services were assumed to be fixed and limited; and the free peasant
(_die Freier_), whose counterpart in England was the mediæval
copyholder, who either held his land from some feudal lord, to whom he
paid a quit-rent in kind or in money, or who paid such a rent for
permission to retain his holding in the rural community under the
protection of the lord. To appreciate the state of mind of such folk in
the times of which we are writing, we should remember that "the good old
times" of the fifteenth century were still green in their minds, from
which, indeed, the memory of ancient freedom and primitive communism,
though little more than a tradition, had never been entirely banished:
which sufficiently accounts, not only for their impatience of their new
burdens, but also for their tendency to regard all feudal dues as direct
infringements of their ancient rights and privileges.

"We will that you free us for ever, us and our lands; and that we be
never named and held as serfs!" was the demand of the revolting English
peasant in 1381; and the same words practically summarise the demands of
the German peasantry in 1525. The famous Twelve Articles in which they
summarised their wrongs and formulated their demands, forcibly
illustrate the direct influence of the prevailing religious revival on
the current social and political thought.[8:1] Briefly, they demanded
that the gospel should be preached to them pure and undefiled by any
mere man-made additions. That the rural communities, not the Feudal
Magnates, should have the power to choose and to dismiss their
ministers. That the tithes should be regulated in accordance with
scriptural injunctions, and devoted to the maintenance of ministers and
to the relief of the poor and distressed, "as we are commanded in the
Holy Scriptures." That serfdom should be abolished, "since Christ
redeemed us all with His precious blood, the shepherd as well as the
noble, the lowest as well as the highest, none being excepted." That the