EWTN Catholic Q&A
Quotes from Martin Luther
Question from Don on 10-17-2001:

Dr. Carroll,

Here are some quotes that I found in an article from the Old Catholic Encyclopedia that were attributed to Martin Luther.

1) The "gospel cannot be introduced without tumult, scandal, and rebellion"; "the word of God is a sword, a war, a destruction, a scandal, a ruin, a poison" (De Wette, op.cit., I, 417). As for the Pope, cardinals, bishops, he says, "the whole brood of Roman Sodom", why not attack it "with every sort of weapon and wash our hands in its blood" (Walch, XVIII, 245).



4) On the Papacy, Luther said, "We are convinced that the papacy is the seat of the real and actual Antichrist, and believe that against its deceit and iniquity everything is permitted for the salvation of souls" (De Wette, op. cit., I, 478).

5) Luther appealed to the Emperor in his three primary pamphlets: to destroy the power of the pope, to confiscate for his own use all ecclesiastical property, to abolish ecclesiastical feasts, fasts, and holidays, to do away with Masses for the dead, etc.

6) "As for me, the die is cast: I despise alike the favor and fury of Rome; I do not wish to be reconciled with her, or ever to hold any communion with her. Let her condemn and burn my books; I, in turn, unless I can find no fire, will condemn and publicly burn the whole pontifical law, that swamp of heresies" (De Wette, op. cit., 466).

7) Luther wanted his epitaph to say "living I was a pest to thee, O Pope, dying I will be thy death"

8) In this reply to the "Defense of the Seven Sacraments" by King Henry VIII, he called him "impudent liar".

9) In reference to the Augustinian Friars refusing to say Mass and the wholesale destruction of Church property, Luther wrote "All I see and hear", he writes to Spalatin, 9 Dec., "pleases me immensely" (Enders, op. cit., III, 253)

10) In "Against the murderous and robbing rabble of Peasants", Luther calls upon the princes to slaughter the offending peasants "like mad dogs, to stab, strangle and slay as best one can".



13) In reference to Zwingli, he said, "your spirit is not our spirit" (De Wette, op. cit., IV, 28) and said his disciples were "not only liars, but the very incarnation of lying, deceit, and hypocrisy".



Answer by Dr. Warren Carroll on 10-17-2001:

You show again why I have said so often, that the old Catholic Encyclopedia is the best of all Catholic sources. Any reader can access it any time at www.newadvent.org/cathen/a.htm - Dr. Carroll