No sober quarrel over removing images; Luther would rather not set them in the temple
No quarrel worth the name has been raised by the Leipzigers, the Rinteln men, or other more sober Lutherans over the images the Reformed have taken down. In most of those churches none appear either.
Luther himself long ago judged it more useful that none stand on altars or in temples — whatever he blamed in the hotheaded iconoclasts first led on by Karlstadt without the magistrate's authority.
"Otherwise," he says, "I do not greatly love images, and I would rather they were not set up in the temple" (Annotations on Deuteronomy, Jena Latin, vol. III, fol. 99).
Wittenberg and Giessen theologians, Nic. Palladius of Copenhagen, David Chytraeus, Martin Chemnitz, and others felt the same. Massonius gathers the testimonies against Matth. Hoe (Universal Anatomy of Germany, Part III, from p. 404).
Latin
NULLA de summotis inter Reformatos Imaginibus, lis mota à Lipsiacis, vel Rintelensibus nec cordatioribus aliis inter Lutheranos. Nullae etiam apparent in plurimis eorum Ecclesiis. Utilius etiam esse, nullas in Altaribus aut Templis collocari, pridem Lutherus statuit, quicquid impetuosos Iconoclastas inductu primo Carolostadii, nulla auctoritate Magistratus, improbaret: Alias, ego (inquit) Imagines non admodum amo, & vellem in Templo non statui, Annot. in Deuter. T. III. Jen. Lat. fol. 99. Idem senserunt Theologi Wittenbergenses, Giessenses, Nic. Palladius Hafniensis Theologus, Dav. Chytraeus, Mart. Chemnitius, &c. Testimonia videsis apud Christoph. Massonium, Anat. Universalis German. contra Matth. Hoë, P. III. à pag. 404.