So often a new movement suffers from overenthusiasm. The Reformation was
no exception in this respect. Zealots took the usual shortcut from
bondage to freedom by way of turmoil instead of restrained orderly
procedure.
In parts of Germany the old ways were thrown off hastily. Organs,
paintings, and statues were thrown from the churches, vestments were
discarded, bread and wine were both administered to the laity, priests
married, nuns took husbands, monastic vows were renounced, various forms
of the mass were discontinued, priests and worshipers who persisted in
the traditional forms were attacked.
Rumors of violent acts reached the Wartburg. Luther, still in the guise
of Junker George, made a hurried trip to Wittenberg early in December,
1521. Matters there had not yet reached the unrestrained stage which
they later assumed. Nevertheless he cautioned the people in a “warning
against riot and rebellion,” written on his return to the Wartburg.
In it he reasoned that reform is not so much a matter of externals as of
faith. Breaking up the furniture in a church does not change the heart
of a man. Vandalism is by no means a sign of repentance and trust in
God—in fact it approaches the old form of seeking favor through works.
Giving wine as well as bread in the Lord’s Supper is not as important as
the spiritual attitude of the communicant.
Finally the tumult in Wittenberg reached the point where he had to step
in, so—in the face of the imperial ban—he returned on March 6, 1522.
Insisting that no drastic change should be made until, through
re-education, those affected requested it as a matter of faith, he
restored order in the university city in a remarkably short time.
The peasants meanwhile took the shortcut to freedom, too, in a series of
bloody uprisings. Chafing under their bondage to the nobles, they
adapted Luther’s “free lord of all” statement to their own demands for
social reform. Luther preached the Christian duty of submission to
lawful authority, but the peasants ravaged and plundered until finally
defeated in 1525. It was a dark hour in the Reformation.