a warning against the errors of Theobald Thammer, he called the execution of Servetus "a pious
and memorable example to all posterity."^68 We cannot tell what Luther might have said in this case
had he lived at that time. It is good for his reputation that he was spared the trial.^69
The other Lutheran Reformers agreed essentially with the leaders. They conceded to the
civil ruler the control over the religious as well as political opinions of their subjects. Martin Bucer
went furthest in this direction and taught in his "Dialogues" (1535) the right and the duty of Christian
magistrates to reform the church, to forbid and punish popish idolatry, and all false religions,
according to the full rigor of the Mosaic law.^70
In accordance with these views of the Lutheran Reformers the Roman Catholics in Lutheran
countries were persecuted, not, indeed, by shedding their blood as the blood of Protestants was
shed in Roman Catholic countries, but by the confiscation of their church property, the prohibition
of their worship, and, if it seemed necessary, by exile. In the reorganization of the church in Electoral
Saxony in 1528, under the direction of the Wittenberg Reformers, the popish priests were deprived
of their benefices, and even obstinate laymen were forced to sell their property and to leave their
country. "For," said the Elector, "although it is not our intention to bind any one to what he is to
believe and hold, yet will we, for the prevention of mischievous tumult and other inconveniences,
suffer neither sect nor separation in our territory."^71
The Protestant dissenters fared no better in Lutheran Saxony. The Philippists
(Melanchthonians) or Crypto-Calvinists were outlawed, and all clergymen, professors and school
teachers who would not subscribe the Formula of Concord, were deposed (1580). Dr. Caspar Peucer,
Melanchthon’s son-in-law, professor of medicine at Wittenberg and physician to the Elector
Augustus of Saxony, was imprisoned for ten years (1576–1586) for no other crime than "Philippism"
(i.e. Melanchthonianism), and Nicolas Crell, the chancellor of Saxony, was, after ten years’
confinement, beheaded at Dresden for favoring Crypto-Calvinism at home and supporting the
Huguenots abroad, which was construed as high treason (1601).^72 Since that time the name of
Calvin was as much hated in Saxony as the name of the Pope and the Turk.^73
In other Lutheran countries, Zwinglians and Calvinists fared no better. John a Lasco, the
Reformer of Poland and minister of a Protestant congregation in London, when fleeing with his
followers, including many women and children, from the persecution of the bloody Mary, was not
allowed a resting place at Copenhagen, or Rostock, or Lübeck, or Hamburg, because he could not
(^68) Ibid., IX., 133: "Dedit vero et Genevensis Reipubl. Magistratus ante annos quatuor punitae insanabilis blasphemiae adversus Filium
Dei, sublato Serveto Arragone, pium et memorabile ad omnem posteritatem exemplum."
(^69) Luther knew only the Servetus of 1531, and once refers to him in his Table-Talk, as a fanatic who mastered theology by false
philosophy. See Tollin, Luther und Servet, Berlin, 1875 (61 pages).
(^70) See Tollin, Butzer’s Confutatio der Libri VII. De Trinitatis Erroribus, in the "Studien und Kritiken" for 1875; and Michael Servet
und Martin Butzer, Berlin, 1880; Baum, Capito und Butzer (1860), pp. 489 sq., 478, and 495 sq.; also Janssen, Gesch. des deutschen
Volkes, vol. III., 194.
(^71) "Denn wiewohl unsere Meinung nicht ist, jemand zu verbinden, was er glauben und halten soll, so wollen wir doch zur Verhütung
schädlicher Aufruhre und anderer Unrichtigkeiten keine Sekten noch Trennung in unseren Landen dulden." Köstlin II., 29. What a
difference between this restriction and the declaration of Frederick the Great, that in his dominions every body may be saved after his
own fashion (nach seiner eigenen Façon).
(^72) Fr. Koch, De Vita Caspar. Peuceri Marburg, 1856. Richard, Der churfürstl. sächs. Kanzler Dr. Nic. Krell. Dresden, 1859, 2 vols.
Henke, Kaspar Peucer und Nik. Krell, Marburg, 1865. Calinich, Kampf und Untergang des Melathonismus in Kursachsen, Leipzig, 1866;
Zwei sächsische Kanzler, Chemnitz, 1868.
(^73) The following lines were familiar during the seventeenth century:
"Gottes Wort und Lutheri Schrift
Sind des Papst’s und Calvini Gift."