Luther: “When I was a child there were many witches, and they bewitched both cattle and men, especially children.”

In an attempt to link Reformation day and Halloween, Here's a Martin Luther quote that appeared on the CARM discussion boards:

“When I was a child there were many witches, and they bewitched both cattle and men, especially children.”

This quote appears to have been posted by someone with sympathies to the Mormon church (see my previous entry for documentation and details). This LDS detractor stated, "...if you wanna talk about Luther, the founder of the Reformation, he certainly believed that demons were responsible for all kinds of stuff that most today would call wacky superstition." This wasn't an isolated usage. There are a number of web-pages using this quote, often posting it without any commentary, I assume, simply for its "shock" value. There are though some rather curious occurrences, For instance,  the author of this odd PDF entitled, "Luther, The Deranged Theologian" uses the quote (and a number of other quotes) to show it's, "quite obvious that we are not looking at a rational man." In an article on linking Satan and flies, former fundamentalist Edward Babinski cites the quote as proof Luther believed Satan uses and possess animals. 

Let's take a look at this quote and see what's going on. Frankly, if the quote is legitimate, I'm not sure why the quote would shock anybody. Witches (and their powers) were a common belief of people in The 16th Century. 

Documentation

There are a few different English versions of the quote. "When I was a child there were many witches, and they bewitched both cattle and men, especially children," appears to be a variant of something at least as old as 1856: "When I was a child there were many witches, who bewitched both cattle and men, especially children." I suspect this is a variant of a version at least as old as 1801: "When I was a child there were many witches and sorcerers, who bewitched both cattle and men, but especially children, and did great harm also otherwise."

Many web-pages provide no documentation for this quote.  However, there are a few that mention the quote is from Luther's Commentary on Galatians, which is correct. The quote can be found in  WA 40 (2): 112-113. The text reads, 

There's actually two different texts going on here. The basis of the English quote is the Latin text reading, "Frequens fuit vitium his nostris temporibus ante revelatum Euangelium. Me puero multae erant Veneficae, quae pecora et homines, praecipue pueros, incantabant. Item nocebant  segetibus per tempestates et grandines, quas suis Veneficiis excitabant." Then, there is a Latin / German mixed  text. In English,  the quote can be found in Luther's comments on Galatians 5 ( LW 27:89). LW 27 translates it as, "When I was a boy, there were many witches who cast spells upon cattle and upon people, especially children. They also damaged the crops through storms and hail, which they caused by their sorcery." There are older English versions available online, full view (1801, 1860). The context below uses an English version from 1860.

Context

Of witchcraft I have spoken before, in the third chapter. This vice was very common in these our days, before the light and truth of the gospel was revealed. When I was a child, there were many witches and sorcerers, which bewitched both cattle and men, but specially children, and did great harm also otherwise; but now, in the light of the gospel, these things be not so commonly heard of, for the gospel thrusteth the devil out of his seat, with all his illusions. But now he bewitcheth men much more horribly, namely, with spiritual sorcery and witchcraft.

Paul reckoneth witchcraft among the works of the flesh, which notwithstanding, as all men know, is not a work of fleshly lust or lechery, but a kind of idolatry. For witchcraft covenanteth with the devil; superstition or idolatry covenanteth with God: albeit, not with the true God, but with a counterfeit god. Wherefore idolatry is, indeed, a spiritual witchcraft. For as witches do enchant cattle and men, so idolaters, that is to say, all justiciaries, or justifiers of themselves, go about to bewitch God,and to make him such a one as they do imagine. Now they imagine him to be such a one as will justify them, not of his mere grace and mercy, and through faith in Christ, but in respect of their will-worshippings, and works of their own choosing, and in recompense thereof will give them righteousness and life everlasting. But whilst they go about to bewitch God, they bewitch themselves; for if they continue in this wicked opinion which they conceive of God, they shall die in their idolatry and be damned. The works of the flesh are well known for the most part, therefore they shall not need any further declaration. (source)

Conclusion

In context, Luther admits to the reality of witches and witchcraft. He observes they could "cast spells upon cattle and upon people, especially children," and "they also damaged the crops through storms and hail" (LW 27:90). He then says "Now that the Gospel has been revealed, such things are unheard of, because the gospel drives the devil and all his allusions from their seat of power (LW 27:90). Luther then switches the subject to sorcery, in which the Devil casts a spiritual spell making men want to be justified by works rather than by "mere grace and faith in Christ" (LW 27:90). Luther also mentions he dealt with the subject of witchcraft in his comments on Galatians 3. Commenting on "Who has bewitched you so that you do not obey the truth," Luther states,

The reason Paul calls the Galatians foolish and bewitched is that he compares them to children, to whom witchcraft does a great deal of harm. It is as though he were saying: “What is happening to you is precisely what happens to children, whom witches, sorceresses, and hags usually charm quickly and easily with their bewitchment, a trick of Satan.” Paul does not deny that witchcraft exists and is possible; for later on, in the fifth chapter (v. 20), he also lists “sorcery,” which is the same as witchcraft, among the works of the flesh. Thereby he proves that witchcraft and sorcery exist and are possible. For it is undeniable that the devil lives, yes, rules, in all the world. Therefore witchcraft and sorcery are works of the devil, by which he not only injures people but sometimes, with God’s permission, destroys them. But we are all subject to the devil, both according to our bodies and according to our material possessions. We are guests in the world, of which he is the ruler (John 16:11) and the god (2 Cor. 4:4). Therefore the bread we eat, the drinks we drink, the clothes we wear—in fact, the air and everything we live on in the flesh—are under his reign. Through his witches, therefore, he is able to do harm to children, to give them heart trouble, to blind them, to steal them, or even to remove a child completely and put himself into the cradle in place of the stolen child. I have heard that in Saxony there was such a boy. He was suckled by five women and still could not be satisfied. There are many similar instances.

Therefore witchcraft is nothing but an artifice and illusion of the devil, whether he cripples a part of the body or touches the body or takes it away altogether. He can do this uncommonly well, even in the case of old people. No wonder, then, that he bewitches children this way. Nevertheless, this is nothing but some sort of illusion; for they say that he is able to heal what he has crippled with his wiles. But he heals by restoring an eye or some other injured part of the body—not that it had really been injured; but the senses of those whom he has bewitched, as well as of others who looked at the bewitched, were so deluded that they did not regard it as an illusion but supposed that it was a genuine injury. But since he removes the injury in due time, it is evident that it was merely an illusion, not a genuine injury; for a genuine injury cannot be healed or restored. (LW 26:189-190)

It's true, the world Luther lived in believed in things that many today would call "wacky superstition." Yes, Luther believed in witches and sorcerers, and believed they had supernatural powers; that was what people believed in the sixteenth century, so why anyone would find this aspect of Luther shocking or disturbing indicates historical anachronism and bias at best, and stupidity at worst. I find it ironic that there are people today who claim to be witches and to have the ability to redirect energy  or cast hexes. The power Luther attributed to witches certainly was over-the-top, rationally explained as being the product of myth and hearsay.  But on a fundamental level, that he believed in the existence of witches and witchcraft is not much different than many modern people in the world today.