Ernest Belfort Bax - German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages

Belfort Bax was perhaps one of the most unusual people that British socialism produced. Today he is mostly remembered (if at all) for being an early "men's rights advocate" campaigning for the "legal rights of men" and opposing women's rights. He wrote The Legal Subjection of Men in 1908 and The Fraud of Feminism in 1913 which tells you all you need to know. 

At the end of the 19th century though Bax wrote a trilogy of books about Germany during the Reformation, an attempt to understand the trajectory of German history between then end of feudalism and the rise of capitalism. This first volume is very much a scene setter, describing German society at the time and detailing various events around the time of the early Reformation. 

Whatever Bax's faults, he had a detailed knowledge of German history, events and culture. For instance there are several detailed chapters on social and religious revolts and literature of the Reformation. In these he details some relatively unknown events, books and people for an English speaking audience. Of these the revolts section is perhaps most useful, as Bax shows how the Peasant War (which he deals with in a separate volume) arose out of a ferment of rebellion. While some of the events and things he discusses are interesting, Bax's analysis tends to be very dated. He writes, for instance, of the famous peasants' symbol the Bundschuh, an image of a typical peasant's leather that was often placed on banners, that this showed, "The strange and almost totemistic superstition that the mediaeval mind attached to symbolism". 

A sense of Bax's overbearing writing style is given by the rest of this sentence, "The strange and almost totemistic superstition that the mediaeval mind attached to symbolism is here evincd by the paramount importance acquired by the question of banner." At times I found myself reading and re-reading sentences in an attempt to grasp the core argument. 

Bax rightly argues that a "great man" theory of history cannot explain the Reformation. So he tends to underplay Martin Luther's contribution, placing the Reformation in the context of a period of revolt and religious upheaval. Instead he tends to portray the Reformation more as an economic revolt against the Catholic Church. Indeed he argues that the "end of the Middle Ages" was marked by a enormous decline in the economic conditions of the lower peasantry which contributed to their discontent and revolt. Oddly, at times, Bax comes across almost as an apologist for the old feudal order, writing of how well off the peasantry were. In the second half of the fifteenth century when, Bax says, the "Duke of Saxony wore grey hats which cost him four groschen", a day labourer in the Northern Rhineland could "in addition to his keep earn in a week a quarter of rye, ten pounds of pork, six large cans of milk and two bundles of firewood" and "in the course of five weeks be able to buy six ells of linen, a pair of shoes and a bag for his tools".  Perhaps a day labourer could earn this, but was this really true of the whole peasantry and working classes?

Bax argues that the opening of the world market transformed the mediaeval town and "began that evolution of the town whose ultimate outcome was to entirely change the central idea on which the urban organisation was based". For an alleged socialist it seems odd that Bax seems wary of using phrases like "capitalist relations" and he over emphasises the importance of state relations in the town - laws and taxes and so on - rather than the changing system of production as drivers of economic change. Bax sees the period from the end of feudalism to the 18th century in Germany as a "transitional Europe", "slowly but surely [giving] place to the newer order". 

Ultimately this is a very old book. First published in 1894 few readers today would take it as the definitive academic history that Bax was writing. His excursions into seemingly unrelated cultural accounts or the in-depth retelling of German folklore tales are characteristic of a very different style of writing. 

Nonetheless I found it useful as Bax highlighted some interesting events and revolts that aren't already known. His writing style can be frustrating, but the book itself is relatively light. I'll read the remaining two books for completeness and for his pointers to other events. But I'd be wary of basing any historical conclusions on any of Bax's assertions.

Related Reviews

Roper - Martin Luther: Renegade and Prophet
Hawes - The Shortest History of Germany
Vuillard - The War of the Poor
Engels - The Peasant War in Germany
Cohn - The Pursuit of the Millennium