Luther Is Excommunicated and Outlawed at Worms

In 1520 Martin Luther published three books that set out his case. To the Christian Nobility asked the emperor and the lay rulers to reform the church and denied that only the pope may interpret Scripture or call a council (Luther, To the Christian Nobility part 1, the three walls). The Babylonian Captivity of the Church denied that there are seven sacraments (Luther, Babylonian Captivity Works of Martin Luther 2, p. 177). The Freedom of a Christian taught that faith alone justifies (Luther, Freedom of a Christian opening of the treatise).

The bull Exsurge Domine of Pope Leo X was not an answer to these books: B. J. Kidd’s collection dates it 15 June 1520 (Leo X, Exsurge Domine editor’s heading in Kidd, no. 38, p. 74), eight days before Luther signed the dedication of the first of them (Luther, To the Christian Nobility dedication to Nicholas von Amsdorf, date). It condemned forty-one propositions taken from Luther’s writings, among them that the treasure from which the pope grants indulgences is not the merits of Christ and the saints, that the Roman pontiff is not by Christ’s institution his vicar over all churches, and that purgatory cannot be proved from canonical Scripture (Leo X, Exsurge Domine propositions 17, 25 and 37). From such errors, the bull says, it would follow that the church, which the Holy Spirit guides, has always erred, against Christ’s promise to be with his disciples to the end of the world. It ordered Luther’s books burned, said that he had refused a summons and a safe-conduct, and gave him sixty days to recant (Leo X, Exsurge Domine sections after the forty-one propositions).

On 10 December 1520 Luther burned the bull at Wittenberg with the books of canon law (Luther, Letters, to Georg Spalatin, 10 December 1520). On 3 January 1521 a second bull, dated at St Peter’s in Rome, declared him a heretic and excommunicated him and all who followed or protected him (Leo X, Decet Romanum Pontificem sections II–III and date).

The emperor Charles V summoned Luther under safe-conduct to the diet at Worms (Luther, Letters, to Charles V, 28 April 1521). On 18 April 1521, asked again whether he would retract his books, Luther answered that unless he was convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by evident reason, since he did not trust popes or councils alone, his conscience was captive to the word of God, and he could not and would not retract anything (Acts of Luther at Worms hearing of 18 April (Kidd no. 42, pp. 82–85)). In the text edited from the manuscripts and first prints the speech ends Gott helf mir. Amen, “God help me. Amen.” The words Ich kan nicht anderst, hie stehe ich, “I cannot do otherwise, here I stand”, stand in only two prints, both from one Wittenberg press, and the editor judged them an addition (Acts of Luther at Worms close of the speech, with the editor’s note (Reichstagsakten 2, pp. 555–556)).

The next day Charles told the estates that a single monk, “led astray by private judgement”, had set himself against the faith held by all Christians for a thousand years, and that he would hear him no more (Charles V, Declaration of 19 April 1521 Kidd no. 43, pp. 85–86). The Edict of Worms declared Luther cut off from the church and a manifest heretic, forbade anyone to house, feed or help him, and ordered his arrest and the burning of his books (Edict of Worms §§ 26–31 and 37 (Kidd no. 45, pp. 87–89)).

On 12 May Luther described how he had been “snatched” from his companions and brought by night to a castle (Luther, Letters, to Nicholas Amsdorf, 12 May 1521); the editors of his letters identify it as the Wartburg. He later told the elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony that he had hidden for a year in obedience to him (Luther, Letters, to Elector Frederick, 5 March 1522).

See Luther Translates the Bible into German and the Protestation at Speyer.