Edict of Worms

The edict was issued in the name of Charles V after the hearing at Worms, with, as it says, the consent of the electors, princes and estates assembled there. After reciting the proceedings in Martin Luther’s case, it declares that the emperor, in execution of the pope’s bull, holds Luther to be a member cut off from the church of God, an obstinate schismatic and a manifest heretic. No one is to house, feed or help him; he is to be seized and handed over; his supporters may be attacked and their goods taken; his books are not to be bought, sold, read, copied or printed, and are to be burned. A final section places all printing on matters of faith under the approval of the bishops and a theological faculty.

Kidd prints extracts and dates the edict 26 May 1521. It remained the law of the empire on Luther’s case, and the later diets of Speyer turned on whether and how it was to be enforced.