He concluded that "although the tares hinder the wheat, yet they make it the more beautiful to behold". Several years later, however, Luther emphasized that the magistrates should eliminate heretics: "The magistrate bears the sword with the command to cut off offense. ... Now the most dangerous and atrocious offense is false teaching and an incorrect church service." Ironically, the Catholic Church considered Martin Luther and the rest of the Protestant Reformers to be heretics themselves.
