The Devil playing the Bagpipe/ Erhard Schoen (anti-luther propaganda c. 1530)

“Peasants are no better than straw. They will not hear the word and they are without sense; therefore they must be compelled to hear the crack of the whip and the whiz of bullets and it is only what they deserve.”

“To kill a peasant is not murder; it is helping to extinguish the conflagration. Let there be no half measures! Crush them! Cut their throats! Transfix them. Leave no stone unturned! To kill a peasant is to destroy a mad dog! If they say that I am very hard and merciless, mercy be damned. Let whoever can stab, strangle, and kill them like mad dogs.”

“I, Martin Luther, have during the rebellion slain all the peasants, for it was I who ordered them to be struck dead. All their blood is upon my head. But I put it all on our Lord God: for he commanded me to speak thus.”

What caused Martin Luther, the leader of the Protestant Reformation, to become so bitter and violent-minded in the later years of his life?

Luther came to believe rebellious peasants should be tortured, have their throats slit, and suffer beheading. He also believed all Jews should be brutally persecuted, exiled en masse, and that all their property should be destroyed. Luther also believed Anabaptists, who were largely peace-loving and Spirit-embracing, should nonetheless be executed along with all other heretics.

Why? This seems so shockingly un-Christlike for a man who say many admire as a paragon of faith. We do know that this violent vitriol appeared to surface more and more during his later years.