Catholics claim that Luther’s work, though ostensibly undertaken in behalf of religious liberty, necessarily had to result in the very opposite of freedom.  They point to the fact that in most countries which accepted the Protestant faith the Church became subservient to the State.  These state churches of Europe, however, which in the view of Catholics are the product of Luther’s reform movement, are to be regarded as only one symptom of the intolerance which characterizes the entire activity of Luther.  He had indeed adopted the principle of “private interpretation” of the Scriptures, however, only for himself.  He was unwilling to accord to others the right which he claimed for himself.  All who dissented from his teaching were promptly attacked by him, and that, in violent and scurrilous language.  The Protestant party in the course of time became a warring camp of Ishmaelites, Luther fighting everybody and everybody fighting Luther.  Religious intolerance and persecution became the prevailing policy of Protestants in their dealings with other Protestants.  The burning of Servetus at Geneva by Calvin was the logical outcome of Luther’s teaching.  The maxim, Cuius regio, eius religio, that is, The prince, or government, in whose territory I reside determines my religion, became a Protestant tenet.  America got its first taste of religious liberty, not from the original Protestant settlers, but from the Catholic colonists whom Lord Baltimore brought to Maryland, etc., etc.

The view here propounded is in plain contravention of what the world has hitherto believed, and to a very large extent still believes, regarding Luther’s attitude toward the right of the individual to choose his own religion and to determine for himself matters of faith.  The position which Luther occupies in his final answer before the Emperor at Worms is generally believed to state Luther’s position on the question of religious liberty in a nutshell.  “Unless convinced by the Word of God or by cogent reason” that he was wrong, he declared at the Diet of Worms, he could not and would not retract what he had written.  The individual conscience, he maintained, cannot be bound.  Each man must determine the meaning of the Word for himself.  And the inevitable result of this principle is individual liberty.  This principle Luther maintained to the end of his life.  His appeal to the magistrates to suppress the Peasants’ Revolt was not a call to suppress the false teachings of the peasants, but their disorderly conduct.  Against their spiritual aberrations Luther proposed to wage war with his written and oral testimony.  “The peace and order of the State must be maintained against disorder, personal violence, destruction of property, public immorality, and treason, though they come in the guise of religion.  The State must grant liberty of conscience, freedom of speech, and the privilege of the press.  These are inalienable rights belonging alike to every individual,