Martin Luther, the German Peasants’ Revolt, and Do Not Steal in the Lutheran Catechisms

What can we learn from Martin Luther’s commentary on the
commandment, Do Not Steal, in his Large Catechism and Small
Catechism?
What are his reflections on the negative commandment? What
are his reflections on the positive form of this commandment?
Did Luther’s writings on the German Peasant’s Revolt impact his
commentary?
What were his instructions to the peasants, merchants, and
nobility regarding this commandment?
What obligations do Christians have to the poor among us?

Please, we welcome interesting questions in the
comments. Let us learn and reflect together!
At the end of our talk, we will discuss the sources
used for this video.
Please feel free to follow along in the PowerPoint
script we uploaded to SlideShare.

YouTube Video:
Martin Luther on
commandment:
Do Not Steal
https://amzn.to/300cBfg
https://amzn.to/2YnsSKM
https://amzn.to/3wqsqrZ
Intellectually Balanced and Non-Polemical Lectures
On Luther, St Augustine, Philosophy and Theology
In The Western Tradition, Professor Philip Cary
https://youtu.be/0ZYeEB2OTC4
https://amzn.to/3ghTJxK
Book of Concord

MARTIN LUTHER, DO NOT STEAL
Martin Luther, in the Small Catechism, like the
Jewish rabbis, emphasizes that each commandment
can be rendered both as a negative commandment
and a positive admonition.

To the question in the Small
Catechism: “Thou shalt not
steal: What does this
mean?”
Answer: “We should fear and
love God so that we may not
rob our neighbor of his
money or property, nor bring
them into our possession by
dishonest trade or by dealing
in shoddy wares but help
him to improve and protect
his income and property.”
Martin Luther as an Augustine Monk,
Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1546

In his Large Catechism,
Luther elaborates: “Stealing
is nothing else than to
acquire another’s property
by unjust means, including
taking advantage of our
neighbor in any dealing that
results in a loss to him,”
whether you steal at
gunpoint or by cheating in
the marketplace makes little
difference.
Martin Luther as an Augustine Monk,
Lucas Cranach the Elder, after 1546

But who does Luther first admonish
against theft? Servants, who “through
laziness, carelessness, or malice wastes
things to the vexation and annoyance of
his master or mistress.” And indeed, we
should all strive to work for our managers
as if we were working for Jesus, but
managers have the responsibility to pay
their employees a living wage. If they
don’t, how harshly can we condemn
minimum wage employees for stealing to
feed their families?

Indeed, St John Chrysostom
in his homily on Lazarus,
which is also quoted in the
Catholic Catechism, teaches
us that when we do not
“enable the poor to share in
our goods is to steal from
them and deprive them of
life. The goods we possess
are not ours, but theirs.”

Historians can argue that Luther’s views reflected
the iron-clad class distinctions of medieval society,
divided into those who prayed, those who fought,
and those who worked, and that God pre-ordained
your station in life. But that does not justify cruelty,
Jesus exhorts us to challenge our culture when it
conflicts with the commandment to love our
neighbor.

Protestant Reformation and Peasants’ Revolt

Did Luther side with the merchant and land-owning classes to the
detriment of the peasants? We need to reflect on the early years of the
Protestant Reformation. Luther unwittingly sparked a revolutionary
movement when he posted the incendiary Ninety-Five Theses.
(REPEAT) These were indeed revolutionary in their boldness; this thesis
reflects the resentment by many of the indulgences sold that helped
finance the construction of the massive St Peter’s Basilica in Rome:
86. “Why does not the Pope, whose wealth is today greater than the
wealth of the richest Crassus, build this one basilica of St Peter’s church
with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?”

Luther Posting his 95 Theses in 1517, by Ferdinand Pauwels, painted 1872

In his 95 Theses, Martin Luther asks:
86. “Why does not the Pope, whose wealth is
today greater than the wealth of the richest
Crassus, build this one basilica of St Peter’s church
with his own money rather than with the money of
poor believers?”
But what is not emphasized by many historians is
how inflammatory many of these theses were, this
was likely one of the most offensive theses:
75. “To consider papal indulgences so great that
they could absolve a man even if he had done the
impossible and had violated the Mother of God is
madness.”
1525 woodcut of forgiveness from Christ
outweighing the pope's indulgences

Foolishly, the Roman Catholic Church, instead of
compromising with Luther, chose to challenge him,
giving him a choice at the Diet of Worms between
recanting all his works or rebelling. We know his
response: “Here I stand, so help me God.”

Luther before Charles V at the Diet of Worms in 1521, by Hermann Wislicenus, 1880

Luther on the Way to Worms, by August Viereck, 1860

Martin Luther was excommunicated and placed
under imperial edict, which could have resulted in a
death sentence, but Prince Frederick III, Elector of
Saxony, where Luther lived, granted him refuge.
Luther never left Saxony as the edict was never
lifted. Many Lutheran princes converted to the rival
church that Luther was compelled to form, turning
this into a political struggle.

Martin Luther
as Junker Jörg
in hiding,by
Lucas Cranach
the Elder, 1522
Martin Luther
Translating the
Bible at
Wartburg
Castle, by
Eugène
Siberdt, 1898

Historically, revolutions often become more radical with
time. In 1524, the German Peasant’s War, encouraged by
the inflammatory rhetoric of the Protestant Revolution,
broke out with the encouragement of radical preachers
like Thomas Muntzer. This was the most widespread and
popular uprising before the French Revolution centuries
later and was suppressed when the aristocracy
slaughtered between 100,000 and 300,000 peasants.

The Murder
of Count
Helfenstein
near
Weinsberg
1525, by
Fritz
Neuhaus,
1879

Initially, Luther sought a middle road, criticizing the injustices
imposed on the peasants, while criticizing the violence of their
rebellion. But his position hardened, he needed the support of
the nobility to support the Reformation, Luther was always
vitriolic, as can be seen from the title of his pamphlet, Against
the Robbing Murderous Hordes of Peasants, which stated that
the peasants “must be sliced, choked, stabbed, secretly and
publicly, by those who can, like one must kill a rabid dog.” But
after the peasants were brutally suppressed, Luther criticized
the brutality of the suppression.

Scene from the Peasant’s War, by Carl von Haberlin, 1858 / Weapons of German Peasants

Why was I compelled to quote Wikipedia for this history?
Although this ugly history of Luther’s response to the
brutal German Peasant’s Rebellion is a key event in the
life of Martin Luther, many of the dedicated biographies
sympathetic to Luther gloss over this event, mentioning it
only in passing. But this ugly history does shed light on
Luther’s teachings for the commandment, Do Not Steal,
and on the church’s refusal to protect its most vulnerable
peasants.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Peasants%27_War

Looking forward, the notion that the lower rungs of
society should be paid a living wage did not gain
traction until the French Revolution and its long
aftermath, and in particular with Pope Leo XIII’s
1891 encyclical, Rerum Novarum, the Rights and
Duties of Capital and Labor, which sparked the
Catholic social justice movement, and may have
been an inspiration for FDR’s New Deal.

Luther, Do Not Steal, Large Catechism
But Martin Luther, flawed as he is, does have
much to teach us. Luther condemns
“artisans, workmen, and day laborers who
act high-handedly and never know enough
ways to overcharge people and yet are
careless and unreliable in their work.” He
condemns the merchants who “openly cheat
with defective merchandise, false measures,
and dishonest weights,” and who “takes
advantage of others by underhanded tricks
and sharp practices and crafty dealing.”

But Luther does urge us to be “beware of how we
deal with the poor, of whom there are many. If,
when you meet a poor man who must live from
hand to mouth,” you act if you are better than he,
and you “scrape the poor down to their bone, and
arrogantly turn him away when you ought to give
aid. When the poor go away wretched and dejected
because he can complain to no one else, he will cry
to heaven.”
Luther opines that “God, who watches over poor,
sorrowful hearts, he will not leave them unavenged.”
But, we must be God’s instrument in this endeavor,
but Luther does not discuss exactly how we must
ensure that the poor are dealt with fairly.

Luther does not admonish the nobility to
ensure that their peasants earn enough
to feed and support their families with
dignity. Rather, Luther only proclaims
that it is “the responsibility of princes
and magistrates” “to restrain open
lawlessness.” “They should be alert and
resolute enough to establish and
maintain order in all areas of trade and
commerce in order that the poor may
not be burdened and oppressed.”

Luther concludes by restating the positive and
negative forms of the commandment, noting
that tolerating theft by others by doing
nothing also is a moral violation. “On one
hand, we are forbidden to do our neighbor any
injury or wrong in any way imaginable,
whether by damaging, withholding, or
interfering with his possession and property.
We are not even to consent to or permit such
a thing but are rather to avert and prevent it.
On the other hand, we are commanded to
promote and further our neighbor’s interests,
and when he suffers want, we are to help,
share, and lend to both friends and foes.”
Luther at Erfurt, by Joseph Noel Paton, 1861.

Previous Videos, Lutheran Catechism
Martin Luther Preaching to the Faithful, from the Altarpiece of the Church of Torslunde, 1561

We have previously discussed Martin Luther’s
admonitions on the commandments, Do Not Slander
and Do Not Covet. In our video on Do Not Covet, we
reflect on the anti-Semitism of Martin Luther. We
also reviewed the history of the Catholic and
Lutheran Catechisms.

Our primary sources are the Lutheran Small and
Large Catechisms, which are included in the Book
Concord, the book of the faith of the Lutheran
Church. We have a video on Book Reviews for books
that discuss the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments,
and on Vatican II.
The Great Courses lectures on Martin Luther by the
Lutheran Professor Philip Carey are as balanced as
they are excellent.

YouTube Video:
Martin Luther on
commandment:
Do Not Steal
https://amzn.to/300cBfg
https://amzn.to/2YnsSKM
https://amzn.to/3wqsqrZ
Intellectually Balanced and Non-Polemical Lectures
On Luther, St Augustine, Philosophy and Theology
In The Western Tradition, Professor Philip Cary
https://youtu.be/FQmBggJAhKg
https://amzn.to/3ghTJxK
Book of Concord

To find the source of any direct
quotes in this blog, please type in
the phrase to the search box in
my blog to see the referenced
footnote.
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Martin Luther, the German Peasants’ Revolt, and Do Not Steal in the Lutheran Catechisms

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Martin Luther, the German Peasants’ Revolt, and Do Not Steal in the Lutheran Catechisms