Title: Martin Luther: Peasant's Rebellion | Page 1 of 1
Headings: Martin Luther: Peasant's Rebellion
Martin Luther: Peasant's Rebellion
Will the Theologians Please Sit Down
Against the Robbing and Murdering Hordes of Peasants
Introduction

Content: 2) they had robbed, plundered, and murdered, and were subject to death in body and soul; and (3) they had committed their crimes under the cover of Christ’s name, thereby shamefully blaspheming God. The peasants were like a mad dog which had to be destroyed. The government, he argued, must use its God‑given office to subdue the rebels with force, the only language they understood. Who­ever lost his life in suppressing this rebellion, Luther argues, would be a martyr to the gospel. The translation by Charles M. Jacobs was based on CL 3, 69-­74. The revision presented here is based on the German text, Wider die räuberischen. und mürderischen Rotten der Bauern, in WA 18, (344) 357‑361. 1 Cf. Schwiebert, Luther and His Times, p. 562.