Note 108 — Chapter I · THE MEDIEVAL BACKGROUND (continued 2)
Reading edition
An article of the German Peasants’ program in 1525 declared: “For men to hold us as their own property ... is pitiable enough, considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed us all, the lowly as well as the great, without exception, by the shedding of His precious blood. Accordingly it is consistent with Scripture that we should be free.” (The program is printed in J. S. Schapiro, Social Reform and the Reformation, 1909, pp. 137-42.) The rebels under Ket prayed “that all bondmen may be made free, for God freed them all with His precious blood-shedding” (printed in Bland, Brown, and Tawney, English Economic History, Select Documents, pt. ii, sect. i, no. 8).