Diet of Worms

Background

An imperial diet was an assembly of the princes, high-ranking clergy, and city representatives of the Holy Roman Empire. The 1521 diet at Worms was not convened solely to deal with the Luther affair; it was a gathering to discuss a range of imperial matters. Today, however, it is most widely remembered as the occasion on which Martin Luther was examined.

After publishing the Ninety-five Theses in 1517, Luther continued to issue writings criticizing the sale of indulgences (certificates said to remit the punishment due for sin) and the authority of the pope. When Pope Leo X sent a document threatening him with excommunication (expulsion from the fellowship of the Church), Luther and his supporters publicly burned it in December 1520. Luther was formally excommunicated in January 1521. Princes including Frederick III, elector of Saxony (a prince entitled to vote in the election of the emperor) and Luther's own territorial ruler, demanded that Luther receive a fair hearing on German soil. Roughly a century earlier, in 1415, Jan Hus had been executed despite having been promised safe conduct for his journey to the Council of Constance. For this reason, a guarantee of safe passage to and from Worms was an especially important condition for Luther.

Course of Events

• Late January 1521: Charles V opened the imperial diet at Worms. Sources give differing opening dates, including January 23, 27, and 28.
• March 6: The emperor sent Luther a summons guaranteeing him safe conduct.
• April 16: Luther, having set out from Wittenberg, arrived in Worms. Along the way he was welcomed and preached in Erfurt, Gotha, Eisenach, and other towns.
• April 17: The first hearing took place in the bishop's palace. Johann von Eck, an official serving the archbishop of Trier, put two questions to Luther on the emperor's behalf: whether the books laid before him were his writings, and whether he would recant their contents. Luther acknowledged the writings as his own but asked for time to consider the question of recantation, and he was granted one day.
• April 18: Luther answered in Latin and German, declaring that unless he was proven wrong by the testimony of Scripture or by clear reason, he could recant nothing. According to a widely repeated account, he concluded this reply with the words "Here I stand."
• Around April 19: Charles V announced his intention to proceed against Luther as a "notorious heretic."
• April 26: Luther left Worms.
• May: The edict condemning Luther was dated May 8. It was promulgated on May 25, after many of the princes had already left Worms.

Outcome and Impact

The Edict of Worms declared Luther a heretic and an enemy of the empire. It also prohibited reading or distributing his writings and sheltering or aiding him, and it ordered the confiscation of the property of anyone who violated these provisions. However, by the time the edict was promulgated, many princes had already gone home, and a considerable number of princes supported Luther. As a result, the edict was not enforced consistently throughout the empire. Frederick III secretly protected Luther, who continued his writing and reforming work.

Assessment

Protestants, particularly in the Lutheran and Reformed traditions, commemorate the event as a moment in which one individual upheld the authority of Scripture and the integrity of conscience before the power of emperor and Church. It is often cited as a public manifestation of the Reformation principle of sola scriptura ("Scripture alone"). Aleander, the papal nuncio at the time, is reported to have informed Rome that most of the German populace had sided with Luther. Some historians judge that the edict, far from halting Luther's movement, instead hastened the division of the Western Church. Catholic media likewise treat the diet as a major event in the history of world Christianity.

In Korean churches, this scene is frequently mentioned in Reformation Sunday sermons and in church history instruction. Some also suggest that the lyrics of Luther's hymn "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" reflect the resolve with which he traveled to Worms. Around the 500th anniversary of the Diet of Worms in 2021, Christian media published accounts of pilgrimages to Worms and feature articles on the event.