cal quotations.
They all turn on the customary grievances of the time. The "Twelve
Articles" remain throughout the chief Bill of Rights of the South
German peasantry, though there were other versions of the latter
current in certain districts. What was said before concerning the
local sporadic movements which had been going en for a generation
previously applies equally to the great uprising of 1525. The rapidity
with which the ideas represented by the movement, and in consequence
the movement itself, spread, is marvellous. By the middle of April it
was computed that no less than 300,000 peasants, besides necessitous
townsfolk, were armed and in open rebellion. On the side of the nobles
no adequate force was ready to meet the emergency. In every direction
were to be seen flaming castles and monasteries. On all sides were
bodies of armed countryfolk, organized in military fashion, dictating
their will to the countryside and the small towns, whilst
disaffection was beginning to show itself in a threatening manner
among the popular elements of not a few important cities. A slight
success gained by the Swabian League at the Upper Swabian village of
Leipheim in the second week of April did not improve matters. In
Easter week, 1525, it looked indeed as if the "Twelve Articles" at
least would become realized, if not the Christian Commonwealth dreamed
of by the religious sectaries established throughout the length and
breadth of Germany. Princes, lords, and ecclesiastical dignitaries
were being compelled far and wide to save their lives, after their
property was probably already confiscated, by swearing allegiance to
the Christian League or Brotherhood of the peasants and by
countersigning the "Twelve Articles" and other demands of their
refractory villeins and serfs. So threatening was the situation that
the Archduke Ferdinand began himself to yield, in so far as to enter
into negotiations with the insurgents. In many cases the leaders and
chief men of the bands were got up in brilliant costume. We read of
purple mantles and scarlet birettas with ostrich plumes as the costume
of the leaders, of a suite of men in scarlet dress, of a vanguard of
ten heralds, gorgeously attired. As Lamprecht justly observes
(_Deutsche Geschichte_, vol. v. p. 343): "The peasant revolts were,
in general, less in the nature of campaigns, or even of an
uninterrupted series of minor military operations, than of a slow
process of mobilization, interrup