AGRARIAN REVOLUTIONS OF THE PAST 37 



from the garden by continuous shouting, or to quiet 

 the frogs in the pool while the master slept. . . . 

 At the same time they were goaded to madness by 

 numberless petty oppressions. Their children were 

 required to do service in the master's household; 

 they themselves were called upon for extra labor 

 without payment; water was withdrawn from their 

 mills ; their fields were hunted over ; and their crops 

 ruined with no possibility of obtaining compensa- 

 tion. Their general condition at the beginning of 

 the sixteenth century was one of extreme wretched- 

 ness; their farms were mortgaged at a high rate of 

 interest, and it was a common thing to pledge the 

 coming harvest in return for an immediate loan." 20 



These conditions caused peasant rebellions in vari- 

 ous localities during the sixteenth century. The 

 great Peasant Revolt began in 1524. The landlords 

 stubbornly resisted the attacks of the peasants and 

 were finally completely victorious. As a punish- 

 ment for this rebellion, the landlords exercised 

 greater tyranny and injustice toward the tenants 

 and brought them into complete subjection. 



In the seventeenth century the Thirty Years' War 

 contributed further to the sad conditions of the 

 peasants. The country was repeatedly devastated, 

 and, as the armies were composed largely of profes- 

 sional and adventurous soldiers who did not respect 

 private property rigEts, the rural population suf- 

 fered great hardships at their hands. Much culti- 



" Op. cit., Chap. X, pp. 248 and 249. 



