deliverer, he exhorted the nobles to take a merciless
revenge.[205] Their crime was, that they were animated by the sectarian
spirit, which it was the most important interest of Luther to suppress.

The Protestant authorities throughout Southern Germany were perplexed by
their victory over the Anabaptists. It was not easy to show that their
political tenets were revolutionary, and the only subversive portion of
their doctrine was that they held, with the Catholics, that the State is
not responsible for religion.[206] They were punished, therefore,
because they taught that no man ought to suffer for his faith. At
Nuremberg the magistrates did not know how to proceed against them. They
seemed no worse than the Catholics, whom there was no question at that
time of exterminating. The celebrated Osiander deemed these scruples
inconsistent. The Papists, he said, ought also to be suppressed; and so
long as this was not done, it was impossible to proceed to extremities
against the Anabaptists, who were no worse than they. Luther also was
consulted, and he decided that they ought not to be punished unless they
refused to conform at the command of the Government.[207] The Margrave
of Brandenburg was also advised by the divines that a heretic who could
not be converted out of Scripture might be condemned; but that in his
sentence nothing should be said about heresy, but only about sedition
and murderous intent, though he should be guiltless of these.[208] With
the aid of this artifice great numbers were put to death.

Luther's proud and ardent spirit despised such pretences. He had cast
off all reserve, and spoke his mind openly on the rights and duties of
the State towards the Church and the people. His first step was to
proclaim it the office of the civil power to prevent abominations.[209]
He provided no security that, in discharging this duty, the sovereign
should be guided by the advice of orthodox divines;[210] but he held the
duty itself to be imperative. In obedience to the fundamental principle,
that the Bible is the sole guide in all things, he defined the office
and justified it by scriptural precedents. The Mosaic code, he argued,
awarded to false prophets the punishment of death, and the majesty of
God is not to be less deeply reverenced or less rigorously vindicated
under the New Testament than under the Old; in a more perfect revelation
the obligation is stronger. Those who will not hear the Church must be
excluded