Schaff - History of the Christian Church Vol. 8 - Media Sabda Org

572
If we put a strict construction on this sentence, Luther must be counted
with the advocates of the death-penalty for heresy. But he made a
distinction between two classes of Anabaptists—those who were seditious
or revolutionary, and those who were mere fanatics. The former should be
put to death, the latter should be banished. f1016 In a letter to Philip of
Hesse, dated November 20, 1538, he urgently requested him to expel from
his territory the Anabaptists, whom he characterizes as children of the
devil, but says nothing of using the sword. f1017 We should give him,
therefore, the benefit of a liberal construction. f1018
At the same time, the distinction was not always strictly observed, and
fanatics were easily turned into criminals, especially after the excesses of
Münster, in 1535, which were greatly exaggerated and made the pretext
for punishing innocent men and women. f1019 The whole history of the
Anabaptist movement in the sixteenth century has to be rewritten and
disentangled from the odium theologicum.
As regards Servetus, Luther knew only his first work against the Trinity,
and pronounced it, in his Table Talk (1532), an “awfully bad book.” f1020
Fortunately for his fame, he did not live to pronounce a judgment in favor
of his execution, and we must give him the benefit of silence.
His opinions on the treatment of the Jews changed for the worse. In 1523
he had vigorously protested against the cruel persecution of the Jews, but
in 1543 he counselled their expulsion from Christian lands, and the burning
of their books, synagogues, and private houses in which they blaspheme
our Saviour and the Holy Virgin. He repeated this advice in his last
sermon, preached at Eisleben a few days before his death. f1021
Melanchthon.
Melanchthon’s record on this painful subject is unfortunately worse than
Luther’s. This is all the more significant because he was the mildest and
gentlest among the Reformers. But we should remember that his utterances
on the subject are of a later date, several years after Luther’s death. He
thought that the Mosaic law against idolatry and blasphemy was as binding
upon Christian states as the Decalogue, and was applicable to heresies as
well. f1022 He therefore fully and repeatedly justified the course of Calvin
and the Council of Geneva, and even held them up as models for imitation!
In a letter to Calvin, dated Oct. 14, 1554, nearly one year after the burning
of Servetus, he wrote:—