Consequently purgatory and all the pomp, services, and business transactions associated with it are to be regarded as nothing else than illusions of the devil, for purgatory, too, is contrary to the fundamental article that Christ alone, and not the work of man, can help souls.
Sure looks like he was conciliatory to the subject. C'mon man!
Luther was a master of hyperbole - as seen in his statements against Jews. First he was conciliatory, thinking that “hey, look, I’ll be the one to convince the Jews to convert to Christ!” and then, when they didn’t get convinced, he was all “burn em until they convert!” (as I wrote above, this didn’t make him an anti-semite as we now know the term, it just made him a guy who hated people who disagreed with him)