LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW - Brock University

44 LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW XV
though, according to the Lutherans. “Although the Turks are non-
Christians”, wrote Justus Jonas, “there would not be just cause to make war
on them if they maintained the peace.” 15 So it was put forward that Europe
should respond to the Turks not in order to regain Constantinople and
subjugate the Turks, but to defend the empire and its people.
In addition to military action, there were some authors, usually radical
Protestants, who rejected any form of armed response—defensive or
otherwise—against the Turks. This was, in part, a political manoeuvre, for
the Turks were much more tolerant of Protestantism in all its forms than, for
example, Catholic inquisitors attempting to stamp out the Reformation
movement. The primary reason behind suggestions of pacifism, however,
was theological. For example, Luther’s early nemesis Thomas Müntzer
considered Muslims potentially to be part of the “universal church of the
elect” (allgemeine Kirche der Auserwählten) made up of all “dispersions,
races, and religions,” who conformed to the “inner word” revealed to all
creatures. 16 Therefore, true Christians, that is those who have responded to
the voice of God within, should allow the Turks entry into Germany so that
they might seek out fellow believers amongst them and by their exemplary
life bring about their full conversion. 17 The ex-Lutheran turned spiritualist,
Sebastian Franck, posited similar reasons. He saw his version of Christian
spiritualism as a fourth and final movement of God that would “draw
together an invisible, spiritual church in the unity of the spirit and faith from
among all people.” 18 This geystlich kirchen included all people for,
according to Franck, there is “now neither Turk nor Christian”. 19 There was
no reason to fear a Turkish conquest of Europe. In fact, it ought to be
welcomed as a fulfilment of God’s activity in history.
One response to the early sixteenth century Türkenfurcht that every
sixteenth century author was agreed upon was so-called spiritual warfare,
that is, prayer and repentance. 20 There was, however, a subtle difference in
15 Justus Jonas, Das siebend Capitel Danielis von des Türcken Gottes lesterung und
schrecklicher morderey mit unterricht (Wittenberg: Lufft, 1529), 33.
16 George Hunston Williams, The Radical Reformation, 3 rd ed. (Kirksville, MO: Sixteenth
Century Journal, 1992), 1266.
17 D. Fauth, “Das Türkenbild bei Thomas Müntzer”, Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 11.1
(1994): 11.
18 Sebastian Franck, Chronica unnd beschreibung der Türckey (Nürnberg: Friedrich Peypus,
1530), Kiii.
19 Franck, Chronica, Oiii. Also see his “Letter to John Campanus,” in Spiritual and
Anabaptist Writers, eds. Williams & Mergal (London: SCM, 1957), 156.
20 Miller notes that the “sermons, hymns, and prayers that admonished spiritual exercises in
the face of the Turkish threat are so numerous that they almost form a distinct category of
Reformation-era religious publication” (“Holy War”, 251-52). Cf. Bohnstedt, “The Infidel
Scourge”, 17.