1 Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants Martin Luther May 1525 From mid April to early May 1525 Luther traveled into the area of the peasant uprising in Saxony and Thuringia He attempted to calm the peasants with sermons but his efforts failed Listeners at Nordhausen responded with heckling and stones Luther later said that his life was in danger during the trip When he returned to Wittenberg he set aside the even handed view of the rebellion that characterized his Admonition to Peace A Reply to the Twelve Articles In the former book I did not venture to judge the peasants since they had offered to be set right and to be instructed and Christ s command in Matthew VII says that we are not to judge But before I look around they go on and forgetting their offer they betake themselves to violence and rob and rage and act like mad dogs By this it is easy to see what they had in their false minds and that the pretences which they made in their twelve articles under the name of the Gospel were nothing but lies It is the devil s work that they are at and in particular it is the work of the archdevil who rules at M hlhausen and does nothing else than stir up robbery murder and bloodshed as Christ says of him in John VIII He was a murderer from the beginning Since then these peasants and wretched folk have let themselves be led astray and do otherwise than they have promised I too must write of them otherwise than I have written and begin by setting their sin before them as God commands Isaiah and Ezekiel on the chance that some of them may learn to know themselves Then I must instruct the rulers how they are to conduct themselves in these circumstances The peasants have taken on themselves the burden of three terrible sins against God and man by which they have abundantly merited death in body and soul In the first place they have sworn to be true and faithful submissive and obedient to their rulers as Christ commands when he says Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar s and in Romans XIII Let everyone be subject unto the higher powers Because they are breaking this obedience and are setting themselves against the higher powers willfully and with violence they have forfeited body and soul as faithless perjured lying disobedient knaves and scoundrels are wont to do St Paul passed this judgement on them in Romans XIII when he said that they who resist the power will bring a judgement upon themselves This saying will smite the peasants sooner or later for it is God s will that faith be kept and duty done In the second place they are starting a rebellion and violently robbing and plundering monasteries and castles which are not theirs by which they have a second time deserved death in body and soul if only as highwaymen and murderers Besides any man against whom it can be proved that he is a maker of sedition is outside the law of God and Empire so that the first who can slay him is doing right and well For if a man is an open rebel every man is his judge and executioner just as when a fire starts the first to put it out is the best man For rebellion is not 2 simple murder but is like a great fire which attacks and lays waste a whole land Thus rebellion brings with it a land full of murder and bloodshed makes widows and orphans and turns everything upside down like the greatest disaster Therefore let everyone who can smite slay and stab secretly or openly remembering that 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 In the third place they cloak this terrible and horrible sin with the Gospel call themselves Christian brethren receive oaths and homage and compel people to hold with them to these abominations Thus they become the greatest of all blasphemers of God and slanderers of his holy Name serving the devil under the outward appearance of the Gospel thus earning death in body and soul ten times over I have never heard of a more hideous sin I suspect that the devil feels the Last Day coming and therefore undertakes such an unheard of act as though saying to himself This is the last therefore it shall be the worst I will stir up the dregs and knock out the bottom God will guard us against him See what a mighty prince the devil is how he has the world in his hands and can throw everything into confusion when he can so quickly catch so many thousands of peasants deceive them blind them harden them and throw them into revolt and do with them whatever his raging fury undertakes It does not help the peasants when they pretend that according to Genesis i and ii all things were created free and common and that all of us alike have been baptized For under the New Testament Moses does not count for there stands our Master Christ and subjects us with our bodies and our property to the emperor and the law of this world when he says Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar s Paul too says in Romans XII to all baptized Christians Let every man be subject to the power and Peter says Be subject to every ordinance of man By this doctrine of Christ we are bound to live as the Father commands from heaven saying This is My beloved Son hear him For baptism does not make men free in body and property but in soul and the Gospel does not make goods common except in the case of those who do of their own free will what the apostles and disciples did in Acts IV They did not demand as do our insane peasants in their raging that the goods of others of a Pilate and a Herod should be common but only their own goods Our peasants however would have other men s goods common and keep their own goods for themselves Fine Christians these I think there is not a devil left in hell they have all gone into the peasants Their raving has gone beyond all measure Since the peasants then have brought both God and man down upon them and are already so many times guilty of death in body and soul since they submit to no court and wait for no verdict but only rage on I must instruct the worldly governors how they are to act in the matter with a clear conscience First I will not oppose a ruler who even though be does not tolerate the Gospel will smite and punish these peasants without offering to submit the case to judgement For he is within his rights since the …
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