PEARLY NAUTILUS PEASANTS' WAR 215 gulf of Mexico through Lake Borgne. It is more than 300 m. long. Its navigation is ob- structed by sand bars and drift wood, but small boats ascend into Mississippi. Its chief tributary is the Bogue Chitto, which joins it in Louisiana. PEARLY NAUTILUS. See NAUTILUS. PEARSON, John, an English bishop, born at Snoring, Norfolk, Feb. 12, 1613, died in Ches- ter, July 16, 1686. He was educated at King's college, Cambridge, of which he became fel- low in 1635; took orders in 1639; and after various preferments was made prebendary of Ely and master of Jesus college, Cambridge, in 1660, Lady Margaret professor of divinity in 1661, and master of Trinity college in 1662. In 1672 he was consecrated bishop of Ches- ter. He published several theological works, but is chiefly remembered for his "Exposition of the Creed" (1659), which has been frequent- ly republished, abridged by several authors, and translated into Latin by Arnold (1691). PEASANTS' WAR, a revolutionary movement in southern and central Germany, which ac- companied the reformation of Luther and Zwingli. It was preceded by many isolated insurrections. In 1476 Hans Boheim, called "Johnny the Piper," proclaimed himself the recipient of revelations from the mother of God, teaching that there should be hereafter no rulers whatever ; 34,000 peasants gathered around him, and their sovereign, the bishop of Wurzburg, had to resort to treachery to subdue them. In 1492 the " bread and cheese boys," during a famine, captured and held for some time the towns of Alkmaar, Hoorn, and Haarlem in Holland. Immediately afterward there was a rising of the yeomen of West Fries- land, to reassert their ancient liberties. While these insurrections in the Netherlands were put down without much bloodshed, great se- verity was used when a secret league of peas- ants and burghers was formed in southern Germany under the name of the Bundschuh (league of the brogue). It appeared first in 1493 at Schlettstadt in Alsace, in 1502 at Bruchsal, in 1512 at Freiburg, and most pow- erfully in 1513 in Wurtemberg, where it took the name of "the poor Conrad." In Wur- temberg 14 articles were agreed upon, similar to the 12 articles adopted by the peasants in 1525. Duke Ulric quelled this insurrection by treacherous promises and wholesale executions. The peasants of Hungary in 1514, having been called to arms against the Turks, were formed into an army by George D6zsa, who carried on a war of extermination against the nobles, destroyed numerous castles, and proclaimed Hungary a republic. After many victories, he was cruelly put to death by John Zapolya, the waywode of Transylvania, and 60,000 peas- ants perished by the war and the executions which followed. The peasants in Carinthia rose in 1515, and were subdued with great slaughter in 1516. Up to 1525 nine tenths of the inhabitants of southern and central Ger- j many were not allowed by their rulers to hear the doctrines of the reformation preached; but they understood that at least the power of princely bishops and abbots was contrary to the gospel. They were also encouraged by travelling preachers, who proclaimed a new era of religious, political, and social freedom. To the agitation thus caused were added the sys- tematic and persistent plottings of the exiles who had been forced to leave their homes on the outbreak of the Bundschuh, and of the emissaries of Duke Ulric, who, after subduing the peasants, had attacked the free city of Reut- lingen, and for this offence had in 1520 been expelled from his duchy by the Swabian league. In a similar position were the Franconian no- bles, who in 1522, under Franz von Sickin- gen, had risen against the princes and bishops, but had been vanquished and fled the country. In June, 1524, the peasants on the banks of the Wutach, in S. W. Germany, rose against the landgrave of Stiihlingen. The citizens of Waldshut, animated by their popular preach- er Balthasar Hubmaier, made common cause with them, organizing an " evangelical brother- hood " which was to spread all over Germany. The peasants of Hauenstein, the Klettgau, and the Hegau soon joined them. Negotiations between the insurgents and their counts, act- ing through George of Waldburg, for a time delayed the insurrection ; but it spread about the end of 1524 all over Swabia. In the first months of 1525 the Swabian insurgents pro- claimed the following 12 articles: 1, every church shall have the right to choose its own minister, who is to proclaim the pure gospel only, and can be deposed if he shows himself unworthy of his office ; 2, the proceeds of the tithing shall be applied to the support of the poor and to municipal purposes, a reasonable salary only being appropriated therefrom to the minister; 3, servitude shall be abolished; 4, the exclusive privileges of princes and no- bles in regard to hunting and fishing shall be abolished ; 5, woodlands unjustly appropriated by the clergy and nobility shall be returned to the village corporations ; 6 to 8, the socage service shall be fixed by law, the ground rent reduced, and the feudal tenure regulated; 9, justice shall be administered fairly and firmly according to plain written laws ; 10, all fields and pasture grounds arbitrarily taken from the village corporations by the clergy and nobility shall be returned to them; 11, the right of heriot shall be abolished; 12, any of the pre- ceding articles shall be null and void whenever they shall be proved not to be in accordance with the Scriptures. Most of these articles claimed only the restoration of rights formerly possessed by the peasants. The first, second, third, and eleventh contained demands which were new, yet in accordance with the times. Wherever the insurrection spread these 12 arti- cles were proclaimed, sometimes with modifica- tions to make them more acceptable to the no- bility. Early in April, 1525, a small part of the
