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[[File: Muntzer Three.jpg |thumbnail|300px|left|Pamphlet of the 12 Articles]]

Luther was deeply influenced by the teachings of St Augustine and believed that all legitimate authority should be obeyed and it was a Christian’s duty to do so.<ref> St Augustine. <i>The City of God</i> (London, Penguin, 1993), p. 356, 478</ref> After the Peasants War, Luther became even more conservative and he even argued that every Christian should obey the temporal ruler without question and if requested should serve as an executioner for a tyrant. Luther, especially after the Peasant’s War believed that temporal authority should not be challenged in anyway. Luther promoted this, somewhat reactionary approach, at least in part because of the Peasants War. Many of the rebels had been inspired by Luther and had hoped that he would join them and even lead them. Luther’s ideas had definitely been interpreted by some rebels and Protestant Pastors such as Muntzer as validating radical change in society.

Many Catholics in Germany used the Peasant War to attack the reformers and the war caused something of a crisis in the Reformation. Luther and his supporters were fearful that their movement could become tainted by association with the Peasants Revolt. Luther and others sought to distance themselves from the War and supported unequivocally the nobility and the Swabian League. This was not doubt done out of expediency as Luther know that his reform movement could only survive with the support of the elite. He could not been seen to be siding with the peasants or he would risk losing the support of the nobility, including the Saxon Dukes, his own protectors. Luther was also genuinely appalled by the behaviour of the peasants. He was particular appalled by the massacre at the castle of Weinsberg, when peasant rebels had massacred some nobles and the garrison of a castle. This prompted him to write the polemic ‘Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants’. In this work he used strong language to call for the extermination of the rebels who had ‘’become the worst blasphemers of God and slanderers of his holy name.” <ref> Luther, Martin, <i>Against the Murderous, Thieving Hordes of Peasants</i> (Saxony, 1525), p. 10 </ref> Luther, under the influence of St Augustine believed that human will was depraved and prone to evil.<ref> Hale, JR. <i>Renaissance and Reformation</i> (Pelican, London, 1988), p. 67</ref>