Martin Luther — "Those who despise these, or treat them with contempt, are worthy of purchasing, …"
Those who despise these, or treat them with contempt, are worthy of purchasing, adoring, and praising the pope's excrement as balsam.
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More from Martin Luther
"I am not afraid of a pope or a cardinal, but of a little bird that sings in the tree."
"The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me."
"Whoever smells it first, out of him it crept."
"Safe-conduct on the highways should be abolished completely for the Jews."
"Fourthly, their rabbis must be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more."
About Martin Luther (1483-1546)
German theologian whose 95 Theses (1517) launched the Protestant Reformation and broke the Catholic Church's monopoly on Western Christianity. Closely associated with Philipp Melanchthon (Lutheran systematizer) and John Calvin (later Reformer who built on Luther's break). For an intellectual contrast, see Pope Leo X, Renaissance pope (1513-1521) — Leo X's indulgence sales triggered Luther's break and Leo excommunicated him in 1521 — Luther's entire Reformation is structured as a direct answer to the indulgence-funded Vatican Leo represented.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
Luther is saying that anyone who dismisses or looks down on certain things he values deserves instead to idolize the pope's filth as if it were precious perfume. It's a crude, sarcastic insult: he's turning the tables on his opponents by suggesting their contempt reveals misplaced devotion. Rejecting what is truly good, they prove themselves fit only to worship what is worthless or disgusting, packaged as holy.
Relevance to Martin Luther
Luther was notorious for scatological invective against the papacy, especially in late works like Against the Roman Papacy (1545). A former Augustinian monk turned reformer, he rejected papal authority after his 1521 excommunication and used shockingly coarse language as a deliberate rhetorical weapon. This quote captures his combative style: mocking Catholic veneration of relics and indulgences by comparing papal authority to excrement, reflecting his conviction that Rome had corrupted genuine Christian faith.
The era
The early modern period (1500s) saw Christendom split by the Reformation Luther launched in 1517. Printing presses spread polemical pamphlets widely, and crude, bodily insults were standard theological combat across Europe. The papacy sold indulgences, venerated relics, and claimed supreme spiritual authority—all targets Luther attacked. Religious wars loomed, literacy rose, and vernacular Bibles challenged clerical monopoly. Coarse rhetoric wasn't scandalous but expected in the brutal pamphlet wars between Catholics and Protestants.
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