Diet of Worms (1521): Luther Defies the Emperor Charles V

The Diet of Worms was an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire held in the Rhineland city of Worms from January to May 1521, under the young Emperor Charles V. It is remembered above all for the appearance of Martin Luther on 17 and 18 April 1521, when the Wittenberg monk refused to withdraw his writings unless proved wrong from Scripture and plain reason. The resulting Edict of Worms made Luther an outlaw, yet he survived under the protection of his prince, and the confrontation became one of the defining moments of the Reformation.

Background: from the Ninety-five Theses to excommunication

In 1517 Luther, a professor of theology at Wittenberg in Electoral Saxony, had challenged the sale of indulgences in his Ninety-five Theses. Over the next three years the dispute widened into an attack on the authority of the papacy. At the Leipzig Debate in 1519 he denied that popes and general councils could not err, and in 1520 he published powerful treatises calling on German princes to reform the Church and criticising the Church’s sacramental system.

Pope Leo X condemned 41 of Luther’s propositions in the bull Exsurge Domine of 15 June 1520 and gave him sixty days to submit. On 10 December 1520 Luther publicly burned the bull at Wittenberg. He was formally excommunicated by the bull Decet Romanum Pontificem on 3 January 1521.

In normal circumstances a condemned heretic would then be punished by the secular power. But Luther’s ruler, Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony, was one of the most respected princes of the Empire and had helped secure the election of Charles V in 1519. Charles’s electoral promises included a pledge that no German would be outlawed without a hearing. Frederick insisted that Luther should be heard before the imperial estates, and Charles, who needed the princes’ support for war against France and for his government of the Empire, eventually agreed.

The diet and the summons

The diet opened in late January 1521. Charles, aged 20, was attending his first imperial assembly, and its main business was political: setting up a council of regency to govern the Empire in his absence, reorganising the imperial supreme court and agreeing the troops and money the estates would provide. In Worms Charles also arranged for his brother Ferdinand to receive the Habsburg lands in Austria.

The papal nuncio, Girolamo Aleandro, argued that Luther, already condemned by the Pope, should not be heard at all but simply outlawed. Many estates disagreed, and resentment of Rome’s financial demands ran high in Germany. On 6 March Charles signed a summons and a promise of safe conduct, and the imperial herald Kaspar Sturm travelled to Wittenberg to escort Luther.

Luther left Wittenberg on 2 April. His journey turned into a kind of triumphal progress: crowds gathered to see him in Erfurt, where he preached, and in other towns along the way. Friends warned him of the fate of Jan Hus, who had been burned at Constance in 1415 despite a safe conduct, but he continued. He entered Worms on 16 April, and contemporary reports say that around 2,000 people turned out to see him.

The hearing: 17 and 18 April 1521

On the afternoon of 17 April Luther was brought before the emperor, the electors and other princes in the bishop’s palace. The questions were put by Johann von der Ecken, an official of the Archbishop of Trier who is not to be confused with Luther’s earlier opponent Johann Eck. A pile of Luther’s books lay on a table. Von der Ecken asked whether they were his and whether he would retract their contents.

Luther acknowledged the books but asked for time to consider the second question, since it concerned faith and the salvation of souls. He was given until the next day.

On the evening of 18 April, in a larger and crowded hall, Luther gave his answer, first in German and then in Latin. He divided his writings into three groups: works on faith and morals that even his opponents accepted as Christian, works attacking the papacy, and works against individual opponents, some of which he admitted were too harsh. He would retract none of them unless shown his errors from Scripture.

Pressed for a plain answer, he said that unless he was convinced by the testimony of Scripture or by clear reason, he was bound by the Scriptures he had cited, his conscience was captive to the Word of God, and he could not and would not recant anything, because to act against conscience was neither safe nor right. He ended, “God help me. Amen.” The famous words “Here I stand, I can do no other” appear in early printed versions of the speech but not in the notes made at the time.

The emperor’s response and the talks

On 19 April Charles answered with a statement written in his own hand in French. He declared that he was descended from Christian emperors, Spanish kings and Burgundian dukes who had all been faithful to the Roman Church, and that he would stake his lands, friends, body and life on defending that faith. A single monk, he said, could not be right against a thousand years of Christianity.

Some princes still hoped for a compromise. From 24 to 25 April a committee led by the Archbishop of Trier, Richard von Greiffenklau, held private talks with Luther, suggesting that he submit his works to the judgement of the emperor, the estates or a future council. Luther would accept only a judgement based on Scripture. The talks failed, and on 26 April he left Worms under his safe conduct.

The Wartburg and the Edict of Worms

Frederick the Wise had already made plans to protect him without openly defying the emperor. On 4 May 1521, near Altenstein in the Thuringian Forest, Luther’s carriage was stopped by armed horsemen who carried him off. Many people feared he had been murdered. In fact he was taken to Wartburg Castle, high above Eisenach, where he lived in secret, growing a beard and dressing as a knight under the name “Junker Jörg” (Squire George).

The Edict of Worms was dated 8 May 1521 and drafted largely by Aleandro. Charles signed it on 26 May, after many of the princes had left the city. It declared Luther an outlaw who could be seized by anyone, forbade anyone to give him food or shelter, and ordered his writings to be burned. It also banned the printing or sale of works against the Catholic faith without church approval.

At the Wartburg, Luther wrote steadily. In about eleven weeks during the winter of 1521–1522 he translated the New Testament from Greek into German. It was published in September 1522 and became known as the September Testament. He returned to Wittenberg in March 1522 to calm unrest caused by more radical reformers.

Key people

• Martin Luther (1483–1546): Augustinian friar and Wittenberg professor whose refusal to recant made him a hero to many Germans.
• Charles V (1500–1558): Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, a committed Catholic who regarded the defence of the Church as a sacred duty.
• Frederick the Wise (1463–1525): Elector of Saxony, who never fully embraced Luther’s teaching in public but protected him throughout.
• Girolamo Aleandro (1480–1542): papal nuncio and scholar who led the case against Luther and drafted the edict.
• Johann von der Ecken (died 1524): the Trier official who questioned Luther at the hearing.

Consequences

The Edict of Worms was never effectively enforced. Charles left Germany in 1522 and spent most of the following years fighting France and governing Spain. Many princes and cities ignored the edict, and Luther lived openly in Wittenberg under Saxon protection for the rest of his life. His ideas spread rapidly through preaching and print.

The religious split hardened over the following decade. The Diet of Speyer in 1526 allowed each prince to act as he could answer to God and the emperor, but in 1529 a second diet at Speyer tried to restore the Edict of Worms. The Lutheran princes and cities issued a formal protest, which gave rise to the name “Protestants”. In 1530 they presented the Augsburg Confession, and the division was eventually recognised in the Peace of Augsburg of 1555.

Myths and facts

• Myth: Luther declared “Here I stand, I can do no other” in front of the emperor. Fact: The phrase appears in early printed accounts, but the notes taken at the hearing record only “God help me, Amen.” It may be a later addition, though it fairly sums up his position.
• Myth: Luther was kidnapped by enemies after Worms. Fact: The “kidnapping” was staged by his own protector, Frederick the Wise, to hide him at the Wartburg.
• Myth: Luther threw an inkpot at the devil at the Wartburg. Fact: The story is a later legend, and the famous ink stain shown to visitors was renewed many times.

Timeline

• 1520, 15 June: Pope Leo X issues the bull Exsurge Domine.
• 1521, 3 January: Luther is excommunicated.
• 1521, 28 January: The Diet of Worms formally opens.
• 1521, 6 March: Charles V summons Luther with a safe conduct.
• 1521, 16 April: Luther arrives in Worms.
• 1521, 17–18 April: Luther’s hearing; he refuses to recant.
• 1521, 26 April: Luther leaves Worms.
• 1521, 4 May: Luther is taken to Wartburg Castle.
• 1521, 26 May: Charles V signs the Edict of Worms.
• 1522, September: Luther’s German New Testament is published.

Why it matters

At Worms a single friar stood before the most powerful ruler in Christendom and refused to give way on matters of conscience. The episode made Luther a national figure and showed that the Reformation could not be stopped simply by papal or imperial decree. It has since become a lasting symbol of individual conscience confronting authority, while the failure to enforce the edict revealed how limited imperial power in Germany really was.