Today (May 26) in 1521 Martin Luther was banned by the Edict of Worms (vohrms) for his rebellion in religious writings. He spoke of pope as “the devil’s sow”; of bishops as “larvae”; of monks as “fleas on God Almighty’s fur coat.” When Luther’s wife reproached him “Dear husband, you’re too rude” he answered “a twig can be cut with a bread knife, but an oak calls for an axe.”
Emperor Julian said of him, “There is no wild beast like an angry theologian.” But, in many ways one cannot but admire this mad theologian, who advocated “we should vanquish heretics with books, not with burning.” He recommended “the death penalty for blasphemy should be softened to exile.”
Unfortunately in his sunset years, he degenerated into a ‘pope’ that he once so ferociously castigated. (is this power corrupt people?) In 1530, in his commentary on the Eighty-second Psalm, he advised government to put to death all heretics, and demanded Jewish schools and synagogues should be razed with fire.”
No wonder Will Durant wrote, “Luther should never have grown old.”
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