Christian History Home > Issue 39 > After the Revolution
After the Revolution
by MARK U. EDWARDS, JR. Dr. Mark U. Edwards, Jr., is a professor of the history of Christianity at The divinity School, Harvard University. He is author of Luther’s Last Battles: Politics and Polemics, 1531–46 (Cornell, 1983). | posted 7/01/1993 12:00AM
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Meanwhile, in 1535 the papacy had announced a general council to settle the schism, though it took ten years before the council actually convened at Trent. This council was rejected by the Protestant princes for religious and political reasons, although their theologians, including Luther, argued that the princes should attend.
While Luther took part in these political and religious maneuverings, he continued his theological and pastoral labors. In 1534, he and his colleagues completed their German translation of the Bible, which has greatly influenced the development of German language and literature. Luther also lectured on both Old and New Testament books, helping the University of Wittenberg prepare the hundreds of new pastors needed to bring the Reformation to the grass roots.
Ordering Obedience
By his own admission, Luther was an angry man. Anger was his special sin. But when directed against the enemies of God, anger helped him, he said, to write well, to pray, and to preach: “Anger refreshes all my blood, sharpens my mind, and drives away temptations.”
Luther knew some were offended by his harshness and anger, but he explained, “l was born to war with fanatics and devils. Thus my books are very stormy and bellicose. I must root out the stumps and trunks, hew away the thorns and briar, fill in the puddles. I am the rough woodsman, who must pioneer and hew a path.”
The angry attacks of the older Luther began with the Peasants’ War of 1525. In 1524, some German peasants rebelled. Little by little, their uprising spread among their weary and oppressed comrades.
Luther was listed by the peasants as an acceptable arbiter of their demands. He attempted to mediate between the peasants and their rulers.
In his Admonition to Peace, Luther blamed the unrest on the rulers, who persecuted the gospel and mistreated their subjects. Many of the peasants’ demands were just, he said, and for the sake of peace, the rulers should accommodate them.
On the other hand, Luther warned the peasants they were blaspheming Christ by quoting the gospel to justify their secular demands. In fact, the gospel taught obedience to secular authorities and the humble suffering of injustice.
To Luther’s regret, the treatise calmed little. The unrest spread, and events swung Luther over to the side of the princes. In May 1525, he wrote Against the Robbing and Murdering Horde of Peasants, in which he urged the princes to “smite, strangle, and stab [the peasants], secretly or openly, for nothing can be more poisonous, hurtful, or devilish than a rebel. It is just as when one must kill a mad dog; if you do not strike him, he will strike you and a whole land with you.”
Luther had his way. The peasants were brutally suppressed, and Luther’s advocacy of their violent repression has remained controversial to this day.
Contending over Communion
Next, Luther used his angry pen in a controversy over the meaning of the Lord’s Supper. Other reformers—Ulrich Zwingli of Zurich, John Oecolampadius of Basel, and Martin Bucer of Strasbourg—denied Christ’s physical presence in the bread and wine. They acknowledged Christ was truly present, but this spiritual presence was not tied to the bread and wine; it depended upon the faith of the communicants.
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