozment's insights.) His answer presents another challenge to
conventional wisdom: the Reformation offered both a genuine religious revival and a
secularization of life. This indicates that we must think in more complex terms about
the mental outlook of the period. We cannot accept any longer an idealist claim that men's
lives were so pervaded with religion that they were not aware that there were matters
of the world which could and should be fought out in the world. Equally, a 'vulgar
marxist ' insistence that religion was merely a cloak for material interests will not suffice.
As Natalie Davis has pointed out, men of the sixteenth century were perfectly capable
of distinguishing between the secular and the religious.46 On the other hand, men had
been brought up to see their society as an expression of Christian belief, and it is not
surprising that many should have applied the new ideas to their social circumstances.
They could see that these called the justice of the existing social order into question.
If the evangelical movement became in many places a movement of social protest, this
does not mean that men did not really believe the new doctrines, or fail to apprehend
the new religious practice as a change in their religious life. It shows us rather that the
ways in which they sought to relate their religious and secular aspects were more varied
and complicated than the neat compartmentalizations 'religious' and 'social' imply. Our
understanding of 'the Reformation' must begin to reflect this complexity.
Let us look at a few examples. In the case of city magistrates, it is undeniable that
they often approached the new movement with more than an eye on self-interest. This
could manifest itself in a variety of ways. It could mean the desire of a ruling élite to
remain in power, or to avoid a challenge to this power, as in Erfurt. To argue that such
men thought only in terms of the 'common good' or of the unity of the city, or were
selfless in their devotion to such ideals will not do. This is to accept the ruling ideology
45
This is true of arguments such as Oberman's. der', Past and Present,LXVII(1975), 132.
46 N. Z. Davis, 'The rites of violence-a rejoin-
5oo Social History NO 4
once again as though it were a description of the real state of affairs. The factional
struggles within the cities in the fifty years before the Reformation show that many men
were not only interested in personal power, but willing to go to any lengths to gain or
retain it.
The same is true of their economic awareness. Cities which depended on trade
responded quickly to challenges to their prosperity, reflected in the ongoing debate
on customs and monopolies at the Reichstag.47 In the formative period of the Reformation
economic self-interest could unite towns across their religious differences. Or towns such
as Speyer and Regensburg could set aside their evangelical inclinations because, as in
the first case, they feared damage to trade, or hoped, as in the second, to gain economic
advantage by remaining Catholic.48 Even in 'holy Cologne' a town councillor could

venture the opinion that the rulers held back from consideration of Lutheran beliefs
from fear that it would harm the city's prosperity (5/: p. 225).
In other words, the pervasiveness of religion should not be confused with the primacy
of religion in making vital decisions. We have the case of two Augsburg jurists on
opposite sides of the religious fence, Conrad Peutinger and Johann Rehlinger. Both could
put their personal beliefs to one side in making an objective assessment of the pros and
cons of a city accepting or rejecting the Reformation.49 Such a lack of high religious
passion was not confined to ruling élite groups, but is found in the masses. The lack of
evangelical justification in many sets of local peasant grievances has been commented
upon by those who argue the non-religious nature of the Peasant War. It would not
be surprising that the 'common man', however much he felt that the Gospel justified
his rebellion, should get down to concrete grievances he wished to see redressed.
Another case is that of the country parsons of Ulm, questioned in 1531 on what they
thought of the proposals to introduce the Reformation. Most found the issues all too
confusing and complex, and wished to leave it to the decision of their government.50
There were also all those ordinary men and women on whom the Reformation, even
in Protestant territories, scarcely seems to have impinged at all (56). Religion was
something common to all men of the sixteenth century, but not all men felt equally
strongly about it.
These features must become parameters in a new analysis of what the Reformation
was, of how men responded to the original evangelical message. But there is one further
dimension that must not be overlooked. We are dealing not just with individual belief,
47
F . Blaich, 'Die Reichsstädte und die Antimono- prepared for the Regensburg Council, Stadtarchiv
polpolitik des Reiches im Zeitalter Karls V , EsslingenRegensburg, Eccl. 1.1.28; ' D . Conrad Peutingers be-
Studien XII/XIII (1966/7), 202-26. düncken über die frag: ob E. E. Rath anderung in der
48 Religion furnehmen mögn' of 1533 in the Stadtarchiv
R. W. Scribner, 'Memorandum on the appoint-
ment of a preacher in Speyer, 1538', Bulletin of the Augsburg. I am grateful to Philip Broadhead of the
Institute of Historical Research,XLVIII(1975), 248-55; University of Kent at Canterbury for the Peutinger
L. Theobald, Die Refomationsgeschichte der Reichs- reference, which will be discussed in his forthcoming
stadt Regensburg vol. 1 (Nuremberg, 1936), esp. 190- thesis on the Reformation in Augsburg.
50
220. G. Keidel, 'Ulmische Reformationsakten von
48
Cf. 'Bedenken Dr Johan Rehlinger, die 2 Au- 1531 und 1532', Wurttembergische Vierteljahrsheft für
gustiner Prediger betreffend' of 30 November 1534, Landesgeschichte NF 4 (1895), 258-74.
January içjy Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 501
but with a movement. The Reformation was made not just by many individuals holding
a common belief, but by collective forms of behaviour. So far historians have been aware
of this issue only in a crude and oversimplified form: whether there is any correlation
between socio-economic groupings and those who did or did not accept the
Reformation.51 The investigation must be wider in scope. By what means did individual
changes in belief grow into a movement? Did this coalesce around communal events such
as feasts, festivals or celebrations? In Wittenberg in 1521 the collection of the Antonius
pence provided the occasion for one early demonstration of evangelical fervour; Christmas
ceremonies provided another.52 Besides liturgical occasions there were traditional assem-
blies such as Carnival, which provided scope for acts of dissent. In Erfurt the storming
of clerical houses in 1521 was organized around bands using a secret password and a
rallying cry. Did this derive from forms of student organization?53 Natalie Davis has
called attention to the importance of youth groups in France, and the role of youth in the
German Reformation has been noted.54 How important then were the rituals and
organization of youth groups in creating an evangelical movement ? In some towns the
Reformation was discussed in guild assemblies. As a basic unit of civic and social life, this
would have been a natural forum for discussion. It provided a ready-made organizational
principle for an evangelical movement, and in many cases the Reformation is initiated
by a single guild. In other places the movement grew more naturally out of the parish
community, a more localized social unit. How did it grow up in rural communities?
In asking whether one organizational principle emerged rather than another, we must
look at the structure of individual communities, and the distribution of power and social
control. In Cologne none of the areas of activity mentioned above was open to the
evangelically minded, for the Council's control over all areas of communal life was too
strong. Accordingly, no evangelical movement emerged in Cologne, although individual
unorthodoxy of belief was possible. Even the simplest common ground on which men
could meet, discuss and organize, the inn, was carefully controlled by encouraging
informers (51: p. 235). This suggests that we have paid too much attention to the
institutional form of the Reformation, and neglected pre-institutional stages of develop-
ment. It is here that men apply their common experience and traditions as new ideas
move them to action, before the movements they create are formalized and rigidified.
Amid all the discussion initiated by Moeller's study of whether the Reformation was a
51
This is true both of the discussion whether the Reformation - cf. esp. p . 255.
52
'early bourgeoisie' were the bearers of the Reforma- N . Muller, ' D i e Wittenberger Bewegung',
tion or not, and of the question raised by Moeller (45: Archiv für Reformationsgeschichte, VI (1908/9), 179-80.
p. 27) of how far urban patricians were more inclined 388-9.
53
to Catholicism. T h e work of the Special Research O . Clemen, Flugschriften aus den ersten Jahren der
Programme 'The Town of the Later Middle Ages and Reformation (Leipzig, 1907), 1, 369-76.
54
the Reformation in South Germany' at the University N . Z . Davis, ' T h e reasons of misrule: youth
of Tübingen will introduce important new material in groups and charivaris in sixteenth century France',
this area by evaluating the impact of non-theological Past and Present, 1. (1971), 41-75; Moeller has called
factors on the Reformation. Rammstedt (49) has some attention t o the role of youth in the German
important comments on social movements and their Reformation.
ideological dimensions, but does not extend this to the
popular movement, or something imposed and manipulated by magistrates, this vital
point has been neglected.
Another question is that of leadership. The relations between leaders and led have
rarely been investigated closely, despite innumerable instances of divergence between
the two, where one or the other lagged behind. Was there any essential difference
between clerical and lay leadership ? Why did ' outsiders ' often find more response than
local men? Can we distinguish between the message presented by the preachers of the
new belief and its reception? Were sermons a more effective means of spreading the
message than other ways? Answers to these questions would do much to widen our
understanding of what the Reformation was, so that we could see the multiplicity of forms
and expression it took at the grass roots. We may then be in a position to understand
more fully the reality beneath over-schematized terms such as the 'Lutheran',
'Zwinglian' or 'Radical* Reformations. Above all, we may be able to see it more com-
pletely as something embedded in the social reality of men's lives, as extending beyond
individual belief to collective modes of thought and action.
This discussion has concentrated on a few fundamental questions of a social history
of the Reformation. Many other areas have not been mentioned which also deserve to
be investigated in their social context, not least those relevant to the 'second generation'
of the Reformation, after 1530. These include the effects of confessional strife on urban
and rural communities, and the long-term social implications of religious divisions.55
Natalie Davis's work on religious riot in France could well be applied to the period of
the Schmalkaldic Wars.56 Gerald Strauss has raised an important issue, whether the
Reformation did lead, as its early advocates hoped, to an improvement of religious belief
and moral life (56). Further investigation of visitation records would extend Strauss's
work, especially into the social effects of the princely Reformation. Chrisman called
attention to another important feature which has remained largely unexplored, the social
role and position of the new Protestant clergy in reformed communities (j/). 57 These
should be investigated with one thought kept firmly in mind, that the Reformation should
be regarded not just as a matter of individual belief. It was a social event, and to
investigate it is to investigate the nature of social reality and of social processes of the
period. Important and suggestive contributions have been made by the works discussed
55
On the latter, cf. H.-C. Rublack, ' Konfession als the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
56
demographischer Faktor?', in H. Rabe, H.-G. Cf. N . Z . Davis, ' T h e rites of violence: religious
Molitor and H.-C. Rublack (eds.), Festgabe für Ernst riot in sixteenth century F r a n c e ' , Past and Present, LIX
Walter Zeeden zum 60. Geburtstag (Munster, 1976), (1973), 51-91.
62-96. On the former, another Special Research Prog- 57
Two studies in this direction are S. K. Boles,
ramme 'The Formation of Confessions' at the Uni- 'The economic position of Lutheran pastors in Ernes-
versity of Tübingen is investigating the formation of tine Thuringia 1521-1555', Archiv für Reformations-
confessional patterns in selected German territories geschichte,LXIII(1972), 94-125; and B. Klaus, 'Soziale
during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This Herkunft und theologische Bildung lutherische
examines the supervision of people and clergy by the Pfarrer der reformatorischen Neuzeit', Zeitschrift für
ecclesiastical and political authorities, and the secular Kirchengeschichte,LXXX(1969), 22-49. The problem
aspects of patterns of confessional stabilization in has also been raised in a lecture by B. Moeller, Pfarrer
Catholic, Lutheran and Calvinist territories during als Bürger (Göttingen, 1972).
above, not least those from the GDR. If there is a lesson to be learned from the 'marxist
debate' between the two Germanies, despite all the misunderstandings and
inconclusiveness, it is the need for a genuinely open discussion. This means that we should
not shrink back from employing the tools of marxist analysis, or from refining and
improving on them. Similar issues will emerge more frequently as historians seek to apply
the insights and the methods of the social sciences to the study of the Reformation. Only
this kind of openness will create a genuine 'social history of the Reformation'.
Portsmouth Polytechnic
B I B L I O G R A P H Y ON T H E G E R M A N P E A S A N T WAR A N D
T H E S O C I A L H I S T O R Y OF T H E R E F O R M A T I O N
This is intended only as a basic bibliography. A comprehensive list of all relevant works
would lead to excessive length. Several of the works listed here have excellent detailed
bibliographies, and attention has been called to these by an asterisk.
I Recent works on the Peasant War

' 1 J. Bak (ed.), The German Peasant War of i¡2¡ 7 H. A. Oberman (ed.), Deutscher Bauernkrieg
(1976). Originally special issue of The Journal of ¡¡2; (Stuttgart, 1974). Special issue of Zeitschrift
Peasant Studies 3/i (Oct. 1975). für Kirchengeschichte 86/ii (1974).
' 2 P. Blickle, Die Revolution von i¡2¡ (Munich/ * 8 D. W. Sabean, Landbesitz und Gesellschaft am
Vienna, 1975). Vorabend des Bauernkriegs (Stuttgart, 1972).
j P. Blickle (ed.), Revolte und Revolution in Europa • 9 H. U. Wehler (ed.), Der deutsche Bauernkrieg
(Munich, 1975), Historische Zeitschrift, Beiheft 4. 1524-6 (Göttingen, 1975), Geschichte und Gesell-
4 G. Fran2, Der deutsche Bauernkrieg (Darmstadt, schaft. Zeitschrift für historische Sozialwissenschaft
1975) ioth edition. Original edition 1933. Sonderheft 1.
5 A. Friesen, Reformation and Utopia. The Marxist 10 R. Wohlfeil (ed.), Der Bauernkrieg 1S24-6.
Interpretation of the Reformation and its Ante- Bauernkrieg und Reformation (Munich, 1975).
cedents (Wiesbaden, 1974). • / / R. Wohlfeil (ed.), Reformation oder frühbürger-
6 B. Moeller (ed.), Studien zum Bauernkrieg (Gu- liche Revolution? (Munich, 1972).
tersloh, 1975), Schriftendes Vereins für Reforma-
tionsgeschichte 189.
II GDR works on the Reformation and Peasant War

12 M. Bensing, Thomas Müntzer (Leipzig, 1965). (Chicago, 1967). For discussions of Engels's sig-
13 M. Bensing, Thomas Müntzer und der Thüringer nificance for the marxist interpretation cf. nos.
Aufstand (Berlin, 1966). 1 and 5 above.
14 G. Brendler (ed.), Die frühbürgerliche Revolution • 1 6 G . Heitz, A. Laube, M. Steinmetz and G. Vogler
in Deutschland (Berlin, 1961). Proceedings of the (eds.), Der Bauer im Klassenkampf. Studien zur
Deutsche Historiker-Gesellschaft conference, Geschichte des deutschen Bauernkrieges und der
Medievalist Section, in Wernigerode, Jan. i960. bäuerlichen Klassenkämpfe im Spätfeudalismus
15 F. Engels, The Peasant War in Germany (Berlin, 1975).
(Moscow Foreign Languages Publishing House, 17 A. Laube and H. W. Seiffert (eds.), Flugschriften
1956). Fundamental work for marxist interpreta- des Bauernkrieges (Berlin, 1975).
tions of the Reformation and Peasant War, first 18 A. Laube, M. Steinmetz and G. Vogler, Illus-
published 1850. This edition also contains Engels's trierte Geschichte der deutschen frühbürgerliche
later comments. The most recent English edition Revolution (Berlin, 1974).
is edited by L. Krieger, The German Revolutions iq J. Schildhauer, Soziale, politische und religiose
ASH 4
5°4 Social History NO 4
Auseinandersetzungen in den Hansestädten Stral- 25 M. Steinmetz, 'Die frühbürgerliche Revolution
sund, Rostock und Wismar im ersten Drittel des in Deutschland (1476-1535). Thesen zur Vor-
XVI. Jahrhunderts (Wismar, 1959). bereitung der wissenschaftlichen Konferenz in
20 M. M. Smirin, Deutschland vor der Reformation Wernigerode vom 20. bis 24. Januar 1960',
(Berlin, 1955). This and the following influential ZfG 8 (i960) 113-24. Reprinted in 11 above.
works by the most prominent Soviet historian of 26 M. Steinmetz, 'Forschungen zur Geschichte der
the Reformation. Reformation und des deutschen Bauernkrieges',
21 M. M. Smirin, Die Volksreformation des Thomas ZfG 18 (1970), Sonderband: Historische For-
Müntzer und der grosse Bauernkrieg (Berlin, 1956). schung in der DDR 1060-igtp, 338-50.
22 I. Spriewald, H. Schnabel, W. U n k , and H. 2j M. Steinmetz, 'Reformation und Bauernkrieg in
Entner, Grundpositionen der deutschen Literatur der Historiographie der DDR', ZfG 8 (i960),
im 16. Jahrhundert (Berlin/Weimar, 1073). Sonderheft: Historische Forschung in der DDR,
23 M. Steinmetz, Deutschland von 1476 bis 1648. Von 142-62.

der frühbürgerliche Revolution bis zum Westfäli- 28 G. Zschäbitz, Martin Luther. Grosse und Grenze
schen Frieden (Berlin, 1965). (Berlin, 1967).
24 M. Steinmetz, 'Die Entstehung der marxisti- 29 G. Zschäbitz, Zur mitteldeutschen Wiedertäufer-
schen Auffassung von Reformation und Bauern- bewegung nach dem grossen Bauernkrieg (Berlin,
krieg als frühbürgerliche Revolution', Zeitschrift 1958).
für Geschichtswissenschaft (abbrev. ZfG), 15
(1967), 1171-92. Reprinted in // above.
i n The Urban Reformation in Germany

(Includes also important works on the social history of the period.)
30 L. P. Buck and J. W. Zophy, The Social History 41 E. Maschke, '"Obrigkeit" im spätmittelalterli-
of the Reformation (Columbus, Ohio, 1972). chen Speyer und in anderen Städten', ARG, LVII
31 M. U. Chrisman, Strasbourg and the Reform (1966), 7-23.
(New Haven, Conn., 1967). 42 E. Maschke, 'Verfassung und soziale Kräfte in
32 C. P. Ciasen, Anabaptism. A Social History der deutschen Stadt des späten Mittelalters, vorn-
(Ithaca/London, 1972). ehmlich in Oberdeutschland', Vierteljahrschrift
*33 A. G. Dickens, The German Nation and Martin für Sozial und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, XLVI (1959),
Luther (1974). 289-349. 433-76-
34 W. Ehbrecht, 'Bürgertum und Obrigkeit in den 43 E. Maschke and J. Sydow, Gesellschaftlichen
hanschischen Städten' des Mittelalters', in W. Unterschichten in den südwestdeutschen Städten
Rausch (ed.) Die Stadt am Ausgang des Mittel- (Stuttgart, 1967).
alten (Linz, 1974), 275-94. 44 E. Maschke and J. Sydow, Städtische Mittel-
35 H.J.Grimm, 'Social forces in the German schichten (Stuttgart, 1972).
Reformation', Church History, xxxi (1962), 3-13. 4¡ B. Moeller, Reichsstadt und Reformation (Güter-
36 H. J. Grimm, 'The Reformation and the urban sloh, 1962). English translation by H. C. E.
social classes in Germany', in J. C. Olin (ed.), Midelfort and M. U. Edwards, Imperial Cities
Luther, Erasmus and the Reformation (New York, and the Reformation (Philadelphia, 1972).
1969), 75-86. 46 E. Naujoks, Obrigkeitsgedanke, Zunftverfassung
37 B. Hall, 'The Reformation City', Bulletin of the und Reformation (Stuttgart, 1958).
John Rylands Library, LIV (1971), 103-48. 4j S. E. Ozment, The Reformation in the Cities. The
38 K. Käser, Politische und soziale Bewegungen im Appeal of Protestantism in Sixteenth Century Ger-
deutschen Bürgertum zu Beginn des 16. Jahrhunderts many and Switzerland (New Haven/London,
(Stuttgart, 1899). 1975)-
J9 J. M. Kittelson, 'Wolfgang Capito, the Council 48 H. C. Rublack, Die Einführung der Reformation
and Reform Strasbourg', Archiv für Reforma- in Konstanz von den Anfängen bis zum Abschluss
tionsgeschichte (abbrev. ARG), LXIII (1972), 1531 (Karlsruhe, 1971).
126-39. 4Q O. Rammstedt, 'Stadtunruhen 1525'in 9above,
40 F. Lau, 'Der Bauernkrieg und das angebliche 239-76.
Ende der lutherischen Reformation als spontane 50 R. W. Scribner, 'Civic unity and the Reforma-
Volksbewegung', Luther Jahrbuch, xxvi (1959), tion in Erfurt', Past and Present, ixn (1975),
"9-34- 29-60.
January igjj Is there a social history of the Reformation ? 505
¡1 R. W. Scribner, 'Why was there no Reformation 55 G. Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth Century
in Cologne?' Bulletin of the Institute of Historical (New York, 1966).
Research, IL (1976), 117-41. ¡6 G. Strauss, 'Success or failure in the German
52 J. C. Stalnaker, 'Residenzstadt und Reforma- Reformation', Past and Present, LXVII (1975),
tion: Religion, Politics and Social Policy in 3°-<>3
Hesse, 1509-46', ARG, LXIV (1973), 113-46. ¡7 H. Wolter, 'Die Reichsstadt Frankfurt am Main
53 H. Stratenwerth, Die Reformation in der Stadt und das Konzil von Trient', Archiv fur mittel-
Osnabrück (Wiesbaden, 1971). rheinischen Kirchengeschichte, xvi (1964), 139-75.
¡4 G. Strauss, 'Protestant dogma and city govern-
ment: the case of Nuremberg', Past and Present,
xxxvi (1967), 38-58.
IV Methodological and historiographical issues in contemporary

West German historiography
(More extensive references may be found in 62 below.)
¡8 W. Conze, 'Sozialgeschichte', in 74 below, pp. 67 H. Mommsen, 'Haupttendenzen nach 1945 und

19-26. in der Ära des Kalten Krieges', in 60above, pp.
¡Q A. Dorpalen, 'Die Geschichtswissenschaft der 112-20.
DDR', in 60 below, pp. 121-37. 68 H. Mommsen, 'Historical scholarship in transi-
60 B. Faulenbach (ed.), Geschichtswissenschaft in tion: the situation in the Federal Republic of
Deutschland (Munich, 1974). Germany', Daedalus (Spring, 1971), 486-508.
61 G. Iggers, Deutsche Geschichtswissenschaft 69 H. Mommsen, 'Sozialgeschichte', in 74 below,
(Munich, 1971). Slightly revised edition of the PP- 27-34-
original The German Conception of History (Mid- 70 T . Nipperdey, ' Kulturgeschichte, Sozialgeschi-
dletown, Conn., 1968). chte, historische Anthropologie', Vierteljahrsch-
62 J. Kocka, 'Theoretical approaches to social and rift für Sozial- und Wirtschaftsgeschichte, LV
economic history of modern Germany: some (1968), 145-64.
recent trends, concepts and problems in Western 71 W. Schulze,'"Reformation oder frühbürgerliche
and Eastern Germany', Journal of Modem His- Revolution?" Überlegungen zum Modellfall
tory, XLVll (1975), 101-19. einer Forschungskontroverse', Jahrbuch für
6j J. Kocka, 'Theorieprobleme der Sozial- und Geschichte Mittel- und Ostdeutschlands, xxn
Wirtschaftsgeschichte' in 73 below. (1973). 253-69-
64 J. Kocka, 'Zur jüngeren marxistischen Sozialge- 72 H. U. Wehler, Geschichte als historische Sozial-
schichte. Eine kritische Analyse unter besonderer viissenschaft (Frankfurt, 1973).
Berücksichtigung sozialgeschichtlicher Ansätze 73 H. U. Wehler, Geschichte und Soziologie (Col-
in der DDR' in 6; below, pp. 491-514. ogne, 1972).
65 P. C. Ludz (ed.). Soziologie und Sozialgeschichte 74 H. U. Wehler, Moderne Deutsche Sozialgeschichte
(Opladen, 1973). (Cologne, 1966).
66 H. Mommsen, 'Die Herausforderung durch die
modernen Sozialwissenschaften', in 60 above,
pp. 138-46.

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Is there a social history of the

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to identify Nazism and Communism as variants of the theory of totalitarianism, reinforced

factors of historical events, and so causalities and correlations'. Its methodology is to be

There is however another no less important task. If sixteenth-century German society

advantage by remaining Catholic.48 Even in 'holy Cologne' a town councillor could

I Recent works on the Peasant War

II GDR works on the Reformation and Peasant War

23 M. Steinmetz, Deutschland von 1476 bis 1648. Von 142-62.

i n The Urban Reformation in Germany

IV Methodological and historiographical issues in contemporary

¡8 W. Conze, 'Sozialgeschichte', in 74 below, pp. 67 H. Mommsen, 'Haupttendenzen nach 1945 und

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