Early April, 1525

When German peasants published manifestos explaining their objectives in revolting against their lords in the winter and spring of 1525, it was not lost on Martin Luther that they were invoking notions about lay people’s role in Christian society that he had first planted.  For instance, in one of Luther’s most widely-published tracts, he claimed: “It is pure invention that pope, bishop, priests, and monks are called the spiritual estate, while princes, lords, artisans, and farmers are called the temporal estate…All Christians are truly of the spiritual estate, and there is no difference between them except that of office…We are all consecrated priests through baptism.”¹

It was not a far step for the peasants to conclude that they were just as able to discern “godly law” as their lay lords, as they did in the Twelve Articles of the Upper Swabian Peasants—objecting that the lords’ economic exploitation of their labor was contrary to Christian justice and charity.  Nor was it a stretch from Luther’s claim that all the baptized are “consecrated priests” for the peasants to claim that they are better suited to than bishops to select the pastors for their local congregations, and to remove them for poor behavior or failure to preach “true faith.”    

Luther realized that the chance for his theology to win favor among the German nobility was at risk if they associated him with social disorder and threats to the economic privileges of their class. But he was also greatly concerned that many common people’s lives would be lost, as the lords brought out their superior weapons and armor to use against them. In early April, Luther came out with the first of two tracts that sought to discourage peasants from turning to violence against their lords and make clear to the nobility that his doctrines were not a challenge to their rule. At the same time, he urged the nobility to rule their peasants with the neighborly love that he taught all Christians ought to show to those around them out of gratitude for the mercy and love Christ had first showed to them.   

He titled the first tract “An Admonition to Peace.”² In it, Luther first faulted the temporal rulers for the underlying popular discontent. “[A]s temporal rulers you do nothing but cheat and rob the common people so that you may lead a life of luxury and extravagance,” he wrote. “The poor common people can bear it no longer.”  Luther warned the rulers that they were courting the “wrath of God” unless they mended their ways quickly. And, indeed, Luther thought that God had already sent a “great part” of his wrath by “sending many false teachers and prophets among us.” It was these false teachers who were fomenting violent spirits among the peasants, Luther claimed, rather than his doctrines:³ “I have taught with all quietness, have striven earnestly against rebellion, and have energetically encouraged and exhorted people to obey and respect even you wild and dictatorial tyrants. This rebellion cannot be coming from me.”⁴ 

Still, there was time for the lords to avoid violence. Luther advised: “Try kindness first, for you do not know what God will do to prevent the spark that will kindle all Germany and start a fire that no one can extinguish.”⁵

Turning to the peasants, he admonished them to seek justice through peaceful means that were consistent with Christ’s and the apostles’ teachings.  He first cited Matthew [5:39-41], “Do not resist one who is evil. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with that person two miles. If anyone wants to take your coat, let that person have your cloak too. If anyone strikes you on one cheek, offer that person the other too.” “Do you hear this, O Christian covenant?,” Luther asked rhetorically. “How does your program stand in light of this law? You do not want to endure evil or suffering, but rather want to be free and to experience only goodness and justice. However, Christ says that we should not resist evil or injustice but always yield, suffer, and let things be taken from us.”⁶  Luther thought most of the peasants’ articles represented fair critiques of their economic treatment.  But Luther disapproved of the peasants’ linking of scriptural passages to their preferred policies, claiming that only their positions represented “godly law.”  Christians, he taught, had to abide by laws that were both just and unjust. “If you were Christians,” he wrote, “you would stop threatening and resisting with fist and sword. Instead, you would continually abide by the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Your will be done,” and, “Deliver us from evil, Amen.”⁷ “If you will not bear this law, then lay aside the name of Christian and claim another name that accords with your actions, or else Christ himself will tear his name away from you.”⁸

Luther brought out several passages to encourage non-resistance to mistreatment:  “In Romans 12 Paul says, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.” In this same sense Paul praises the Corinthians for gladly suffering if someone hits or robs them, 2 Corinthians 11[:20]. And in 1 Corinthians 6[:1–2] he condemns them for going to court for the sake of property rather than suffering injustice. Indeed, our leader, Jesus Christ, says [in Matthew 5:44] that we should bless those who insult us, pray for our persecutors, love our enemies, and do good to those who do evil to us. These, dear friends, are our Christian laws.”⁹ Luther also provided a few concrete examples of how Christ and the apostles responded to mistreatment without resorting to violence, and he even held himself out as a example of one who turned to prayer and the pen instead of the sword when faced with the pope’s condemnation of him.¹⁰ Because rebellion against tyrannous lords was not authorized to Christians, non-resistant pleas were the only political recourse of oppressed peasants.

The same principle did not hold for the lords, however. Luther saw them as invested with the sword for the suppression of rebellion and disorder. And once peasants went on the attack in the Spring 1525, heedless to his “Admonition,” Luther came out with a second tract that surprised many readers with the directness of his concluding call to the lords to kill the rebels rapidly: “Stab, smite, slay, whoever can. If you die in doing it, well for you!” The title of this second tract left no room for nuance: “Against the Murdering and Thieving Hordes of Peasants.” And in it he made clear that the peasants who turned to violence had turned to doing “the devil’s work” regardless of the social justice they claimed to be fighting for.¹¹

The Peasant’s Revolt was significant for the Free-Church movement because of the reaction it provoked for Luther. After many peasants followed violent preachers—like Thomas Müntzer—into battle, instead of heeding Luther’s teachings, Luther aligned with the German governors and generally sought to see his church reforms instituted by gaining their trust and securing legal orders from them that would license his evangelical colleagues to implement changes for a whole territory at once.

In “Admonition to Peace,” he still spoke with the voice of a reformer who thought of change coming from the people’s change of hearts: discussing the first article of the Upper Swabian Peasants, which demanded the right to choose their own congregational pastors, Luther voiced general approval. “[T]he basic sense of the article,” he wrote, “is that the preaching of the gospel should be permitted, and no ruler can or ought to oppose this. Indeed, no ruler ought to prevent anyone from teaching or believing what he pleases, whether it is the gospel or lies. It is enough if he prevents the teaching of sedition and rebellion.”¹² In this quotation, Luther foresaw a role for the temporal rulers to maintain peaceful order by bearing the sword and to engage in “indoctrination” only so far that it supported popular respect for that role. At this point Luther did not envision the temporal rulers setting orthodox doctrine or harshly punishing preachers who did not align with it. But from the Peasants’ War onward, Luther became increasingly comfortable with a large state role in protecting the doctrine of the church from outliers and selecting its pastoral personnel. 

About This Series

This post is part of a series entitled “The Reformation at 500: Timeline of the Free-Church Movement.” Click here for more information on this series.

Featured image courtesy of the Wick’sche Sammlung, ca. 1575, Zentralbibliothek Zurich, Ms. F 23, fol. 294.

1. Martin Luther, Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation (1520), available at:  https://origin-rh.web.fordham.edu/Halsall/mod/luther-nobility.asp. In another of his most popular pieces, The Freedom of a Christian, he introduced the concept of the “priesthood of all believers” more directly. See  The Freedom of a Christian (1520), available at: https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/luther-freedomchristian.asp. ↩︎
2. Martin Luther, “An Admonition to Peace,” in The Annotated Luther, vol. 5: Christian Life in the World, eds. Hans Hillerbrand, Kirsi I. Stjerna and Timothy J. Wengert (Minneapolis:  Fortress Press, 2017), 281-333. ↩︎
3.  Ibid., 300-301. ↩︎
4.  Ibid., 304. ↩︎
5.  Ibid., 306-307. ↩︎
6.  Ibid., 315. ↩︎
7.  Ibid., 320. ↩︎
8.  Ibid., 315. ↩︎
9.  Ibid., 315. ↩︎
10. Ibid., 316-18. ↩︎
11. Martin Luther, Against the Murdering and Thieving Hordes of Peasants, available at: https://zimmer.fresnostate.edu/~mariterel/against_the_robbing_and_murderin.htm. ↩︎
12. Luther, Admonition to Peace, 308. ↩︎