During the reformation what was the common view on how the Law ‘increased sin‘ rather than reducing it?

Question

How is was this verse understood by the early reformers, such as Luther or Calvin?

Romans 5:20-21 NIV

The law was brought in so that the trespass might increase.

Answer 1

I cannot say that there is a 'common view' or consensus at the time of the Reformation. Personally, I would doubt it, since these men were coming out of centuries of darkness and into a period of dawning enlightenment in the scriptures.

And doing so as individuals, each overcoming an adverse tradition.

It took yet more centuries for the doctrine of Christ to be further developed by such as John Bunyan, George Whitefield, Johnathan Edwards, William Huntington and J C Philpot ; and for a consensus to become apparent.

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That offense might abound, etc. It is well known how some, following Augustine, usually explain this passage, — that lust is irritated the more, while it is checked by the restraints of the law; for it is man’s nature to strive for what is forbidden. But I understand no other increase to be intended here than that of knowledge and of obstinacy; for sin is set by the law before the eyes of man, that he may be continually forced to see that condemnation is prepared for him. Thus sin disturbs the conscience, which, when cast behind them, men forget. And farther, he who before only passed over the bounds of justice, becomes now, when the law is introduced, a despiser of God’s authority, since the will of God is made known to him, which he now wantonly tramples under feet. It hence follows, that sin is increased by the law, since now the authority of the lawgiver is despised and his majesty degraded.

John Calvin - Commentary on Romans

Martin Luther on Romans - Google Books

The human race, therefore, did not receive help and healing from the Law, but only an increase of its sickness (of sin).

Martin Luther's remark is very instructive and based on his own experience, I would say, bearing in mind his own confessions of his state as a monk, in a solitary cell, discovering the corruption within himself despite the separation, the discipline, and the total immersion in religion.

He discovered a world of evil within himself - sin abounding.

See Martin Luther: His Confessions and Battle Against Sin.