Martin Luther

The Road to Worms

Having excommunicated him, the Church was now done with Luther. All that remained was for the civil authorities to arrest him and deal with him appropriately. For the Emperor, too, had demanded Luther desist, and had been equally defied.

The emperor was a young Charles V. Charles was not keen on the idea of an Italian pope meddling in the affairs of the German church, and he was not about to have Luther condemned out of hand, merely because Leo was demanding it. So he summoned Luther to an imperial Diet at Worms in 1521 to defend himself. Charles would hear this monk speak with his own words.

Luther's friends urged him not to go. The whole business was too reminiscent of events just over a century old: Jan Hus condemned by the Church as a heretic, called by the Emperor and promised safe conduct, but in fact immediately arrested and eventually burned at the stake. Surely the same would happen again. Charles was not even a German!

But strong as Luther was on disobeying the pope, he was equally strong on obeying his sovereign. He went to Worms from Wittenberg openly, and his trip soon turned into a triumphal progress. As he went, he was invited to preach at one church after another, for everyone was eager to hear him, even if they did not agree with all he said. He was viewed as a German being persecuted by foreigners, worth defending no matter how radical his ideas.

Moreover, he preached well, and won doubters to his side. By the time he reached Worms, he was something of a national hero. At Worms, however, his reception was rather different.