AG10b: Secular Authorities, part 2 (Jesuits, French Dragonnades)

      This continues from Part AG10a (Table of Contents in Part AG1a) in a series presenting Walther's essays to the Western District that supported his theme "That Only Through the Doctrine of the Lutheran Church is All Glory Given to God Alone". — This concludes the essay from the 1885 Western District. This segment overlaps with some of the material in Prof. Lindemann's essays on "Religious Freedom" and ""Religious Intolerance in America". — 

Notable Quotes:

42: Thesis VII, 3: "a. the secular authorities have the right to neutralize…those heretics who…are dangerous to the state, but that, b. outside of this case, the secular authorities have neither the right nor the power to use coercive force against false beliefs and false worship"

43: "Truly, the secular authorities would therefore have sufficient reason to take action against the Pope as a heretic with principles dangerous to the state; but because they fear him, they bow down before him."

43: Luther on Communists of his time: "…that one should have no property of one's own, but should leave one's wife and children, house and farm, or hold and have all things in common: these are to be punished immediately and without any doubt by the authorities"

43: "it was right that the Jesuits were expelled from Catholic countries in the last century" [Suppression of the Society of Jesus, See following Excursus 1.]

43: "In America, this category includes the Mormons, who were expelled from Missouri and Illinois because of their thievery and settled in Utah" [This is glossed over in today's America.]

44: "b. the secular authorities have neither the right nor the power…to use their coercive power against false beliefs"

44: "Without external force, through the Word alone, the 'deception' of the Antichrist should therefore be destroyed."

44: Luther: "what raving people we have been for so long, wanting to force the Turks to believe with the sword, the heretics with fire, the Jews with death…"

46: Luther: "I am truly sorry that such miserable people are so pitifully murdered, burned, and horribly killed; everyone should be allowed to believe what he wants" [Luther for Freedom of Religion!]

46-47: "History tells of many bloody atrocities committed by Roman Catholic authorities…A second example of deliberate cruelty…against the Huguenots…is the infamous [French] Dragonnades." [See also this blog post.]

48: Dragonnades: “Die or become Catholic!” [Wikipedia: "The dragonnades caused Protestants to flee France"]

49: "Calvin forced the Council of Geneva in 1553 to burn Servetus, who denied the Trinity"

49: "Even the Reformed Max Göbel must admit: the Reformed… were far more the persecutors than the persecuted in preventing Lutherans from worshiping…so too did they commit many injustices with the help of their Reformed state government'

50: "We Lutherans in America cannot therefore thank God enough that the federal constitution makes it impossible for our authorities to give preference to one religion over another."

50: "here [in America], to the shame of those fears [in Germany], religious freedom has proven to be the highest and richest blessing for both the state and the church."

51: Western District: "With thanks to God for the freedom enjoyed by the Church in this country, the synod concluded its doctrinal deliberations"

      Now I present my English translation of the full complete essay. It includes missing portions restored, all emphasized wording retained, wording sometimes closer to Walther's, and hyperlinks for reference and navigation. All references to Luther's writings are linked to English versions:

Download text file with no highlights here; German text file here.

Immediately following is an Excursus 1 on the expulsion of the Jesuits from Catholic lands by the Catholic authorities. Then follows the next Part 11a…