Catholics. If any one still harbors the traditional
prejudice that the early Protestants were more liberal, he must be
undeceived. Save for a few splendid sayings of Luther, [Sidenote:
Luther] confined to the early years when he was powerless, there is
hardly anything to be found among the leading reformers in favor of
freedom of conscience. As soon as they had the power to persecute they
did.

In his first period Luther expressed the theory of toleration as well
as anyone can. He wrote: "The pope is no judge of matters pertaining
to God's Word and the faith, but a Christian must examine and judge
them himself, as he must live and die by thorn." Again he said:
"Heresy can never be prevented by force. . . . Heresy is a spiritual
thing; it cannot be cut with iron nor burnt with fire nor drowned in
water." And yet again, "Faith is free. What could a heresy trial do?
No more than make people agree by mouth or in writing; it could not
compel the heart. For true is the proverb: 'Thoughts are free of
taxes.'" Even {644} when the Anabaptists began to preach doctrines
that he thoroughly disliked, Luther at first advised the government to
leave them unmolested to teach and believe what they liked, "be it
gospel or lies."

But alas for the inconsistency of human nature! When Luther's party
ripened into success, he saw things quite differently. The first
impulse came from the civil magistrate, whom the theologians at first
endured, then justified and finally urged on. All persons save priests
were forbidden [Sidenote: February 26, 1527] by the Elector John of
Saxony to preach or baptize, a measure aimed at the Anabaptists. In
the same year, under this law, twelve men and one woman were put to
death, and such executions were repeated several times in the following
years, _e.g._ in 1530, 1532 and 1538. In the year 1529 came the
terrible imperial law, passed by an alliance of Catholics and Lutherans
at the Diet of Spires, condemning all Anabaptists to death, and
interpreted to cover cases of simple heresy in which no breath of
sedition mingled. A regular inquisition was set up in Saxony, with
Melanchthon on the bench, and under it many persons were punished, some
with death, some with life imprisonment, and some with exile.

While Luther took no active part in these proceedings, and on several
occasions gave the opinion that exile was the only proper punishment,
he also, at other times, justified persecution on the