How sad that your post shows no understanding of context of Luther's words, nor the wisdom of anything he said....only undigested, out of context quotes....which amount to half-truths.
Virtually ALL Christians of the 16th Century had no concept of religious tolerance. More importantly though, for anyone to be scandalized by Protestant intolerance--given the horrendous Roman Catholic intolerance at the time, is more than a little of a pot calling a kettle black.
Chief among ALL the persecutors of that era--BY FAR--was the Church of Rome, the single most powerful, wealthy, and corrupt, institution of Europe.
Just one incident can put things in perspective:
The Saint Bartholomeuws Day Massacre, of August 24, 1572.
Between 10,000 and 100,000 were murdered by Roman Catholic authorities.
Let me repeat that: AT LEAST 10,000 French protestant civilians...unarmed, men, women and children, WERE SYSTEMATICALLY MURDERED by Roman Catholic authorities.
Pope Gregory XIII was so pleased at what was done, he actually struck a medal to memorialize the event:
So please, do not wail about Protestant intolerance.
In fact Roman Catholic intolerance directly affected the first European settlement in North America, Fort Caroline, near what is now St. Augustine Florida.
In 1565 hundreds of French Protestants were systematically wiped out by Spanish conquistador Menéndez--specifically for refusing to re-convert to Rome--at what is now Fort Matanzas. Menéndez then established St. Augustine.
A National Monument to that event exists there today--you can read about it here.
"Let me repeat that: AT LEAST 10,000 French protestant civilians...unarmed, men, women and children, WERE SYSTEMATICALLY MURDERED by Roman Catholic authorities." You should do a little more reading of the actual history before you make outlandish charges like that. Using a 21st century lens to judge the actions of the 16th century is a fools errand. First, the killings were done by mobs of French peasants, not by French authorities. Second, the mobs were motivated by true stories of Huguenot alliances with both the English and Ottoman Turks in support of an attempted coup with an ambition to establish a Protestant government like had just been done in Scotland. The massacres too place very shortly after the end of the 3rd French religious war when there were still Protestant armies camped outside the major French cities. Third, that the Pope would celebrate the suppression of a Protestant rebellion following the atrocities committed against the Church and its clergy in England, Scotland, Ireland and the other strongholds of Protestantism is understandable when the preservation of the faith was in doubt just a few years earlier. It is completely condemnable by today's standards, but understandable in the context of the tumult of the 16th century.
