I read somewhere that most peasant rebellions during the Middle Ages were against the Church. Is this true?

warsofasoiaf:

I would ask @racefortheironthrone for a better answer, he’s the best resource I know for the history of peasant revolution. From my understanding, most peasant rebellions were against the upper classes, not necessarily the Church. There were plenty of different reasons for peasant revolts, including religious reasons (the Ottoman Empire was notorious for these, as were certain heresies like the Lollards and Waldensians), but there were also wholly secular revolts.

There’s criss-cross here too. Church officials could be (and were) corrupt and could give cause for rebellion. Given the rhetoric of revolts like the Peasant’s Revolt of 1381 or the Jack Cade rebellion, they most often seemed to be a revolt against the upper classes for things like social inequality, high taxes and/or high bread prices (these two are very linked, since taxes relate directly into how much money the peasantry has for bread), and poor working conditions.

Thanks for the question, Overlord.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

I can see where this might confuse people: most peasant revolts were aimed primarily at landlords.

So it’s not so much that the Church was the primary target of medieval peasant revolts, it’s more that (as one of the largest landlords in Europe) the Church was included among the targets of peasant revolts by virtue of their economic position.