Title: Where Luther Got It Wrong: The Peasants' Revolt - Way To LEAD
Headings: Where Luther Got It Wrong: The Peasants’ Revolt
Where Luther Got It Wrong: The Peasants’ Revolt
Content: In On Christian Freedom, Luther stated, “A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none. A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.” Luther meant this theologically. Christians were not subject to Moses’ law, only to Christ’s law to love one another, as Paul had said in Romans 13:8. The peasants, however, heard this as a type of manifesto. While not yet a Jeffersonian “all men are created equal,” which was to come two centuries later, they heard a fresh wind of freedom from an intolerable situation. Luther’s writings were not the cause of the revolt, but they certainly appealed to the peasants. When the revolts began to turn violent, Luther opposed them. He claimed the peasants had misunderstood what he was saying, and while he felt their cause was just, he could not support their insurrection and breaking of the peace. Responding to the peasants he wrote, Against the Murderous, Thieving Hoards of Peasants (Wider die Mordischen und Reubischen Rotten der Bawren).