Luther on Dancing: "as many paces as the man takes in his dance, so many steps he takes towards hell"

Here's something presented by a Ph.D philosopher from Rockford University:

Martin Luther on Dancing

“As many paces as the man takes in his dance, so many steps he takes toward Hell.”Quoted here.

Crossing Martin off my next party-invitation list.

I like to contrast Luther with John Locke who, in his thoughts on education, mentions dancing first as an essential element of a child’s formal instruction. My explication is here in Part 8 of my online Philosophy of Education course.

We'll see that this is a gross historical misrepresentation. Luther probably didn't say it, nor did he take the severe position on dancing being attributed to him.

Documentation
The documentation provided consists simply of a hyperlink to a blog entry entitled, Book Review: Albion's Seed written by psychiatrist Scott Alexander. Alexander's review is of a book by David Hackett Fischer entitled Albion's Seed. The reviewer states the book is about "patterns of early immigration to the Eastern United States." One of the groups covered were the Quakers. The reviewer lists "Interesting Quaker Facts" taken from Albion's Seed:

9. “A Quaker preacher, traveling in the more complaisant colony of Maryland, came upon a party of young people who were dancing merrily together. He broke in upon them like an avenging angel, stopped the dance, anddemanded [sic] to know if they considered Martin Luther to be a good man. The astonished youngsters answered in the affirmative. The Quaker evangelist then quoted Luther on the subject of dancing: ‘as many paces as the man takes in his dance, so many steps he takes toward Hell. This, the Quaker missionary gloated with a gleam of sadistic satisfaction, ‘spoiled their sport’.”

This review does not document where this tidbit is found in Albion's Seed. I found it on page 511:

Albion's Seed author David Hackett Fischer does document this story, not to Luther's writings, but rather to, "Thomas Chalkley, Journal (New York, 1808), 93." Thomas Chalkley  (1675–1741) was "a Quaker missionary." "Journal" refers to "The Journal of Thomas Chalkley" documenting his Quaker missionary experiences. Here is page 93 from the 1808 edition. Chalkley states, 

In the year 1721, Thomas Lightfoot and I, with William Browne, went to a meeting at Bush-River, and going over Susquehannah-Ferry, the people were fiddling and dancing. When their dance was over, I asked them, believing them to be Protestants, If they thought Luther to be a good man? They replied, Yes, there was no doubt of it. "Well," said I, "and so do I; and I will tell you what he says concerning dancing, That as many paces as a man takes in his dance, so many steps he takes towards hell;" which spoiled their sport, and they went away, and we went on ours towards the meeting; and a good meeting it was! and we after it returned by way of Nottingham, and had a meeting there, and one at New-Garden, and so on to Philadelphia. I was from home about a week, and travelled in this journey about one hundred and fifty miles, and was well satisfied therein.

A comparison of Chalkley's first-hand testimony and Fischer's recounting of it show blatant inconsistencies.  First, Fischer provided a gross mis-citation to build his point, then he poisons the well in regard to an historical figure. David Hackett Fischer says this story is representative of Quaker attitudes towards children, particularly "teenage children... a party of young people who were dancing merrily together." The very source he cites (Chalkley) though says only, "the people were fiddling and dancing." "Teenage children" and "young people" were not explicitly mentioned by Chalkley.  Notice also Fischer describes Chalkley as expressing "sadistic satisfaction." "Sadistic" is quite strong, and a rather unfair word describing Chalkley's motivations. He also maliciously refers to him as an "avenging angel." Further, Fischer's Chalkley stops the party by breaking in on them and demanding if they knew who Luther was. Chalkley though waits till their dance is over and then simply asks them a question.

Context
Thomas Chalkley does not identify his Luther-source, nor was I able to find anything similar to the purported quote in my cursory search of Luther's writings, nor do I think Luther actually said it. I believe though that there is still a context to be presented, or at least some clues as to who may have originally said it.  A basic search of key terms from the quote point to the following similar statement from William Penn:

Dancing is the devil's procession,* and he that entereth into a dance entereth into his procession, the devil is the guide, the middle, and the end of the dance; as many paces as man maketh in dancing, so many paces doth he make to go to hell..t

* La bal es la proces. del diavol, e qui intra en la bal, c.
t Sp. Alm. fol. 50-54.

This rendering by Penn is striking similar to that presented by Chalkley. Penn isn't claiming these words are his (or Luther's). He says he is presenting "the judgment and practice of the most christian times; as also of eminent writers, both ancient and modern." While Penn mentions Luther a few times, he doesn't in the immediate context, and neither of the sources appear to refer to Luther's writings. The first reference "*" appears to be referring to The Tenth Article of The Ancient Discipline of the Evangelical Churches in the Valley's of Piemont.  I'm not exactly sure what "Sp. Alm. fol. 50-54" refers to, but I've never come across such a reference to one of Luther's writings. Note also that a version of the quote can be found in the Tenth Article of the Ancient Discipline:

It is possible Chalkley utilized Penn. Penn's book would have popularly preceded the publication of Chalkley's Journal (as well as the journal date of 1721). Chalkley also refers to Penn a few times in his journal. Chalkley is simply writing a journal entry, not an exposition, essay, or documented text. While he misattributes the quote to Luther, it appear more as a simple error of memory.  The quote appears to have a murky history, so if Chalkley did not utilize Penn, he could have gotten it from a few different places. For instance, others have said of this quote:

Jean Paul Perrin published his History of the Waldenses in 1624, and it went through many editions. His use of the quote can be found here. It's much more probable that Chalkley was quoting either Perrin or Penn and simply misattributed the quote to Luther. If the story is true, it certainly demonstrates that whomever this group of dancing people were, Luther's name commanded respect and authority, even if the person utilizing it was an unknown stranger proselytizing for the Quakers.


Conclusion

An examination of this quote reveals a strong dose of Internet propaganda. First, what's presented is a poorly documented obfuscation not only from this particular philosopher, but also from the modern source this quote was taken from (David Hackett Fischer, Albion's Seed). Second, this quote is probably not from Luther. Even if Luther did say it somewhere, it pre-dates him as coming from at least the Waldensians, so he was either citing an earlier source or was himself borrowing it without attribution. Third, the Rockford University philosopher provided no meaningful documentation or argumentation that Luther's view of either dancing or education was inferior to John Locke. Luther certainly wrote about education, and these writings are readily available to anyone with access to a good college library.

Back in 2015 I put up an entry that delved into Luther and dancing. Luther was not against the concept of dancing, but rather inappropriate dancing. For instance, he complained to his wife in a letter about a dance that has "started to bare women and maidens in front and back" (LW 50:279). Elsewhere in a sermon he lamented of his hearers:

“Sober” means that we should not overload the body, and it applies to excess in outward gestures, clothing, ornament, or whatever kind of pomp it may be, such as we have at baptisms and the churching of women. There is no moderation in these things. When there is a wedding or a dance you always have to go to excess. Christmas and Pentecost mean nothing but beer. Christians should not walk around so bedizened that one hardly knows whether one is looking at a man or a beast. We Christians ought to be examples. (LW 51:296)

In fairness to the Albion's Seed reviewer and David Hackett Fischer, their point was not about Luther, but rather Quaker attitudes about children (even though the source they mis-cite doesn't say anything about children in the tale being reported). By the time the quote made it on to the radar of the Rockford University philosopher, what started out as a point about Quaker children became entirely about Luther, and also an opportunity for others in the comment box to say, "Yes, absolutely Luther was a repugnant figure" that "broke the chokehold of the Catholic Church over European society, triggering the long, often horrifically bloody chain of events that led to the secular liberalism of the Enlightenment."

Luther is also contrasted with John Locke who held "dancing first as an essential element of a child’s formal instruction." A link is given to the philosopher's video presentation of the Locke / Luther comparison (his "explication"), but one has wait until part three to finally get to Locke's views on dancing. These videos appear to predate the discovery of the bogus Luther quote, so there is no contrasting of the two views done in the videos, only a brief presentation of Locke's position.

There is no rational ground to cross Luther off the "party-invitation list." Rather, the quote and commentary are typical of Internet propaganda and ignorance, this time not perpetuated by someone posting anonymously on a discussion forum, but rather by someone with a Ph.D in philosophy.

Addendum 
I did leave a comment on the Stephen Hicks website:

• James Swan

  January 24, 2018 at 12:21 pm

  Permalink

  I looked up the documentation you provided for the quote. The documentation you gave is to a review of the book, Albion’s Seed. The author of that book (David Hackett Fischer) cites the quote via the Journal of Thomas Chalkley (1675-1741). Chalkley doesn’t cite a source, and appears to be in error in attributing the quote to Luther. Versions of the quote pre-date Luther. Further, David Hackett Fischer not only mis-cited Chalkley at this point in his book in regard to the story in which this Luther quote appears, he also engaged in a blatant poisoning of the well in regard to the character of Chalkley.

  I would hold off on crossing Luther off your next party list. Luther was not a Quaker like Chalkley. Luther was not against the concept of dancing, but rather inappropriate dancing. Luther loved to have a drink, had rather colorful (and at times crude) language, had a sense of humor, could tell a story, and was otherwise beloved by family and friends with a larger-than-life personality. Of course, Luther had serious flaws as well, including his anti-Semitism, but so did the bulk of 16th Century western culture. I’m sure we could also scrutinize John Locke and find reasons to scratch him off the party list as well, for as clear of thinker Locke was, I’m sure we could find ways in which he was infected by the culture of his day, for instance, slavery.
• 

  Stephen HicksPost author

  January 24, 2018 at 3:26 pm

  Permalink

  Thanks for the follow-up research, James.

Luther: “The Gospel today finds adherents who are convinced that there is nothing except a doctrine that serves to fill their bellies and give free reign to all their impulses”

Here's a Martin Luther-related excerpt that appeared on the Catholic Answers Forums:

Luther himself recognized the devastating effects of such admittedly insincere preaching: “The Gospel today finds adherents who are convinced that there is nothing except a doctrine that serves to fill their bellies and give free reign to all their impulses” (Werke, 33, p. 2, in ibid., p. 212).

This is one of those quotes that I categorically classify as "Did Luther Regret the Reformation?" They are typically posted by those dedicated to defending the Roman church. Historically, such "shock" quotes served as propaganda used by pre-1930 Roman Catholic controversialists. Those writers put forth the conclusion that the Reformation was a failure: it didn't produce any real fruit, and Luther's own words and the state of Protestantism at the time prove it. The argument goes: Protestantism isn't a movement of the church. It is the result of heresy, and heresy never leads anyone to true holiness. Then statements are typically brought forth from Luther's career, indicting him of regret for starting the Reformation. Most of these pre-1930 books had fallen into obscurity, but with the arrival of the information explosion brought forth by the Internet, these quotes made a comeback. It's not at all uncommon to visit discussion forums like Catholic Answers and find these "regret" quotes taking center-stage. Let's take a look at this quote and see if Luther was really admitting to the "devastating effects" of his "insincere preaching."

Plagiarism
The person who posted the quote provides obscure documentation (Werke, 33, p. 2, in ibid., p. 212). Such obscurity usually indicates that the material was not taken from an actual straight reading of text written by Luther. This person also stated,

I am a convert from Protestantism who used to idolize Luther until I read his writings (eventually). Before, and while undertaking my doctorate (early music history + performance), I had learned to read primary sources, this is what also lead me to the Catholic Church - the Apostolic Fathers + St Augustine + Aquinas. Today many people will watch a movie about Luther and think they are well informed about him.

I do question the validity of this testimony of learning, especially the claim of reading Luther's writings and the ability to read primary sources to form opinions. Of the two posts of Luther material this person presented in this discussion (#1, #2), neither demonstrates a straight reading of Luther. The material was probably taken from a few web-pages, then cut-and pasted over on to the Catholic Answers discussion forum. I suspect this page, this page, and perhaps this page was utilized. Unless the person posting this material on Catholic Answers wrote these links, much of the content presented is blatant plagiarism. For this quote particularly, this web-page appears to be that which was plagiarized.

Even if he (she?) did compose this web page (or one of the others), I still doubt any of the material came from a straight reading (or "studying") of the "primary sources" for Luther. Some of what was posted was directly plagiarized from Father Patrick O'Hare's, The Facts about Luther. This quote appears to have been plagiarized from this webpage that presents an article written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira entitled, Luther Thought He Was Divine! It appears the article was "originally published in the Folha de S.Paulo, on January 10, 1984," so it's probable that the article was not originally in English. This version  provides information about the author, and we can safely rule out the person at Catholic Answers being Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: he died in 1992.  The original article presents the quote in the exact form with one exception: the documentation. The Catholic Answers participant provided, "Werke, 33, p. 2, in ibid., p. 212."  Some versions of the article say rather, " Werke, XXXIII, p. 2; Franca, p. 440." I did locate a Portuguese version of the article that uses "'Werke', ed. de Weimar, 33, p. 2 – cfr. po. cit., p. 212" on the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira website along with an English version using p. 440. Whatever page is meant, the confusion seems to be with whoever originally translated de Oliveira's article.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira did attempt to accurately document the quote. For his article, he states: "I will cite excerpts from the work of Fr. Leonel Franca SJ titled The Church, the Reform and Civilization (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civilizacão Brasileira, 3rd ed., 1934, 558 pages)." Notice that de Oliveira didn't actually reference Luther when the article was composed back in 1984, he borrowed from someone else. Here is page 212 and pages 440 of  the 1958 edition of Franca's book, A igreja, a reforma e a civilização. I suspect the 1934 version was reworked and expanded, because the quote actually appears on page 197 in the 1958 edition:

The sentence in question reads, "Evangelho hoje em dia encontra aderentes que se persuadem não ser ele senão uma doutrina que serve para encher o ventre e dar larga a todos os caprichos." with the documentation, "Weimar, XXXIII, 2." It appears that the English version floating around the Internet was de Oliveira's translation of Franca's Portuguese (and that Portuguese was perhaps a translation of German sources).  I'm not sure if  Franca mined this quote himself, or took it from Denifle, Döllinger, or some other earlier source. He cites a number of  pre-1930 Roman Catholic controversialists throughout his book. 

Documentation

All parties typically cite either "Werke, 33, p. 2" or "Weimar, XXXIII, 2." This page can  be found here. The text reads: 

This text is from Luther's sermon / commentary on John 6:26. It has been translated into English. The quote in question can be found in LW 23:5. Luther preached on John 6-8 between November 5, 1530 and March 9, 1532 (LW 23:5).

Context

In this text we hear Jesus tell the Jews why they are following Him, namely, not because of His miracles and His teaching but for the sake of their miserable bellies, which they held so dear. For they reasoned: “He is a proper Teacher for us. He will provide us with a physical freedom in which each will be sated and satisfied and enabled to gratify his every wish.” The Lord wants to indicate what sort of disciples the teaching of the Gospel attracts. Even today the Gospel finds disciples who imagine that its teaching affords nothing but a gratification of the belly, that it brings all manner of earthly delights, and that it serves solely the wants of this temporal life. (LW23:5)

Conclusion
Luther does go on to to further lament that people insincerely hear sermons: "Among princes, counts, noblemen and magistrates, town people and country folk, it is quite common to regard the Gospel as a belly sermon." He says this tendency is across the board, from noblemen to country folk, and that it also includes "Our adversaries, too, are proficient in this skill. They can grab for ecclesiastical property, for cloisters and bishoprics (LW 23:6). Luther says to this situation:

Since our Head, Christ the Lord, experienced this, why should we complain if we have disciples who allege that Christ came into the world solely for the sake of our physical well-being? The day will come when Christ will punish such disciples, saying: “This is not what is meant. I preach about a spiritual eating, about spiritual food; I seek the glory of God.” Since He does not confirm them in their idolatrous devotion but upholds the honor of God, His preaching falls on deaf ears. And we fare the same way today (LW 23:7).

Luther also goes on to point out that within a congregation, there would be people in attendance for the wrong reasons:

Well, a preacher must derive what comfort he can from the fact that sows and dogs will be among the hearers wherever the Gospel is preached; it will not be otherwise. These seek nothing else in the Gospel than their own gratification. And if you have this experience, why do you grieve over it so? You are no better than the Lord Christ. If this is the way He fared, you cannot expect to fare differently. There will come a day of reckoning (LW 23:8).

There is nothing in the context of this sermon in which "Luther himself recognized the devastating effects of such admittedly insincere preaching." The context demonstrates rather that Luther was well aware that just as people followed Christ for the wrong reasons in the first century, so also in the sixteenth century. I highly doubt that Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira,  Fr. Leonel Franca, and even the person over on the Catholic Answers discussion forum would be willing to follow their argument to its logical conclusion:  If Luther's preaching was "insincere" because some people took the Gospel message to "fill their bellies and give free reign to all their impulses," so also did the ministry of Jesus attract some of the same kind of people.

Luther: As for his evangelical followers, Luther added that “they are seven times worse than they were before."

Here's a Martin Luther-related excerpt that appeared on the Catholic Answers Forums:

As for his evangelical followers, Luther added that “they are seven times worse than they were before. After preaching our doctrine, men have given themselves over to stealing, lying, trickery, debauchery, drunkenness, and every kind of vice. We have expelled one devil (the papacy) and seven worse have entered.” (Werke, 28, p. 763, in ibid., p. 440).

This is one of those quotes that I categorically classify as "Did Luther Regret the Reformation?" They are typically posted by those dedicated to defending the Roman church. Historically, such "shock" quotes served as propaganda used by pre-1930 Roman Catholic controversialists. Those writers put forth the conclusion that the Reformation was a failure: it didn't produce any real fruit, and Luther's own words and the state of Protestantism at the time prove it. The argument goes: Protestantism isn't a movement of the church. It is the result of heresy, and heresy never leads anyone to true holiness. Then statements are typically brought forth from Luther's career, indicting him of regret for starting the Reformation. Most of these pre-1930 books had fallen into obscurity, but with the arrival of the information explosion brought forth by the Internet, these quotes made a comeback. It's not at all uncommon to visit discussion forums like Catholic Answers and find these "regret" quotes taking center-stage. Let's take a look at this quote and see if Luther was really admitting all of his followers
became severely morally bankrupt ("seven times worse") due to his influence.

Plagiarism
The person who posted the quote provides obscure documentation ("Werke, 28, p. 763, in ibid., p. 440"). Such obscurity often indicates that the material was not taken from an actual straight reading of text written by Luther. This person also stated,

I am a convert from Protestantism who used to idolize Luther until I read his writings (eventually). Before, and while undertaking my doctorate (early music history + performance), I had learned to read primary sources, this is what also lead me to the Catholic Church - the Apostolic Fathers + St Augustine + Aquinas. Today many people will watch a movie about Luther and think they are well informed about him.

I do question the validity of this testimony of learning, especially the claim of reading Luther's writings and the ability to read primary sources to form opinions. Of the two posts of Luther material this person presented in this discussion (#1, #2), neither demonstrates a straight reading of Luther. The material was probably taken from a few web-pages, then cut-and pasted over on to the Catholic Answers discussion forum. I suspect this page, this page, and perhaps this page was utilized. Unless the person posting this material on Catholic Answers wrote these links, much of the content presented is blatant plagiarism. For this quote particularly, this web-page appears to be that which was directly plagiarized.

Even if he (she?) did compose this web page (or one of the others), I still doubt any of the material came from a straight reading (or "studying") of the "primary sources" for Luther. Some of what was posted was directly plagiarized from Father Patrick O'Hare's, The Facts about Luther. This quote appears to have been plagiarized from this webpage that presents an article written by Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira entitled, Luther Thought He Was Divine! It appears this article was "originally published in the Folha de S.Paulo, on January 10, 1984," so it's probable that the article was not originally in English. This version  provides information about the author, and we can safely rule out the person at Catholic Answers being Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: he died in 1992.  This version of the article presents the quote in a very similar form with a few exceptions:

And Luther added, regarding his evangelical henchmen, that “they are seven times worse than they were before. After the preaching of our doctrine men have given themselves up to robbery, lying, imposture, debauchery, drunkenness, and every kind of vice. We have expelled one devil (the papacy), and seven worse ones have come in” (Werke, XXVIII, p. 763; Franca, p. 441).

Notice the opening begins with the inflammatory, "And Luther added, regarding his evangelical henchmen.." rather than "As for his evangelical followers.." There are some other minor word variances as well ( "robbery" "imposture").  There's also some confusion in the documentation. Some of the versions say  "in ibid., p. 440" others say "Franca, p. 441." I did locate a Portuguese version of the article that uses p. 440 (on the Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira website) along with an English version using p. 440.

Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira did attempt to accurately document his source for his article. He states: "I will cite excerpts from the work of Fr. Leonel Franca SJ titled The Church, the Reform and Civilization (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Civilizacão Brasileira, 3rd ed., 1934, 558 pages)." Notice that de Oliveira didn't actually reference Luther's writings when the article was composed back in 1984, he borrowed from someone else. Here is page 440  and 441 of  the 1958 edition of Franca's book, A igreja, a reforma e a civilização. I suspect the 1934 version was reworked and expanded, because the quote actually appears on page 390 in the 1958 edition (and the 1948 edition):

Documentation
The secondary reference, "in ibid., p. 440" refers to Fr. Leonel Franca,  A igreja, a reforma e a civilização, 1934 edition, page 440 (see above). The primary reference being used is "Werke, 28, p. 763." This refers to volume 28 of the Weimar edition of Luther's works. Here is WA 28:763. The text reads,

The text being cited is from Luther's comments on Deuteronomy 9:25 from a 1529 sermon. It can also be found in Walch III, 2727.To my knowledge, the complete context this paragraph comes from has yet to be translated into an official English version of Luther's Works. 

Context

Some years back I came across an English translation of paragraph 49 from Walch III, 2727.

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.

Conclusion
The above translation of this obscure quote is from an old book, Luther Vindicated by Charles Hastings Collette. Collette's book is fascinating. He similarly examines obscure out-of-context Luther quotes and offers corrections and contexts. It wasn't Roman Catholics he defended Luther against, rather, the culprit was the Rev. Sabine Baring-Gould, who, according to Collette was "a professed Minister of the (Reformed) Established Church of England." Interestingly, Baring-Gould appears to have gathered some of his Luther material from Roman Catholic sources, and was part of a group sympathetic to Rome. Of this group, Collette states, "These gentlemen sigh for pre-Reformation days when the priest ruled and the sacramental system flourished, to the glorification of the priest, and ignorance, superstition, thraldom, and degradation of the people" (p.6). If this link is about the Sabine Baring-Gould in question (which I think it is), he's 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.

Addendum
This is an oft-used obscure Luther quote. I've gone over it a number of times. Rome's defenders seem to think that Luther was so deluded that he continued to preach the gospel for decades, without any positive results. In their minds, this must be a telling sign that Luther proclaimed a false gospel. In actuality, Luther consistently held that the gospel would find great opposition, and would be attacked from all sides, including within. The gospel would be used by the world as a licence to sin and all sorts of evil because of Satan. The gospel would indeed make those of the world worse. There would also be false converts and people that followed the gospel for the wrong reasons. Luther was well aware that just as people followed Christ for the wrong reasons in the first century, so to in the sixteenth century.

Luther wasn't postmillennial. While he was discouraged that the world seemed to be getting worse, his eschatological expectation can be traced back even to the early days of his Reformation work. For Luther, it was the end of the world. Things were indeed going to get worse. The Gospel was going to be fought against by the Devil with all his might. The true church was a tiny flock in a battle against the world, the flesh, and the Devil. He hoped the people would improve with the preaching of the Gospel, he often admitted he knew things were going to get worse because of the Gospel. It's one thing to argue Luther suffered from depression or had a despondency over the state of things, it's quite another to use his words to prove he had a sense of "failure and guilt" over the preaching of the Gospel, or that he was in agony over the Gospel going forth into the world and the trouble he admitted and expected it would cause.

Luther: “Reason is the devil’s whore. Throw dung at her and make her ugly”

Here's one from the Catholic Answers forums:

There are plenty of Luther’s works which demonstrate vile language and an unbalanced mind.

Example - “Reason is the devil’s whore. Throw dung at her and make her ugly.”

This unflattering description of Luther and subsequent quote were not directed to "anti-Catholic" Protestants, but rather to a retired ecumenically-minded Roman Catholic priest participating on the Catholic Answers Forums. This ecumenist had previously described those who vilify Luther as "Catholics of a certain sort who cling to lore that has been rejected and discarded in the modern era." Such interactions are a revealing display of the disunity existing within Roman Catholicism in regard to Luther, the Reformation, and Protestants in general. This retired priest is in the minority on the Catholic Answers forums, for anti-Luther sentiment runs high. It's no wonder that Catholic Answer recently added the following: "DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in these forums do not necessarily reflect those of Catholic Answers."

While I've addressed Luther's quotes about "reason" previously, let's take a fresh look at the quote presented by one of Rome's defenders. Do Luther's comments about reason "demonstrate vile language and an unbalanced mind"? We'll see that in context, they absolutely do not. They demonstrate that in Luther's theology, reason was not rejected outright, it was to be subject to and ruled by faith.

Documentation

No documentation was provided. The quote itself is splattered all over the Internet, often undocumented and often accompanied by other similar statements. I suspect one of the main  sources that popularized this particular version of the quote was Peter F. Wiener's Martin Luther: Hitler's Spiritual Ancestor:

This mythical, mentally unbalanced, diseased character was the hero of the Reformation. His intemperance, his persecution mania, his varying moods, were the origin of his permanent contradictions. There was nothing reasonable in him. Indeed, he admitted himself that he hated reason, and that he was guided merely by his passions, by his violent temper. More than once he condemned in his violent language, reason and a reasonable approach to matters. “Reason is the Devil's greatest whore; by nature and an manner of being she is a noxious whore; she is a prostitute, the Devil's appointed whore; whore eaten by scab and leprosy who ought to be trodden under foot and destroyed, she and her wisdom. . . . Throw dung in her face to make her ugly. She is and she ought to be drowned in baptism. . . . She would deserve, the wretch, to be banished to the filthiest place in the house, to the closets” (E16, 142-148). There are many more sayings in the same sense, though not always so dirtily phrased. “Usury, drunkenness, adultery—these crimes are self-evident and the world knows that they are sinful; but that bride of the Devil, `Reason', stalks abroad, the fair courtesan, and wishes to be considered wise, and thinks that whatever she says comes from the Holy Ghost. She is the most dangerous harlot the Devil has.” “Reason is contrary to faith”, he writes elsewhere. “Reason is the whore of the Devil. It can only blaspheme and dishonour everything God has said or done” (E29, 241) So it goes on and on (Wiener, p. 26).

It does not necessarily follow that simply because Wiener provides a few references, he actually read Luther and mined these quotes out from E16 and E29. Wiener notoriously used hostile secondary sources. Wiener's documentation is highly dubious (He says the reason for his sloppy documentation was the rush job demanded by his publisher). Notice that even for the first quote, it is purported to span 6 pages (142-148). That's a good indication that it's a cobbled together quote from different pages or even different sources. In other words, if you were to search out "E16" you would not find this quote verbatim. You'd have to search for each line by starting on page 142 and work through the text with a highlighter.

Here is E 16, 142 cited by Wiener as the beginning page for the quote in question. The first part of the quote ("Reason is the devil’s whore") can indeed be found on page 142, ("aber des Teufels Braut, ratio, die schöne Metze, fähret herein"):

The second part of the quote, ("Throw dung at her and make her ugly") can be found on page 145 ("wirf ihr ein Dreck ins Angesicht, auf daß sie häßlich werde"). So there's a fair amount of text between these two sentences (approximately five paragraphs!).

These pages are excerpts from the Last Sermon in Wittenberg Luther preached, January 17, 1546.  The sermon can be found in WA 51:123-134 and CL 7:411-417. WA includes the German as well as the German / Latin mix. This sermon has been translated into English: LW 51:371-380. The sermon is based on Romans 12:3, "For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him." One of Luther's main thrusts is to exhort his hearers to live by the pure Word of God, letting it say what it says without trying to use "reason" to make it palatable.

Context

But since we are still confined to this miserable carcass—which in time the worms will devour, though it deserves something worse, to burn in hell eternally—it is necessary constantly to resist and put off the old man and his works and put on the new man, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him [cf. Col. 3:10]. Usury, gluttony, adultery, manslaughter, murder, etc., these can be seen and the world understands that these are sins. But the devil’s bride, reason, the lovely whore comes in and wants to be wise, and what she says, she thinks, is the Holy Spirit. Who can be of any help then? Neither jurist, physician, nor king, nor emperor; for she is the foremost whore the devil has. The other gross sins can be seen, but nobody can control reason. It walks about, cooks up fanaticism [Schwärmerei] with baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and claims that everything that pops into its head and the devil puts into its heart is the Holy Spirit. Therefore Paul says: As I am an apostle and God has given me the Spirit, so I appeal to you [of. Rom. 12:1; 1 Cor. 4:16] (LW 51: 373-374).

Therefore I should stick to the catechism; then I can defend myself against reason when the Anabaptists say, “Baptism is water; how can water do such great things? Pigs and cows drink it. The Spirit must do it.” Don’t you hear, you mangy, leprous whore, you holy reason, what the Scripture says, “Listen to him,” who says, “Go and baptize all nations” [Matt. 28:19], and “He who believes and is baptized [will be saved”]? [Mark 16:16]. It is not merely water, but baptism given in the name of the holy Trinity.

Therefore, see to it that you hold reason in check and do not follow her beautiful cogitations. Throw dirt in her face and make her ugly. Don’t you remember the mystery of the holy Trinity and the blood of Jesus Christ with which you have been washed of your sins? Again, concerning the sacrament, the fanatical antisacramentalists say, “What’s the use of bread and wine? How can God the Almighty give his body in bread?” I wish they had to eat their own dirt. They are so smart that nobody can fool them. If you had one in a mortar and crushed him with seven pestles his foolishness still would not depart from him. Reason is and should be drowned in baptism, and this foolish wisdom will not harm you, if you hear the beloved Son of God saying, “Take, eat; this is my body, which is given for you; this bread which is administered to you, I say, is my body.” If I hear and accept this, then I trample reason and its wisdom under foot and say, “You cursed whore, shut up! Are you trying to seduce me into committing fornication with the devil?” That’s the way reason is purged and made free through the Word of the Son of God (LW 51:376-377)

Conclusion
 Luther didn't reject reason. Rather, it was to be subject to and ruled by faith. For instance, this sentiment is usually left out when the quote in question is cut-and pasted: "Everything should be subject to faith, or rather, the fine gift of conceit should not be wiser than faith. See to it that it is in accord with it" [LW 51:379], "Reason must be subject and obedient to this faith"[LW 51:379]. 

Above I chose only to provide a few of the relevant paragraphs from the sermon. The entire context is worth reading to grasp fully what Luther preached. For the first line of the quote, "the devil’s bride, reason, the lovely whore," reason is that which informs a man that particular theological interpretations are not sin. Luther had in mind the fanatics and their interpretation of the Lord's Supper and baptism. This same thought applies to "Throw dirt in her face and make her ugly." Luther is preaching against the views of the sacramentarians in regard to their "reasonable" interpretations of the Lord's Supper and baptism. LW translates the word "dreck" as "dirt," Wiener (or whomever he took the quote from) translated it as "dung." Both uses are feasible. Luther's intent was probably the later. Luther goes on to say, "I wish they had to eat their own dirt." It appears LW cleaned up the translation!

Because many of Rome's defenders don't bother looking stuff up before they post it, they end up missing the fact that Luther was actually arguing for the literal body and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper, and arguing against those who rejected this. But then again, Luther says in the same sermon that "reason" left unchecked thinks that Mary, "the holy mother of Christ" should be honored and is also an intercessor, "That’s the kind of thing this comely bride, the wisdom of reason cooks up: Mary is the mother of Christ, surely Christ will listen to her" (LW 51:375).