Disquieting rumors of excesses that were being perpetrated by radical followers of the evangelical teaching had reached Luther also from Wittenberg.  To obtain a clear insight into the actual state of affairs, he made a secret visit to his home town in the beginning of December, 1521.  Returning to his exile, he wrote his Faithful Admonition to All Christians to Avoid Tumult and Rebellion. In this treatise Luther reasons as follows:  The papacy, with all its great institutions, cloisters, universities, laws and doctrines, is nothing but lies.  On lies it was raised, by lies it is supported, with lies and frauds and cheats it deceives, misleads, and oppresses men.  Accordingly, all that is necessary to overthrow its dominion is to recognize its lying character, and to publish it and the papacy will collapse as if blown aside by the breath of the Almighty, as Scripture says it shall happen to Antichrist.  To start a riot against the papists would never improve them, and would only cause them to vilify the cause of their opponents.  In times of tumult, people lose their reason and do more harm to innocent people than to the guilty.  Public wrongs should be redressed by the magistrates, who are vested with authority for that purpose.  No matter how just a cause may be, it never justifies rioting.  Luther declares that he will rather side with those who suffer in, than with those who start, a riot.  Rioting is forbidden in God’s Law (Dent. 16, 20; 32, 35).  This particular rioting against the papists has been instigated by the devil, in order to divert people’s minds from the real spiritual issues of the times, and to bring the cause of the Gospel into disrepute.  Luther feels these tumultuous proceedings as a disgrace.  “People who read and understand my teaching correctly,” he says, “do not start riots.  They were not taught such things by me.  If any engage in such proceedings and drag my name into it, what can I do to stop them?  How many things are the papists doing in the name of Christ which Christ never commanded!” Luther begs all who glory in the name of Christians to conduct themselves as Paul demands 2 Cor. 6, 3:  “Giving no offense in anything, that the ministry be not blamed.” (10, 360 ff.) Whoever can, ought to treat himself to the reading of this fine treatise of the exiled monk of Wittenberg.

The iconoclastic uprising which broke out in Wittenberg in the closing days of the month of February, 1522, finally decided Luther, at the risk of his life, to quit his exile and to fight the devil, who was trying to subvert his good doctrine by such wicked practises.  The world knows that it was Luther who quelled the riot in his town.  Luther’s face was ever sternly set against those who wanted to wage the Lord’s wars with the devil’s weapons.  No murder or sacrilege that was committed in those days can be laid at the door of Luther’s teaching.