Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/433

Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolt 313 528. Luther summoned to the Diet at Worms (1521). When Charles V arrived in Germany to hold his first diet in 1520, the case of Luther was called to his attention by the papal representa- tive, who exhorted him to outlaw the heretic without further delay. While Charles seemed convinced of Luther's guilt, he could not proceed against him without serious danger. The monk had become a sort of national hero and had the support of the power- ful elector of Saxony. Other princes, who had ordinarily no wish to protect a heretic, felt that Luther's denunciation of the evils in the Church was very gratifying. After much discussion it was finally arranged that Luther should be summoned to Worms and be given an opportunity to face the representatives of the German nation and the emperor and to declare plainly whether he was the author of the heretical books ascribed to him and whether he still clung to the views the Pope had condemned. 529. Luther's Defense. It was not proposed to give Luther any opportunity to defend his beliefs before the diet. He was simply asked whether a pile of Latin and German books and pamphlets placed before him were really his work and whether he would recant what he had written. He confessed that the volumes were his and admitted that his attacks had been overviolent at times. -He said, however, that he believed no one could deny that decrees issued in the name of the Pope had sometimes gone against the conscience of good Christians and that the German people in particular had been plundered by church officials. If arguments from the Bible could be found to refute his statements he would gladly recant, but as things stood he could not do otherwise than he was doing. 530. The Edict of Worms (1521). There was now nothing for the emperor to do but to outlaw Luther, who had denied the binding character of the commands of the head of the Church. The Edict of Worms declared Luther an outlaw on the following grounds: that he scorned and vilified the Pope, despised the priesthood and stirred up the laity to dip their hands in the blood of the clergy, denied free will, taught licentiousness, despised au- thority, advocated a brutish existence, and was a menace to