Peasant Fires: The Drummer of Niklashausen

The Feast of the Visitation of Mary, celebrated on July 2, originated in the 15th century due to rising devotion to the Virgin’s cult. On this day, believers thought “Mary might again visit the earth and bring liberation to all poor Christians” (92). Behem spoke to the thousands who came to hear him on July 2, claiming that he possessed direct prophecies from the Virgin and, therefore, from God. Among the crowd were spies operating on behalf of the city councils of Mainz and Würzburg to collect evidence of his controversial and blasphemous utterances that could be used to prosecute Behem.

Based on the list of accusations these spies compiled, Wunderli recreates Behem’s sermon. Behem told his pilgrims that on this sacred day, they would find salvation in their current lives. He also called on them to reject folk revelry and warned them of God’s wrath. He told the pilgrims that they did not need to travel to the Holy See within Rome to obtain indulgences. Rather, God’s grace was in Niklashausen and outside of Church control. In fact, Behem asserted, the Church concocted the doctrine of purgatory to extract wealth from the commoners who sought indulgences; likewise, the nobility financially exploited the peasants; the Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope were immoral, corrupt, and damned to hell; priests survived by exploiting commoners’ labor, and for this reason the pilgrims should kill them; the clergy, not they, were the true blasphemers; access to the land and its resources was a God-given right that should be shared by all instead of monopolized by religious and secular lords; soon, elites would live just as the peasants did.