Worms
A cathedral city on the left bank of the upper Rhine. The concordat of 1122 between pope and emperor was concluded here.
Worms stands on the Rhine between Mainz and Speyer. Ekkehard of Aura calls it the city of the Vangiones, “now called Wormacia”, and says that the charters of the concordat of 1122 were read out in a field beside the river because of the size of the crowd (Ekkehard of Aura, Chronicle 1122 (pp. 259–260)).
What happened here
- 23 September 1122, firm dateThe Concordat of Worms
Pope Callixtus II and Emperor Henry V end the dispute over investiture. The emperor gives up investing bishops with ring and staff and allows free election; the pope lets him be present at elections in Germany and confer the bishop’s worldly holdings by the sceptre.
- 1520 to 1521, firm dateLuther Is Excommunicated and Outlawed at Worms
Leo X condemns forty-one of Luther’s propositions in 1520 and excommunicates him in January 1521. Before Charles V at Worms that April, Luther refuses to retract unless convinced by Scripture or evident reason. An imperial edict outlaws him, and he is hidden in a Saxon castle.
- 1526, firm dateTyndale’s English New Testament
William Tyndale, unable to work in England, has his English New Testament printed at Worms in 1526. The bishop of London bans it and Thomas More writes against it. Tyndale is strangled and burned at Vilvoorde in 1536.