portrait of Martin Luther by Lucas Cranach the Elder courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, public domain
“There is no compassion to be had for these women; I would burn all of them myself,” Martin Luther who “inveighed against love philters and incantations, the Devil’s whores”
If ever lived a man who did require
a love-philter, no romantic desire, just
rapport with womankind, Martin Luther
sure comes to mind. A man whose only lust
was for the stake, torturing devil’s whores
until the silence breaks, maybe a limb
until they could not stand then barrel for
immolating incantations within
white oak, freckled skin of not just witches
but “these women” who should burn without
empathy; Lutherans learn, Leviticus
that priests may, with stones, cast criminals out.
Left monastery, according to Voltaire,
only to convey its cloisters everywhere.
