PEASANT WAR 



PEAT 



also as adding to the security of property generally. ' 

 The committee recommend that a sum not exceed- 

 ing in the first instance five millions sterling should 

 be devoted to the experiment, and ' earnestly hope 

 that no time will be lost in introducing legislation 

 to give effect to their recommendations.' This 

 report, followed by the announcement of legislation 

 on the subject in the Queen's speech of 1890, and 

 the acceptance by the government in 1891 of the 

 second reading of the Small Holdings Bill referred 

 to, may together be taken as the first practical 

 steps towards the creation of a peasant proprietor- 

 ship in Great Britain. 



See, besides the reports cited above, that from H.M. 

 representatives abroad. On the Tenure vf Land in the 

 sereral Countries in Europe ( 1869 ) ; Laveleye's works on 

 the rural economy of Belgium (new ed. 1875) and the 

 Netherlands ( 1864 ) ; Lavergne, eonomie Rurale de la 

 France (4th ed. 1877); and W. T. Thornton's Pita for 

 Pentant Proprietor! ( new ed. 1874 ). 



Peasant War (Bauernkrieg), a great insur- 

 rectimi of the German peasantry which broke out 

 in the beginning of the year 1525. The oppression 

 if the peasants had gradually increased in severity 

 .is the nobility became more extravagant and the 

 clergy more sensual ami degenerate. The example 

 "if Switzerland encouraged the hope of success, and 

 from 1431 to 1517 there were risings amongst the 

 peasants of the south and west of Germany. A 

 peasant rebellion took place in the Rhine countries 

 in 1502, and another in \Viirtemberg, in 1514, both 

 of which were put down without any abatement of 

 grievances. The Reformation, by stirring up the 

 desire of freedom, must !>< reckoned amongst the 

 causes of the great insurrection itself : although 

 Lather, Melanchthon, and the other leading re- 

 formers, whilst urging the nobles to justice and 

 humanity, strongly reprobated the violent proceed- 

 ings of the peasants. The Anabaptists, however, 

 encouraged them, and peasant insurrections, quickly 

 suppressed, took place in 152*2 and 1523. In 

 January 1525 the peasantry of the abbacy of 

 Kernpten suddenly assailed and plundered the con- 

 vent. This proved the signal for a rising of the 

 |HM*ant throughout the south of Germany. Many 

 of the princes and nobles at first regarded the 

 insurrection with complacency, because it was 

 directed in the lirst instance chiefly against the 

 ecclesiastical lords ; some, too, because it seemed 

 ti set liumK to the increase of Austrian power. 

 But the Archduke Ferdinand hastened to raise 

 JIM army, and entrusted the command of it to 

 Von Waldhurg, a man of stern and unscrupulous 

 character. Von \Valdlmrg defeated ami destroyed 

 -<inie large bodies of peasants, but was himself 

 defeated Yiy them on the 22d of April. Meanwhile 

 the insurrection extended, and a number of towns 

 t<ik part in it, as Heilbronn, Miihlhausen, Fulda, 

 Frankfort, &c., but there was a total want of 

 organisation and co-operation. On 25th March 

 I.VJ.") there apj>eared in Upper Swabia a manifesto, 

 in which the insurgents demanded the free election 

 of their parish clergy; the appropriation of the 

 tithes, after maintenance of the parish clergy, to 

 tli support of the poor ; the abolition of serf- 

 'lorn ; the restoration to the community of forests, 

 lii'Ms, ami meadows which the secular and ecclesi- 

 astical lords hail appropriated; release from arbi- 

 trary augmentation and multiplication of services, 

 duties, and rents : the equal administration of 

 justice; and the abolition of some of the most 

 odious exactions of the clergy. The conduct of 

 the insurgents was not. however, in accordance 

 with the moderation of their demands. Their 

 in.iny separate bands destroyed convents and 

 castles (more than KHK) in all), murdered, pillaged, 

 and were guilty of the greatest excesses. A 

 number of princes and knights concluded treaties 



with the peasants, conceding their principal 

 demands. The siege of Marienberg, near Wiirz- 

 burg, gave time to their enemies to strengthen 

 their forces. Gotz von Berlichingen (q.v.) was one 

 of the captains of the besieging peasants, who, he 

 afterwards maintained, had forced him to lead 

 them. In May and June 1525 the peasants sus- 

 tained a number of severe defeats ; and the Land- 

 grave Philip of Hesse, the Saxon Dukes, the electors 

 of the Palatinate and Treves, and Frundsberg were 

 successful farther north. The peasants were every- 

 where treated with terrible cruelty ; more than 

 130,000 were killed in Upper Germany alone. 

 Multitudes were hanged in the streets, and many 

 were put to death with the greatest tortures. 

 Wurzburg and other towns which had joined them 

 suffered the terrible revenge of the victors. It is 

 supposed that more than 150,000 persons lost their 

 lives in the Peasant War. Flourishing and popu- 

 lous districts were desolated. The lot of the 

 defeated insurgents became harder than ever, and 

 many burdens of the peasantry originated at this 

 period. The cause of the Reformation and of 

 German national life also was very injuriously 

 affected. Similar peasant insurrections in other 

 countries are treated of under TYLER, CADE, KET, 

 JACQUERIE, SPARTACUS. 



See works by Jorg (1851), Cornelius ( 1861 ), Banmann 

 (1877), Fries (1883), Hartfelder ( 1884 ; 2d ed. 1889) ; the 

 histories of Germany ; and works cited at LUTHER, &c. 



Peastone, or PISOLITE, a coarse variety of 

 Oolite (q.v.). 



PfHt* a substance formed by the decomposition 

 of plants amidst much moisture, as in marshes and 

 morasses, and sometimes described as a kind of 

 humus or soil, formed by the accumulation of the 

 remains of mosses and other marsh-plants. The 

 remains of the plants are often so well preserved in 

 it that the species can be easily distinguished. 

 Reeds, rushes, and other aquatic plants may usually 

 l>e traced in peat, and stems of heath are often 

 abundant in it ; but it chiefly consists in the 

 northern parts of the world of different species of 

 Sphagnum or Bog-moss ( see BOG-PLANTS ). Mosses 

 of this genus grow in very wet situations, and 

 throw out new shoots in their upper parts whilst 

 their lower parts are decaying and Being converted 

 into peat ; so that shallow pools are gradually 

 changed into bogs. Stools and trunks of trees 

 often occur under peat in the British Islands and 

 in north-western Europe generally. And not only 

 so, but similar stools and trunks frequently are 

 met with occupying a middle position in many 

 peat-bogs i.e. resting on peat and covered by a 

 variable thickness of the same accumulation. It 

 cannot l>e doubted that the overturning of trees, 

 whether by natural causes or by man's hand, would 

 in many cases impede surface drainage, and so 

 eventually give rise to the formation of bogs. But 

 there is reason to suspect that the succession of 

 ' buried forests ' and peat so frequently seen in the 

 bogs of north-western Europe points to climatic 

 changes ( see POST-GLACIAL SYSTEM ). Peat is vege- 

 table matter more or less decomposed, and passes 

 by insensible degrees into Lignite (q.v.). The 

 less perfectly decomposed peat is generally of a 

 brown colour ; that which is more perfectly decom- 

 posed is often nearly black. Moist peat possesses a 

 decided and powerful antiseptic property, which is 

 attributed to the presence of gallic acid and tannin, 

 and is manifested in the perfect preservation not 

 only of ancient trees and of leaves, fruits, &c., but 

 sometimes even of animal bodies. Thus, in some 

 instances human bodies have been found perfectly 

 preserved in peat after the lapse of centuries. 



The formation of peat takes place only in the 

 colder parts of the world. In warm regions the 



