In 1525 the peasants of Germany revolted against the oppressive conditions they were compelled to submit to by the ruling classes. They published several manifestos stating their grievances, the most popular of which was titled The Twelve Articles. It came just at the time Martin Luther’s case against the abuses of the Roman Catholic Church, touched off by his posting of the Ninety-Five Theses on the Wittenberg Castle Church door in 1517 for academic debate, had come to a wider public knowledge and was gaining in popularity among the common people. They therefore appealed to Luther to speak out publicly in favor of the peasant’s case also.

In The Twelve Articles, published in March 1525, the peasants had presented an explicitly Christian case for their revolt:

“Many antichrists [1 John 2:18] have recently taken advantage of the assembling of the peasants and used it as an excuse to speak scornfully about the gospel. They say, ‘Is this the fruit of the new gospel? Will no one be obedient anymore? Will the people revolt against their lords, gather and organize in crowds, and use their power to reform or even to overthrow their spiritual and temporal authorities? Indeed, they may even kill them.’ The following articles are our answer to these godless and blasphemous critics. Our intention is twofold: first to remove this calumny from the word of God and, second, to excuse in a Christian way the disobedience and even the rebellion of the peasants.

“First, the gospel does not cause rebellion and disturbance, because it is a message about Christ, the promised Messiah, whose words and life teach nothing but love, peace, patience, and unity. And all who beliveve in this Christ become loving, peaceful, patient, and agreeable. This is the basis of all the articles of the peasants (as will clearly appear), and they are basically concerned with hearing the word of God and living according to it...”
(“Admonition to Peace: A Reply to the Twelve Articles of the Peasants in Swabia,” Luther’s Works, Vol. 46, pp. 8-9, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1967)

Then followed the list of twelve grievances, three of which were addressed to the Church (asking for the power to appoint and depose their own pastors, and for relief from unreasonable tithing requirements) and the rest of which were addressed to their secular lords (for example, asking for the right to hunt game, fish, and cut wood for themselves and not have to buy it all at exorbitant prices from the aristocratic landowners).

Luther replied the next month in a pamphlet titled Admonition to Peace: A Reply to the Twelve Articles of the Peasants in Swabia. It is not long and is well-worth reading in its entirety, but here is the most relevant portion:

“I say all this, dear friends, as a faithful warning. In this case you should stop calling yourselves Christians and stop claiming that you have the Christian law on your side. For no matter how right you are, it is not right for a Christian to appeal to law, or to fight, but rather to suffer wrong and endure evil; and there is no other way (1 Corinthians 6 [:1–8]). You yourselves confess in the preface to your articles that “all who believe in Christ become loving, peaceful, patient, and agreeable.” Your actions, however, reveal nothing but impatience, aggression, anger, and violence. Thus you contradict your own words. You want to be known as patient people, you who will endure neither injustice nor evil, but will endure only what is just and good. That is a fine kind of patience! Any rascal can practice it! It does not take a Christian to do that! So again I say, however good and just your cause may be, nevertheless, because you would defend yourselves and are unwilling to suffer either violence or injustice, you may do anything that God does not prevent. However, leave the name Christian out of it. Leave the name Christian out, I say, and do not use it to cover up your impatient, disorderly, un-Christian undertaking. I shall not let you have that name, but so long as there is a heartbeat in my body, I shall do all I can, through speaking and writing, to take that name away from you. You will not succeed, or will succeed only in ruining your bodies and souls.

“In saying this it is not my intention to justify or defend the rulers in the intolerable injustices which you suffer from them. They are unjust, and commit heinous wrongs against you; that I admit. If, however, neither side accepts instruction and you start to fight with each other—may God prevent it!—I hope that neither side will be called Christian. Rather I hope that God will, as is usual in these situations, use one rascal to punish the other. If it comes to a conflict—may God graciously prevent it!—I hope that your character and name will be so well known that the authorities will recognize that they are fighting not against Christians but against heathen; and that you, too, may know that you are not fighting Christian rulers but heathen. Christians do not fight for themselves with sword and musket, but with the cross and with suffering, just as Christ, our leader, does not bear a sword, but hangs on the cross. Your victory, therefore, does not consist in conquering and reigning, or in the use of force, but in defeat and in weakness, as St. Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1 [10:4], “The weapons of our warfare are not material, but are the strength which comes from God,” and, “Power is made perfect in weakness” [2 Cor. 12:9].

“Your name and title ought therefore to indicate that you are people who fight because they will not, and ought not, endure injustice or evil, according to the teaching of nature. You should use that name, and let the name of Christ alone, for that is the kind of works that you are doing. If, however, you will not take that name, but keep the name of Christian, then I must accept the fact that I am also involved in this struggle and consider you as enemies who, under the name of the gospel, act contrary to it, and want to do more to suppress my gospel than anything the pope and emperor have done to suppress it.

“I will make no secret of what I intend to do. I will put the whole matter into God’s hands, risk my neck by God’s grace, and confidently trust in him—just as I have been doing against the pope and the emperor. I shall pray for you, that God may enlighten you, and resist your undertaking, and not let it succeed. For I see well that the devil, who has not been able to destroy me through the pope, now seeks to exterminate me and swallow me up by means of the bloodthirsty prophets of murder and spirits of rebellion that are among you. Well, let him swallow me! I will give him a bellyful, I know. And even if you win, you will hardly enjoy it! I beg you, humbly and kindly, to think things over so that I will not have to trust in and pray to God against you.”
(“Admonition to Peace: A Reply to the Twelve Articles of the Peasants in Swabia,” Luther’s Works, Vol. 46, pp. 32-33, Fortress Press, Philadelphia, 1967)

This reply has shocked many a sincere Christian, but I believe Luther is clearly right in his assessment of the Biblical teaching. Political activism, of either the Right or Left variety, is not a Christian calling, and nothing but trouble will ever come from it. More on this later...