Martin Luther — "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture,…"
The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn.
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More from Martin Luther
"The saints must be good, downright sinners."
"You have as much laughter as you have faith."
"A man who has no wife is only half a man."
"The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider... the riders contend for its posse…"
"A simple layman armed with Scripture is to be believed above a pope or a cardinal without it."
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
When evil or temptation won't back down to reasoned argument or sacred texts, meet it with mockery and laughter instead. Scorn strips power from what threatens us; the things that torment us often rely on being taken seriously. Ridicule denies them that weight. Luther is saying that humor and contempt are legitimate spiritual weapons, sometimes more effective than solemn debate, because pride and menace collapse under laughter in ways they never do under argument.
Relevance to Martin Luther
Luther famously claimed to wrestle with the devil personally, reportedly hurling an inkpot at him in the Wartburg. He was blunt, earthy, and combative, filling his Table Talk with crude jokes and insults aimed at opponents and demons alike. This line fits his temperament exactly: a theologian who prized Scripture above all yet trusted that vulgar laughter could break spiritual oppression when pious words failed, blending peasant humor with fierce conviction.
The era
In early sixteenth-century Germany, the devil was a concrete daily presence, blamed for illness, storms, and despair. Luther's 1517 Ninety-Five Theses ignited the Reformation amid plague, peasant revolts, and bitter disputes with Rome. Exorcism, witch fears, and melancholy were treated as demonic assaults. Printing presses spread pamphlets full of satire and caricature against popes and friars, so turning mockery against Satan himself matched a broader cultural weaponizing of ridicule during religious upheaval.
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