ABSTRACT
Beginning in the autumn of 1524, in the highlands between the sources of the Rhine and the Danube, the rebellion swept north through Franconia and Swabia. The demands of the insurgents were embodied in the Twelve Articles, drawn up not later than February, 1525, by a Swabian, Sebastian Lotzer, and tacitly adopted as the official programme by most of the
bands of rustics. The fundamental principle of this document is the entire assimilation of civil and divine law; all claims are supported by an appeal to the gospel, under which rule the insurgents declare their intention to live. The articles propose the free election by each parish of its pastor, the reduction of taxes and tithes, the abolition of serfdom, freedom to hunt, fish, and cut wood in the forests, less forced labor, reopening of commons to the public, substitution of the old (German) for the new (Roman) law, and abolition of the heriot.
