Using the excerpt below, brainstorm a list of what you would know about that time and place, if that excerpt was all you had. You will need to read your chosen excerpt many times in order to do a thorough brainstorm. When you have a long list (about a full page), read your list several times and see what the main theme of your brainstorm seems to be. It could be, for example; government, the economy, religion, the household, the military, the social hierarchy, or some other theme. There are many possibilities. When you have identified your theme, see what you think your message about that theme might be, regarding that time and place. That message is your working thesis. It will probably develop as you continue working on the paper, and you will adjust it in the process. But for this assignment, provide your working thesis so far, and a title that simply tells what the paper is about. (For example a working thesis might look something like this: “The evidence in this excerpt from __________ shows that the ___th century German economy __________.”)
Excerpt:
B. The Third Article. It has been the custom hitherto for men to hold us as their own property, which is pitiable enough, considering that Christ has delivered and redeemed us all, without exception, by the shedding of his precious blood, the lowly as well as the great. Accordingly, it is consistent with Scripture that we should be free and should wish to be so. Not that we would wish to be absolutely free and under no authority. God does not teach that we should lead a disorderly life in the lusts of the flesh, but that we should love the Lord our God and our neighbor. We would gladly observe all this as God has commanded us in the celebration of the communion. He has not commanded us not to obey the authorities, but rather that we should be humble, not only towards those in authority, but towards everyone. We are thus ready to yield obedience according to God’s law to our elected and regular authorities in all proper things becoming a Christian. We therefore take it for granted that you will release us from serfdom as true Christians, unless it should be shown from the gospel that we are serfs.
The Fourth Article. In the fourth place, it has been the custom heretofore that no poor man should be allowed to touch venison or wild fowl, or fish in flowing water, which seems to us quite unseemly and unbrotherly as well as selfish and not agreeable to the word of God. In some places the authorities preserve the game to our great annoyance and loss, recklessly permitting the unreasoning animals to destroy to no purpose our crops, which god suffers to grow for the use of man; and yet we must submit quietly. This is neither godly nor neighborly; for when God created man he gave him dominion over all the animals over the birds of the air and the fish in the water. Accordingly, it is our desire, if a man holds possession of waters, that he should prove from satisfactory documents that his right has been unwittingly (unwissenlich) acquired by purchase. We do not wish to take it from him by force, but his rights should be exercised in a Christian and brotherly fashion. But whosoever cannot produce such evidence should surrender his claim with good grace.
The Fifth Article. In the fifth place, we are aggrieved in the matter of woodcutting, for the noble folk have appropriate all the woods to themselves alone. If a poor man requires wood, he must pay . . . It is our opinion that in regard to a woods which has fallen into the hands of a lord, whether spiritual or temporal, that unless it was duly purchased it should revert again to the community. It should moreover, be free to every member of the community to help himself to such firewood as he needs in his home.
Last Completed Projects
| topic title | academic level | Writer | delivered |
|---|