Luther was the most advanced among the Reformers in the ideas of toleration and liberty.
He clearly saw the far-reaching effect of his own protest against Rome, and during his storm- and
pressure-period, from 1517 to 1521, he was a fearless champion of liberty. He has left some of the
noblest utterances against coërcion in matters of conscience, which contain almost every essential
feature of the modern theory on the subject. He draws a sharp line between the temporal power
which is confined to the body and worldly goods, and the spiritual government which belongs to
God. He says that "no one can command or ought to command the soul, except God, who alone
can show it the way to heaven;" that "the thoughts and mind of man are known only to God;" that
"it is futile and impossible to command, or by force to compel any man’s belief;" that "heresy is a
spiritual thing which no iron can hew down, no fire burn, no water drown;" that "belief is a free
thing which cannot be enforced."^58 He opposed the doctrine of the Anabaptists with every argument
at his command, but disapproved the cruel persecution to which they were subjected in Protestant
as well as Catholic countries. "It is not right," he said in a book against them (1528), "and I deeply
regret that such wretched people should be so miserably murdered, burned, and cruelly put to death;
every one should be allowed to believe what he pleases. If he believes wrongly, he will have
punishment enough in the eternal fire of hell. Why should they be tortured in this life also?"^59 If
heretics were to be punished by death, the hangman would be the best (the most orthodox) theologian.
"I can in no way admit," he wrote to his friend Link in 1528, "that false teachers should be put to
death: it is enough that they should be banished ."^60
To this extent, then, he favored punishment of heretics, but no further. He wanted them to
be silenced or banished by the government. He spent his violence in words, in which he far
outstripped friends and foes, and spared neither papists, nor Zwinglians, nor Anabaptists, nor even
temporal princes like Henry VIII., Duke George of Saxony, and Duke Henry of Brunswick.^61 But
his acts of intolerance are few. He refused the hand of fellowship to Zwingli, and would not have
tolerated him at Wittenberg. He begged the elector, John, to prevent a certain Hans Mohr from
(^58) See his tract, written in 1523, Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei? In Walch X. 426-479, especially
the second part, col. 451 sqq. "Der Seelen kann und soll niemand gebieten, er wisse denn ihr den Weg zu weisen gen Himmel. Das kann
aber kein Mensch thun, sondern Gott allein. Darum in den Sachen, die der Seelen Seligkeit betreffen, soll nichts denn Gottes Wort gelehret
und angenommenwerden" (453). Es ist ein frei Werk um den Glauben, dazu man niemand kann zwingen ... Zum Glauben kann und soll
man niemand zwingen" (455 sq.). He justly confines the duty of obedience taught in Rom. 13:1, and 1 Pet. 2:13, to secular matters, and
qualifies them by Matt. 22:21.
(^59) Von der Wiedertaufe, an zwei Pfarrherrn, written in Dec., 1527 or Jan., 1528, and addressed to two pastors in a Roman Catholic
country (probably under the rule of Duke George of Saxony). See Walch XVII., 2644, and the Erl. Frankf. ed. xxvi., or of the
Reformations-historische Schriften III. (2d ed. 1885), p. 283, from which I quote the whole passage: "Doch ist’s nicht recht, und ist mir
wahrlich leid, dass man solche elende Lente so jämmerlich ermordet, verbrennet und greulich umbringt; man sollte, ja einen jeglichen
lassen gläuben, was er wollt. Gläubet er unrecht, so hat er gnug Strafen an dem ewigen Feur in der Höllen. Warumb will man sie denn
auch noch zeitlich martern, so ferne sie allein im Glauben irren, und nicht auch daneben aufruhrisch oder sonst der Oeberkeit widerstreben?
Lieber Gott, wie bald ists geschehen, dass einer irre wird und dem Teufel in Strick fället! Mit der Schrift und Gottes Wort sollt man ihn
wehren und widerstehen; mit Feuer wird man wenig ausrichten."
(^60) Briefe, de Wette III., 347 sq.: "Quod quaeris, an liceat magistratui accidere pseudoprophetas? Ego ad judiciam sanguinis tardus
sum, etiam ubi meritum abundat ... Nullo modo possum admittere, falsos doctores occidi; satis est eos relegari." He gives as a reason that
the law of the death penalty among the Jews and Papists was made a pretext for killing true prophets and saints.
(^61) His coarse attack on Henry VIII., "by God’s disfavor (or disgrace, Ungnade) king of England," is well known. In his book, Von
weltlicher Obrigkeit, which is dedicated to his own prince, Duke John, he ventures the opinion that wise and pious rulers have from the
beginning of the world been rare birds, and that princes are usually the greatest fools or worst boobies on earth (sie sind gemeiniglich die
grössten Narren oder die ärgsten Buben auf Erden). Walch X., 460 and 464."Es sind gar wenig Fürsten, die man nicht für Narren und
Buben hält. Das macht, sie bewiesen sich auch also, und der gemeine Mann wird verständig."Ibid., 464.