Luther conflated the Pope and the Turk as twin Anti-Christs despite thin resemblance

Evidence

Luther constantly named the Pope and the Turk together, though rather arbitrarily, since he did not usually insist on specific points of resemblance: Turca et Papa tn forma religionis nihil differunt aut variant, nisi in ceremoniis. The one corrupted the ritual of the Old, the other that of the New Testament. Luther seems to have feared a coalition of his enemies, ‘an alliance of the Papists with the Turk … for unbelievable is the malice of Satan’. — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2438 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Luther, like many other Protestant reformers, invoked negative images of Islam not only to garner support for a war against the Turks but also to attack his opponents. … Luther was quite fond of tarring both Islam and Catholicism with the same brush. He often used the language of the “Antichrist” when referring to both Muhammad and the pope, though eventually he concluded that the title was more deserving of the pope. Still, Muhammad and the pope were two sides of the same coin: — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 154 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Luther and the Reformers saw the Turk as a sharper Antichrist than the Pope; Luther equated the Papacy and Islam as the twin corrupters of Christian ritual — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2438; Luther weaponized images of Islam to attack Catholicism as well as Turks — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 154 (+16 more)

Related

• Luther and the Reformers saw the Turk as a sharper Antichrist than the Pope (similarity 0.97)
• Luther equated the Papacy and Islam as the twin corrupters of Christian ritual (similarity 0.91)
• Anti-papal writers dated the rise of pope and prophet to the same moment (similarity 0.90)
• Luther weaponized images of Islam to attack Catholicism as well as Turks (similarity 0.90)
• The Reformation reframed Islam as a fellow schism against papal authority (similarity 0.89)
• Sixteenth-century Catholics equated Luther’s reforms with the Turkish threat (similarity 0.86)
• Luther considered the Vatican a greater enemy than Islam (similarity 0.84)
• Luther portrayed Islam as a faith that spreads only by violence (similarity 0.84)
• Luther classed Muslims with Jews and Catholics as rejecting justification by faith (similarity 0.83)
• Protestant apologists drew forced parallels between Islam and Lutheranism (similarity 0.82)
• Protestant-Catholic-Islamic parallels in polemic relied on incredibly thin points (similarity 0.82)
• In colonial America, many Protestants associated Islam and Catholicism with the Antichrist. Indeed, Prideaux related the rise of Muhammad and the bishop of Rome’s claim to reign over all churches.… (similarity 0.82)
• Polemicists compared the Pope to Muhammad via the number of the Beast (similarity 0.81)
• Early Protestant polemicists linked Islam with Catholicism and Judaism as apocalyptic rivals. (similarity 0.81)
• Renaissance polemicists computed the number 666 from Muhammad’s and the Pope’s names (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Luther equated the Papacy and Islam as the twin corrupters of Christian ritual #corroborates (0.95) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2438
• Luther weaponized images of Islam to attack Catholicism as well as Turks #expands (0.90) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 154
• Protestant-Catholic-Islamic parallels in polemic relied on incredibly thin points #corroborates (0.90)
• Thirteenth-century anti-Islamic polemics were still recycled by Luther and later eras #expands (0.85) — John V. Tolan, Saracens, 63
• In colonial America, many Protestants associated Islam and Catholicism with the Antichrist. Indeed, Prideaux related the rise of Muhammad and the bishop of Rome’s claim to reign over all churches.… #exemplifies (0.85)
• Prideaux related the rise of Muhammad and the bishop of Rome’s claim to reign over all churches. Hence, the Antichrist seems at this time to have set both his Feet upon Christendom together, the… #exemplifies (0.85)
• Colonial Protestants yoked Islam and Catholicism together as twin Antichrist powers #exemplifies (0.82)
• Protestant apologists drew forced parallels between Islam and Lutheranism #exemplifies (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2438
• Sixteenth-century Catholics equated Luther’s reforms with the Turkish threat #exemplifies (0.80) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 156
• Anti-papal writers dated the rise of pope and prophet to the same moment #corroborates (0.80)
• The Crusades introduced the figure of Muhammad as the anti-Christ into European thought #expands (0.80) — Chris Allen, Islamophobia, 179
• Renaissance polemicists computed the number 666 from Muhammad’s and the Pope’s names #exemplifies (0.80)
• Polemicists compared the Pope to Muhammad via the number of the Beast #exemplifies (0.80) — Norman Daniel, Islam and the West, 2439
• Luther classed Muslims with Jews and Catholics as rejecting justification by faith #expands (0.78) — Green, Todd H, The Fear of Islam_ An Introduction to…, 150
• Luther considered the Vatican a greater enemy than Islam #exemplifies (0.75) — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 80