The next morning Luther received word that he was to appear at 4:00pm for a special hearing at the bishop’s residence, where the emperor was staying.[1] Though not an official meeting, it remained a setting with which the monk from Wittenberg was not at all familiar. No one could have blamed him for being nervous about facing a gathering of the politically powerful, particularly when he had to have sensed “that both his life and his cause were at stake.”[2] Yet, out of place as he might have felt, he stood ready to provide the “information” the emperor said the estates would be seeking.
To Luther’s great disappointment, no one asked him to present what he taught from the Scriptures. Instead, Johann von der Ecken, who was presiding over the meeting on behalf of the archbishop of Trier, set some ground rules. He explained that the emperor had summoned Luther for two reasons: first, to see if Luther would acknowledge that he had written the books published under his name and second, to see if Luther wished to retract them. Luther was to answer questions with a simple yes or no; there were to be no speeches. Von der Ecken then pointed to a table that had a pile of Luther’s books stacked on it and asked, “Are these your writings?” After the titles were read, Luther acknowledged them as his books and confessed that he had also written others. When von der Ecken asked Luther point blank if he wished to recant what he had written, Luther did not provide an immediate answer. He had indicated repeatedly in letters sent to Spalatin and others, some just days before, that he would not recant unless proved wrong from Scripture. One might have expected Luther to say, in a loud voice for all to hear, “No. I cannot and will not recant.” Instead, speaking with a subdued, soft voice that made it difficult for observers to understand him [3] and disappointed even his supporters,[4] Luther suggested that the question was more simply posed than answered. The question required a careful and thoughtful response, he said, because it dealt with the most important matters: the salvation of souls and the Word of God. For that reason, Luther respectfully asked his imperial majesty “for time to think, in order to satisfactorily answer the question without violence to the divine Word and danger to my own soul.”[5]
After consulting with the emperor and princes about Luther’s request, von der Ecken returned with a response. First, he warned Luther that by propagating his personal opinions he was disrupting the unity of the church and leading many faithful people astray. Then he scolded Luther for not being prepared to answer the question posed to him—a trained theologian should always be ready to confess. In addition, the secretary argued, Luther knew very well that he had been summoned to answer the recantation question above all. Though Luther did not deserve additional time to consider the question, von der Ecken said, the emperor would show him mercy and give him a day. The one stipulation was that Luther was to present his answer orally, not in writing. The leaders of the empire knew how well Luther had utilized the technology of the day—the printing press—to get his message out, and they wanted to ensure that he did not “repair to his room to summon from his pen yet another mesmerizing manifesto that would doubtless be printed over and over and read far and wide.”[6] They remained uninterested in hearing Luther explain his teachings.
[1]. Hendrix, 104.
[2]. E. G. Schwiebert, Luther and His Times: The Reformation from a New Perspective (St. Louis: Concordia, 1950), 502.
[3]. Brecht, 453. Robert Kolb observes, “Fearless criticism of men of higher station that later typified his public utterances had not yet germinated in his disposition.” Kolb, Martin Luther as He Lived and Breathed, 84.
[4]. Schilling, 182. “Even the Saxon elector, who had consistently refused to meet the rebellious monk in person and now in Worms saw him for the first time close up, was visibly disappointed.” Selderhuis mentions that Luther “heard from supporters that his performance had not been impressive. It had been difficult to hear him, and he had not shown a strong defense.” Selderhuis, 157. Jerome Aleander reported, in a letter written that evening, that while many considered Luther “a pious man, full of the Holy Ghost,” it appeared to him that Luther had “lost considerable reputation in the regard of all.” Luther’s Correspondence, 527.
[5]. LW 32:107.
[6]. Metaxas, 212.