And so, dear Christian, beware of the Jews . . . you can see how God's wrath has consigned them to the Devil, who has robbed them not only of a proper understanding of the Scriptures, but also of common human reason, modesty and sense. . . . Thus, when you see a real Jew you may with a good conscience cross yourself, and boldly say, “There goes the Devil incarnate.”
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"The world is like a drunken peasant. If you help him to mount on one side of his horse, he tumbles off on the other."
"I never learned anything by being told, but only by doing."
"A woman is a human being with a womb."
"Why should the Devil have all the good tunes?"
"The very devil himself would thank you for such an event, and no one but the miserable devil and his devilish scum."
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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This passage tells Christians to fear and distrust Jewish people, claiming God has punished them by handing them over to the Devil, stripping away their ability to understand scripture and even basic human decency. It instructs readers that upon encountering a Jewish person, they should make the sign of the cross and declare that person a literal embodiment of evil. It is raw religious demonization presented as pious advice.
Luther broke from Rome in 1517 over indulgences and rebuilt Christianity around scripture alone, yet his late writings betrayed that ideal. In 1543's On the Jews and Their Lies, written after Jews refused to convert to his reformed faith, he urged burning synagogues, destroying homes, and seizing property. This quote captures that bitter turn, revealing how his theological certainty curdled into vicious prejudice when reality disappointed his evangelical hopes.
Early modern Europe fused religious identity with civic belonging, and Jews had been expelled from England, France, and Spain by 1500. Luther's 1520s-40s writings landed amid Reformation upheaval, peasant wars, and apocalyptic expectation. Christian communities commonly blamed Jews for plague, usury, and blood libel, while rulers debated tolerance versus expulsion. Luther's venom provided theological cover for German princes already inclined to expel Jewish populations, and his words echoed through Germany for four centuries afterward.
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