That scene is a filmmaker’s dream. A monk from the little town of Wittenberg stands up to the powerful leaders of the Holy Roman Empire and drops the mic. Stirring music follows and the scene fades to black. The End. (He did say, “Amen,” after all!) While his confession ranks as a critical point of the story, it was not the end. When Luther finished speaking, von der Ecken shouted another word of rebuke as the participants prepared to depart from a crowded and stuffy meeting area: “Lay aside your conscience, Martin; you must lay it aside because it is in error; and it will be safe and proper for you to recant.”[1] As Luther left the meeting hall, the Spanish soldiers Charles V had brought with him to Worms called for him to be burned at the stake. But Luther returned safely to his quarters, where he would wait to see if the emperor would honor the promise of safe conduct back to Wittenberg or if his confession might cost him his life.[2]
The Emperor’s View of Luther
Charles V was not impressed. Finding Luther’s stubbornness and arrogance appalling, Charles took a stand against him, and swiftly. That very evening he wrote a response in French, in his own hand, which was translated into German and read to the assembled estates the next day. In it he expressed his loyalty to the Roman church and his commitment to support the church’s condemnation of all heretics, including the Augustinian from Wittenberg. The emperor refused to believe that Luther alone could be right: “For it is certain that a lone friar errs in his opinion which is against all of Christendom, both in times past—for a thousand years and more—and in the present, according to which opinion all of said Christendom would be, and always would have been, in error.”[3] The emperor called on all present to join him in defending the Catholic faith against heresy. Though he promised to honor the order of safe conduct, he insisted that he would thereafter proceed against Luther, “a notorious heretic,”[4] whom he never wished to hear again. Charles spoke strongly both because of his personal conviction as a faithful member of the Roman church[5] and because he considered doctrinal unity critical to his goals as the leader of the Holy Roman Empire.
After the emperor’s declaration had been read, the electoral council voted to declare Luther an outlaw. Luther’s supporters, however, objected, because they did not believe he had received a proper hearing. They advocated for commissioning a group of princes and professors to meet with Luther and address his errors from the Scriptures. Charles consented to their request, perhaps concerned about a possible peasants’ revolt, but he allowed them only three days to conduct these private meetings. In a letter written to Count Albert of Mansfeld on May 3, the Reformer provided a list of the men with whom he met in the days following his confession. Many pleaded with Luther to recant for the sake of peace and unity. They asked him to “submit [his] books and the whole affair to his Imperial Majesty and the Estates.”[6] The Reformer responded privately as he had publicly. He would gladly submit his writings to everyone, “provided only that nothing should be recognized or decided contrary to the holy gospel.”[7] He explained that he had not spoken against popes or councils because of their scandalous acts, but because of their false doctrine. Sinful actions he could overlook in love, but false teaching he could not overlook, because that would be “harmful to the gospel and the faith.”[8] Love for the gospel compelled him to stand firm.
On April 25 the emperor, through his messengers, informed Luther that, because he had stubbornly persisted in his position, action would be taken against him. The emperor promised to honor the safe conduct, which gave Luther twenty-one days to return to Wittenberg. He added this stipulation: Luther was not to preach or write along the way. To that Luther said, “I will do all that pleases his Majesty, but I will leave God’s Word free, as St. Paul says: ‘The Word of God is not bound.’”[9] Luther had to obey God rather than the emperor. Elector Frederick, to preserve Luther’s life, arranged for Luther to be abducted in the Thuringian Forest and taken to the Wartburg castle for safekeeping.
After informing the estates that he, as the protector and defender of the church, intended to proceed against Luther, the emperor directed Aleander to prepare a draft of an edict against Luther. On May 8 Aleander’s draft was ready to go to print. The emperor, however, requested some changes to that original document and asked that it first be presented to the estates, who would have to implement its orders. On May 21 the diet was officially recessed, and most participants began to return home without ever seeing the final wording of the document. The minority that remained in Worms approved the edict a few days later, with the emperor signing it on May 26. The edict was officially dated May 8, giving the impression that the whole diet approved. One ought not make too much of that, however, since the imperial estates had agreed to the edict and the emperor could have issued it on his own.[10]
[1]. LW 32:130.
[2]. Here I might differ with the view proposed by Hartmut Lehmann, who, while acknowledging Luther’s subjective fears, argues that “there was probably no real danger to Luther in Worms,” and that Luther’s appearance at Worms ought not be considered “heroic.” Hartmut Lehmann, “Demythologizing the Luther Myths 1883–1983,” Lutheran Quarterly 30 (2016): 417–19.
[3]. Jensen, 57.
[4]. Jensen, 57.
[5]. Schilling makes an interesting distinction between Luther and Charles by the headings he uses in the chapter in which he addresses the events of the Diet of Worms. One heading refers to Luther: “A Conscience Held Captive by the Word of God,” 180. The next speaks of Charles V: “A Sovereign Held Captive by His Noble Ancestry,” 185. Charles was mindful of his ancestors who were, as he described them in his initial formal reaction to Luther’s appearance, “all to the death true sons of the Roman church, defenders of the Catholic faith and of its customs, decrees, rituals and ordinances.” Jensen, 57.
[6]. Luther’s Correspondence, 557.
[7]. Luther’s Correspondence, 557.
[8]. Luther’s Correspondence, 557.
[9]. Luther’s Correspondence, 559.
[10]. Brecht, 473.