This is something I've been mulling as a TL pod:
OTL, Martin Luther spoke against the German rebels who rose up after his proclamation, urging people to obey their princes. He was martyred soon after, but the damage was done, and only more fringe reform figures maintained support for popular uprising against church and rulers.
What if he got martyred before he got to say his word on the subject? Peasant rebels look like they'd struggle to succeed of course, but there's the model of the Hussites for how much damage they could do if they got their things in order. It's important to note that some of the lower nobility did join in initially, for faith or material gains. So you could easily have something similar to the different factions of the Hussites, between German nobles who want a more German and Protestant state, and peasants, some of which could be pretty radical (up to religious objection to private property).
Instead of a 30 years war proxy conflict between princes (and outside influence), you get revolutionary Protestantism. Might evolve in a German religious nationalism way like the Hussite, it might retain some claim to universality and spread beyond that, or in between, it could have imitators who set up their own national Protestantism. Unlike the Hussites, I think it has the mass to avoid being ground down over repeated crusades.
It would totally upend the nature of revolutionary politics, with religion and political ideology going hand in hand.
OTL, Martin Luther spoke against the German rebels who rose up after his proclamation, urging people to obey their princes. He was martyred soon after, but the damage was done, and only more fringe reform figures maintained support for popular uprising against church and rulers.
What if he got martyred before he got to say his word on the subject? Peasant rebels look like they'd struggle to succeed of course, but there's the model of the Hussites for how much damage they could do if they got their things in order. It's important to note that some of the lower nobility did join in initially, for faith or material gains. So you could easily have something similar to the different factions of the Hussites, between German nobles who want a more German and Protestant state, and peasants, some of which could be pretty radical (up to religious objection to private property).
Instead of a 30 years war proxy conflict between princes (and outside influence), you get revolutionary Protestantism. Might evolve in a German religious nationalism way like the Hussite, it might retain some claim to universality and spread beyond that, or in between, it could have imitators who set up their own national Protestantism. Unlike the Hussites, I think it has the mass to avoid being ground down over repeated crusades.
It would totally upend the nature of revolutionary politics, with religion and political ideology going hand in hand.