Diet of Worms
- For other uses of the term, see Diet of Worms (disambiguation).
The Diet of Worms (Reichstag zu Worms) was a general assembly (a Diet) of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that took place in Worms, a small town on the Rhine river located in what is now Germany. It was conducted from January 28 to May 25, 1521, with Emperor Charles V presiding. Although other issues were dealt with at the Diet of Worms, it is most memorable for addressing Martin Luther and the effects of the Protestant Reformation.
The previous year, Pope Leo X had issued the papal bull Exsurge Domine, demanding that Luther retract 41 purported errors, some of them his 95 theses criticising the Church, others from other writings and sayings attributed to him. Luther was summoned by the emperor to appear before the Imperial Diet. Prince Frederick III, Elector of Saxony, obtained an agreement that if Luther appeared he would be promised safe passage to and from the meeting. Such a guarantee was essential after the treatment of John Hus, who was tried and executed at the Council of Constance in 1415, despite a safe conduct pass.
Luther's defense
Emperor Charles V opened the imperial Diet of Worms on January 22, 1521. Luther was summoned to renounce or reaffirm his views. When he appeared before the assembly on April 16, Johann Eck, an assistant of the Archbishop of Trier Richard Greiffenklau zu Vollraths, acted as spokesman for the emperor. He presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings. Eck asked Luther if the books were his and if he still believed what these works taught. Luther requested time to consider his answer. It was granted.
Luther prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and presented himself before the Diet the next day. When the counselor put the same questions to Luther, he said: "They are all mine, but as for the second question, they are not all of one sort." Luther went on to categorize the writings into three categories:
- The first category was of works which were well received by even his enemies. These he would not reject.
- The second category of his books attacked the abuses, lies and desolation of the Christian world. These, Luther believed, could not safely be rejected without encouraging abuses to continue.
- The third and final group contained attacks on individuals. He apologized for the harsh tone of these writings, but did not reject the substance of what he taught in them. If he could be shown from the Scriptures that he was in error, Luther continued, he would reject them.
Counsellor Eck, after countering that Luther had no right to teach contrary to the Church through the ages, asked Luther to plainly answer the question: "Would Luther reject his books and the errors they contain?"
Luther replied: "Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason —I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other— my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe."
According to tradition, Luther is then said to have spoken these words: "Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Gott helfe mir. Amen." ("Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.") Some scholars now question whether these famous words were actually spoken, however, since only the last four appear in contemporary accounts.
Private conferences were held to determine Luther's fate. Before a decision was reached, Luther left Worms on April 25 or 26 with a 20-day safe conduct pass.
Edict of Worms
After the safe conduct period had elapsed, Charles issued the Edict of Worms on May 25, 1521 (antedated as of May 8, 1521), declaring Martin Luther an outlaw, banning his writings, and requiring his arrest: "We want him to be apprehended and punished as a notorious heretic".
The papal nuncio at the Diet, Girolamo Aleandro, had drawn up and proposed the fierce denunciations of Luther embodied in the edict, which permitted anyone to kill Luther without legal consequence. The edict was seen as a divisive move that distressed more moderate men, in particular Desiderius Erasmus.
Aftermath
Despite the agreement that he could return home safely, it was privately understood that Luther would soon be arrested and punished. To protect him from this fate, Prince Frederick seized him on his way home and hid him in Wartburg Castle. It was during his time in Wartburg that Luther began his German translation of the Bible. The edict was temporarily suspended at the Diet of Speyer in 1526 but then reinstated in 1529.
When Luther eventually came out of hiding, the emperor was preoccupied with military concerns, and because of rising public support for Luther among the German people, the Edict of Worms was never enforced. Luther continued to call for reform until his death in 1546.
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External links
- The Diet of Worms, BBC Radio 4, October 2006
- Shakespeare, in Hamlet (Act IV, Scene 3) makes a punning reference to the Diet of Worms. Hamlet says of the dead Polonius: "A certain convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only emperor for diet."
da:Rigsdagen i Worms de:Reichstag zu Worms (1521) es:Dieta de Worms fr:Diète de Worms it:Dieta di Worms (1521) no:Riksdagen i Worms pt:Dieta de Worms sv:Fördraget i Worms (1521)
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