Catholics father upon Luther not only the Peasants’ Revolt, but every revolutionary movement which since then has occurred in Europe.  The political unrest which has at various times agitated the masses in France, England, and Germany, the changes in the government which were brought about in such times, are all attributed to the revolutionary tendencies in Luther’s writings.  So is the disrespect shown by citizens of the modern State to persons in authority, the bold and scathing criticism indulged in by subjects against their government.  There is hardly a political disturbance anywhere but what ingenious Catholics will manage to connect with Luther.  Read Luther, and you will inevitably become an anarchist.

But Luther is also credited with the very opposite of anarchism.  When the Peasants’ Revolt had been put down by the lords, they began to strengthen their despotic power over the people, and a worse tyranny resulted than had existed before.  It is pointed out that absolutism, the claim of kings that they are ruling by divine right and are not responsible to the people, has taken firm root in all Protestant countries, and that even the Protestant churches in these countries are mere fixtures of the State.  This, too, we are asked to believe, is a result of Luther’s teaching.  Luther is not only the spiritual ring-leader of mobs, but also the sycophant of despots.  It is particularly offensive to Catholics to see Luther hailed as the champion of political liberty.  Let us try and make up our minds about Luther’s views of the secular government from Luther’s own words.  Dr. Waring, in his Political Theories of Luther, has made a very serviceable collection of statements of Luther on this matter.

“In his tract on Secular Authority (10, 374 ff.) Luther maintains that the State exists by God’s will and institution; for the Apostle Paul writes:  ’Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers.  For there is no power but of God:  the powers that be are ordained of God.  Whosoever therefore resisteth the power resiseth [tr. note:  sic] the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation’ (Rom. 13, 1. 2).  The Apostle Peter exhorts:  ’Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake, whether it be to the king, as supreme, or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise of them that do well’ (1 Pet. 2, 13. 14).  The right of the sword has existed since the beginning of the world.  When Cain killed his brother Abel, he was so fearful of being put to death himself that God laid a special prohibition thereupon that no one should kill him, which fear he would not have had, had he not seen and heard from Adam that murderers should be put to death.  Further, after the Flood, God repeated and confirmed it in explicit language, when He declared:  ’Whoso sheddeth man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed’ (Gen. 9, 6).  This law