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MarcoPolo
USA
19 Posts |
 Posted - 11/08/2009 : 11:38:27 PM
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In Jimmy Akin's article explaining Exsurge Domine in light of Papal Infallibility, he makes the following comment: "One can speculate which censure might be applied to the proposition that using the death penalty for heresy is contrary to the will of the Spirit (a view Luther himself later repudiated)."
What is the reference to Luther's repudiation that Jimmy mentions?
Jimmy's article: http://www.catholic.com/thisrock/2001/0109bt.asp |
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artsippo
USA
5190 Posts |
Posted - 11/09/2009 : 11:11:07 AM
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Where should I begin?
First of all Luther did not want the death penalty for heretics because... well, he was one. As soon as he was free of any threat of being executed (which he surely deserved) he changed his mind and advised the Lutheran Princes that it was okay.
quote:
“In 1530 Luther advanced the view that two offences should be penalized even with death, namely sedition and blasphemy . . . Luther construed mere abstention from public office and military service as sedition and a rejection of an article of the Apostles' Creed as blasphemy. In a memorandum of 1531, composed by Melanchthon and signed by Luther, a rejection of the ministerial office was described as insufferable blasphemy, and the disintegration of the Church as sedition against the ecclesiastical order. In a memorandum of 1536, again composed by Melanchthon and signed by Luther, the distinction between the peaceful and the revolutionary Anabaptists was obliterated." (Roland Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, New York: Mentor, 1950, 295)”
Luther actually admonished the Lutheran Princes to put the anabaptists to the sword. He also called for the killing of the Pope and Catholic Clergy but even Fr. Grisar thought he was just ranting and did not mean it. Not so his attitude towards the Jews whom he thought should be chastened up to and included execution for their refusal to accept Jesus.
Luther was a man of violent temperament and he often contradicted himself at a whim. He was a blind guide leading those who followed him into perdition.
Art
Omnes semper - ad Jesum, per Mariam, cum Petro! |
Edited by - Patti on 11/09/2009 11:15:45 AM |
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Martin Luther - Exsurge Domine
