I'm reading MacCulloch's The Reformation and after focusing on him for awhile, it just sort of mentions his death in passing.
So, how was he viewed by both Protestants (Lutherans and others) and Roman Catholics, royalty, clergy/priests/bishops, and "regular" people?
Particularly, how was he viewed later in life when he got to be...pretty insulting? And after his death?
Examples:
For you know that everybody realized how you treat your worthy spouse - not only like an utterly mad brute and drunkard, but also like a senseless raving tyrant, who daily and hourly gorges and fills himself up, not with wine, but with the devil, like Judas at the Last Supper. Out of your whole body, in all you do and are, you simply spew out the devil, with blaspheming, cursing, lying, committing adultery, raving, flaying, murdering, setting fires, etc., so that one cannot find your like in history.
You think like this, "As I am a crude ass, and do not read the books, so there is no one in the world who reads them; rather, when I let my braying heehaw, heehaw resound, or even let out a donkey's fart, then everyone will have to consider it pure truth."
I'm not sure how valid this source is to the mods, but I'm getting most of my info from the PBS documentary "Reluctant Revolutionary" from their Empire series, which is available for free on Youtube (legally, of course, PBS put it out there.) Also "Christianity: The a First Three Thousand Years" by Diarmaid MacCulloch
There seem to be two general responces to Luther, that of Southern Europe and Northern Europe.
In Southern Europe, because in Luther was directly attacking the wealth and decadence that many high ranking church officials enjoyed during this time (the most famous example being Alexander VI, the Borgia pope) This did not earn him much favor in Rome, especially since Luther's words could be incredibly rude. The pope at the time, Leo X, would soon excommunicate him. Other catholic rulers, such as Catherine of Aragon (wife to Henry VIII), agreed with Luther that reform was needed, but not to the extent that Luther was taking. The Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, though he ruled over large parts of Germany that were joining with Luther's cause, was also the ruler of Spain and therefore a strong catholic. But Most catholic leaders in Southern Europe viewed him as heretical and seditious, because he implied that the ordinary man could have a more active role in the church life. This idea would ultimately come to shape when Luther would translate the bible to German.
In the North however, Luther was viewed a lot more positively. The reason why Luther had originally been not handed over to the church was because he was under the protection of the ruler of Saxony, Frederick the Wise. Many German rulers had grown weary of the interference of the Church in their lands, and sought to take back what was there's, wether that be money or land. But it was with the peasantry that Luther's writings had hit the hardest. It is recorded that as Luther made his way to the Diet of Worms, long trails of peasants would follow his cart encouraging the man, and when he reached the city, he was greeted by massive crowds cheering him and treating him like a saint. Luther's words were so inspiring that German Peasant's War in 1524-1525 erupted (though Luther himself would disagreed strongly with the peasant's cause.)
Luther's an amazing and complicated figure in our history, so it would be hard to type it all in a reddit post, but here are a few general things
In their funeral sermons, and writings around the time of his death, many of his contemporaries (Luther's pastor Johannes Bugenhagen, and his colleagues Philip Melanchthon, and student Justus Jonas) considered him a prophet, sometimes an end-times prophet. They acknowledged he was sharp of tongue, and had a hard temper, but they always respected his grasp of the situation in Germany and understanding of Law and Gospel.
While not considered a "systematic" theologian like Melanchthon or Calvin, his work was highly respected and was esteemed very highly. In particular his translations of the Bible, his writings on the Psalms, the Freedom of a Christian, the Bondage of the Will, and his Catechisms were considered early on to be masterpieces of Christian writing.
Some individual decisions were deeply questioned, like when he argued that secular authorities had the ability to burn heretics. His student Brenz took him to task on this, and went so far as to call him a hypocrite and inconsistent in his theology on this case. Brenz was right, and I think Luther eventually acknowledged it. Many would take him to task for his writings on the Peasant Wars. They did this with good and bad reasons. On the bad side, mostly the ranters/enthusiasts who led the revolts and thought he was a traitor for not doing things that they alone advocated and Luther never encouraged, and the landed peasants and burgers who benefitted and enabled the wars that resulted in the deaths and wholesale slaughter of the lowest classes and non-revolutionary clergy, and the wasting of resources by princes. On the good side, theologians and other public officials who thought his writings against the revolutionaries could be misread and misused to harm people in the future.
He was considered a good husband and loving father. It was noted that he never really recovered from the early death of his daughter.
The sheriff of Wittenberg hated him, and the feeling was mutual. They exchanged harsh words and letters.
His insults were harsh, but his reputation is perhaps exaggerated when compared to equally hard-speaking scholars such as Erasmus.
Edit: A bit of grammar.