Luther Part Two

In the second part of On Secular Authority Luther deals with the extent to which the secular sword has authority. He rightly says that secular law does not have the authority to command people's hearts; that is to say, tell people what to believe and what not to believe. He says that secular authority can only command outward obedience and thus should be used to command outward obedience with moral standards. He introduces the idea that it is permissible to disobey secular authority when they try to impose their authority on the realm of Spiritual authority.