Luther: Our (people) are now seven times worse than they ever were before. We steal, lie, cheat, . . . and commit all manner of vices.

I've been working through obscure Luther quotes from a Roman Catholic apologist. Here's another:

Our (people) are now seven times worse than they ever were before. We steal, lie, cheat, . . . and commit all manner of vices. (in Heinrich Denifle, Luther and Lutherdom, vol.1, part 1, tr. from 2nd rev. ed. of German by Raymund Volz, Somerset, England: Torch Press, 1917, 22. Luther quote from Werke, Erlangen edition, 36, 411)

He uses this quote different ways. First it serves as an example of "The Agony of Luther" over "the State of Early Protestantism. He also uses it to prove "Martin Luther's Regrets as to the Relative Failure of the 'Reformation' (Piety, Morals & Inconsistencies Regarding Replacing Bishops With Princes)," specifically, the "Lower State of General Morality" because of Luther's teachings and "Morals and Piety of the New Protestants Compared to Catholics."

Documentation
He cites Heinrich Denifle's Luther and Lutherdom, So off we go:

Like many others, Pirkheimer, who once had even joined the movement, wrote shortly before his death : "We hoped that Romish knavery, the same as the rascality of the monks and priests, would be corrected; but, as is to be perceived, the matter has become worse to such a degree that the Evangelical knaves make the other knaves pious," that is, the others still appear pious in comparison with the new unbridled preachers of liberty. But did not the father of the new movement himself acknowledge that "our (people) are now seven times worse than they ever were before. We steal, lie, cheat, cram, and swill and commit all manner of vices.'"

The phrase "seven times worse than before" can be found a few times in Luther's writings. Even The Catholic apologist in question has blog posts containing different uses of the phrase. I've written about this quote before. The quote comes from Luther's comments on Deuteronomy 9:25. To my knowledge, no English translation is available of this text. However, the book, Luther Vindicated by Charles Hastings Collette (Published by Bernard Quaritch, 1884) contains an interesting insight on this quote. On page 117, Collette analyzed the quote being used by Sabine Baring-Gould, the writer of the famous hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers." Of this quote in question, Collette quotes Baring-Gould stating:

"...let us take Luther's own account of the results of his doctrine :—' There is not,' says he,—' one of our Evangelicals who is not seven times worse than he was before he belonged, to us,—stealing, lying, deceiving, eating, and getting drunk, and giving himself up to all kinds of vices. If we have driven out one devil, seven others worse than the first have come in his place."

Collette begins analyzing the quote stating,

"The reference is 'Ed. Walch, iii. 2727.' Here it is self-evident that the rev. gentleman, by 'our Evangelicals,' intends to point to the new converts to Luther's teaching."

"By the reference we are guided to Luther's Commentaries on the 'fifth Book of Moses, ix. 25.' On turning to the column indicated, we find the passage purported to be quoted, but in it there is not the most distant intimation that Luther was pointing to his own people, or to the new converts; but to the state of utter depravity to which priests and people, nobles and commoners,—nominal Christians of all ranks,—had fallen."

After documenting this moral climate, Collette states,

But what I have to expose is the barefaced mistranslation put before us in the above extract by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, thereby making Luther allude to "our Evangelicals" as "belonging to Luther's disciples," who had become seven times worse by the change from Popery. I will let the reader judge for himself by placing before him a literal translation of the original; the text I add as a footnote :—

Collette then cites the context of Luther's statements:

"Moses is thus a fine teacher; he has well expounded the first commandment, and led the people to a knowledge of themselves, and humbled the proud and arrogant spirits, besides which he upbraided them with all kinds of vices, so that they had merited anything but the promised land. If we do not abide by our beloved Gospel, we deserve to see those who profess it, our Gospellers, become seven times worse than they were before. For, after having become acquainted with the Gospel, we steal, lie, cheat, we eat, drink, and are drunken, and practise all sorts of iniquity. As one devil has been driven out of us, seven others, more wicked, have entered in; as may be seen at the present time with princes, noblemen, lords, citizens, and peasants, how they act, without shame and in spite of God and His threatenings."

The key to the quote is the phrase, "Our Gospellers." Collette explains,

" 'Our Gospellers' I have thus translated 'unsereEvangelischen.' Luther did not mean the true believers in and followers of the Evangelists, which some readers might suppose to be a name applicable to all members of the Reformed Churches, from their known attachment to the Gospel, but he applied the expression to outward professors of the Gospel."

If Collette's analysis is correct, the quote isn't an example of Luther's agony of the state of early Protestantism, but rather a lament over people who were Christians in name only. Nor then is it a "regret as to the relative failure of the 'Reformation' (Piety, Morals & Inconsistencies Regarding Replacing Bishops With Princes)." Perhaps it could be an example of the "Lower State of General Morality" because rejection of the Gospel will indeed make people worse. It isn't though a comparison of Protestant "Morals and Piety of the New Protestants Compared to Catholics."