Luther and His Feelings on Peasant Rebellions

When people are unhappy with their rulers, is it right for the rulers to strike down any rebellions that may occur? Martin Luther once said, "I will not oppose a ruler who, even though he does not tolerate the gospel, will smite and punish these peasants without first offering to submit the case to judgment. He is within his rights, since the peasants are not contending any longer for the gospel, but have become faithless, perjured, disobedient, rebellious murderers, robbers, and blasphemers, whom even a heathen ruler has the right and authority to punish." First of all I will give information to help gather a better understanding of the events that are occurring during the time period Luther made this statement. Then I will provide facts regarding the peasants' arguments, as well as facts regarding Luther's argument so one may judge who is more justified. In this paper I will discuss both sides of the argument at hand. I will then close by expounding upon the reasons why I personally believe Luther is justified in making this statement and why I contend that a ruler is justified to strike down any rebellions that may occur.

One of the most important things to remember is that Luther made this statement during the time of the Protestant reformation when there were many unhappy people in Europe. The time period was the early to middle 1500s, during the Protestant reformation. Luther was actually the driving force behind the Protestants, who were opposing the Catholic Church, which until then had been the religion of choice. The Protestants were unhappy with the way things were going in the Catholic Church and believed that changes needed to be made. Luther had two fundamental guidelines for his beliefs; that salvation could be achieved through faith alone, and through scripture alone. His followers also believed these ideas and didn't think the Catholic Church was in accordance with them. Many of the Protestants were peasants and lower class citizens. This makes sense as the clergy of the Catholic Church were the ones who were benefiting from all of the corruption going on. The clergy were comprised of nobles and upper class citizens who started out wealthy and only acclaimed more wealth as a result of the corruption going on. Both of these factors caused especially the lower class citizens to become extremely upset and helps contribute to the coming about of the Protestant religion.

Not only were the peasants upset with the clergy, but they were also very upset with the princes and the way they were treating them. They felt that they were being treated unfairly and that there was no scriptural backing for the way they were being treated. These feelings caused the peasants to write The Twelve Articles of the Upper Swabian Peasants (February 27-March 1, 1525) to tell the princes exactly what their feelings were on the matters. One of the twelve articles said that they (the peasants) would