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4 A REFORMATION LIFE contemporaries would have foreseen changes in politics coming before any changes in the church—the reality was the opposite and that reality defi ned Philipp’s life in many ways. A traveler to Hesse in the year Philipp was born would have found hundreds of different religious houses and churches. The religious estate in the sixteenth century encompassed everyone from cardinals and arch- bishops to vicars of small churches. Archbishops and bishops often ruled lands of their own while supervising the spiritual lives of those under their care. There were a number of these within Hesse, and formally Philipp’s rule stopped at the edge of these lands. The Reformation would alter some of these relationships, however. Clergy generally enjoyed a fair amount of freedom from secular legal authority. It is now a commonplace that in the sixteenth century most people were displeased with and resented the clergy, some of whom enjoyed a wide variety of special privileges. The clergy also collected tithes on everything that was produced within their ju- risdiction. The combined tithes, rents, and taxes left people with very little food and money with which to support themselves and their chil- dren, and they resented this as well. While many people resented the church, or the bishop, or the abbot on a local level, most people cared for their vicar or priest. This was the man who interacted most intimately with them—who married them, baptized their children, heard their con- fessions, and buried their loved ones. In the countryside, he was often as poor as his fl ock. Twenty years after Philipp was born, peasant anger and resentment over the fees and tithes owed to the nobility and the upper clergy seethed into open rebellion and war. Among those who could be found mixed in with the mob attacking noble estates, episcopal palaces, and great monastic houses were many poor local vicars and priests. As often as not, their lot was cast not with the great bishops and abbots but with poor peasants. The overwhelming majority of people in Hesse in 1500 were what Dame Juliana would have called serfs and Philipp would have called peas- ants. Serfdom was dying by the sixteenth century it was less and less common for people to be bound to the land formally. Instead, serfdom was giving way to a new system of rents, duties, and taxes. For many peasants this didn’t change their day-to-day lives in a measurable fashion. They still worked from sunrise to nightfall eking out a meager existence. Most rural peasants in 1500 were farmers. The seasons controlled one’s life. In spring, crops were sown. Like most other places, villages in Hesse