to God’s rule by the law, the magistrate and the sword. Later Lutheran tradition made this distinction into a rigid dichotomy between the sacred and secular, spiritual and political realms; and whereas Luther himself was clear that both realms were subject to God, although in different ways, in the course of time Lutheranism bred a piety that tended to confine one’s godly duty to the spiritual and churchly sphere, leaving the public and civic sphere to the unexamined governance of the secular powers