ABSTRACT

In February 1525, the peasants of the Upper Swabian cloister of Ochsenhausen drafted a grievance letter about the abbot’s and convent’s rule that included the following provision: “henceforth all persons, male and female, who have until now been treated as serfs [Leibeigene1] of the cloister shall be freed of such serfdom, and shall not be sold like cows and calves, since we all have only one Lord, namely God in heaven.”2 In the same month, Urbanus Rhegius delivered a sermon in the nearby imperial city of Augsburg with the title “On Serfdom or Servitude.” In it, he sought to explain to lords and peasants how they should regard this topic on the basis of “godly law.”3