Rural Society and the Search for Order in Early Modern Germany [Hardcover]

A probing study of German village life between the early Reformation and the Thirty Years' War.For the rural societies of Germany the early sixteenth century was a time of massive upheavals. In this probing study of village life in the County of Hohenlohe, Thomas Robisheaux seeks to understand how petty German princes, Lutheran pastors, and villagers struggled to create order out of their confusing world.For the rural societies of Germany the early sixteenth century was a time of massive upheavals. In this probing study of village life in the County of Hohenlohe, Thomas Robisheaux seeks to understand how petty German princes, Lutheran pastors, and villagers struggled to create order out of their confusing world.Sixteenth-century Europeans launched a struggle for order with an intensity and urgency that finds no parallels in modern European history. For the rural societies of Germany, the early sixteenth century brought massive upheavals that eroded the basis of social, political, economic, and religious life. In this probing study of village life, based on rich manuscript sources from the Old County of Hohenlohe, the author seeks to understand how petty German princes, Lutheran pastors, and villagers struggled to create order out of their confusing world. He shows that the foundations for social stability so evident in Germany after 1648 were laid in the forgotten era of German history, in the years after the early Reformation and before the Thirty Years' War.List of illustrations and tables; Acknowledgements; A note on usages; Glossary; List of abbreviations; introduction; Part I. Agrarian Expansion, Revolt and the Decay of Community: 1. Anatomy of a rural society; 2. Peasants' war and reformation; 3. Rich and poor; Part II. Search for Order: 4. Reformation, patriarchy and marital discipline; 5. Defending the patrimony; 6. The unchristian economy; 7. Threat of revolt; Part III. Crisis and Recovery: 8. Crisis; 9. Agrarian order restored; 10. Village society and tl3K