On this episode of five minutes in church history we are returning to spend some time with a good friend of ours Martin Luther and we are looking at Martin Luther and difficult times.

Actually Luther had many moments of difficulty in his life, but one of those moments was the

peasants revolt of 1524 to 1525.

There were uprisings in Germany immediately prior to the Reformation, but in 1524 to 25 this was a much larger insurrection.

Historians estimate that as many as 300,000 peasants

were involved in this rebellion at various times and in various places. One of the flash points for this was in a place called Swabia.

Swabia is in southwestern Germany.

It's pretty far away from Vittenberg, a good 400 or 500 kilometers or so to the south and

slightly west.

It's down near Munich.

It's a beautiful country with rivers and forests and snow-capped mountain peaks and fabled castles dotting the landscape.

In Swabia is the city of Augsburg, which will, in a few years after this peasant's revolt will come into play in a major way in Luther's life.

But back in 1524, 1525, the peasants in Swabia. It called for, in Swabia. It called for, in essence,

the abolition of serfdom. They raised various points of contention against the lords and

princes of the land. It's prefaced with an idea that this is rooted in the gospel and

that their understanding of the application of the

gospel has led them to this. So they published this and this was right in the

throes of the peasant rebellion and of course the Lords and the Princes

were responding and both sides were claiming Luther

and Luther was brought into it.

In fact, even the Roman Catholics sitting outside of Germany

and watching all of this were We're blaming Luther for this tumult

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