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Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms

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Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms Martin Luther and the Diet of Worms: Yoking Lutheranism to Secular Power A thesis submitted to the faculty of the Athenaeum of Ohio/Mount St. Mary’s Seminary of the West in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts Theology By Jarred Lee Kohn Cincinnati, Ohio March 2018 Abstract The Diet of Worms in 1521 would come to be a turning point for Western Christianity. Martin Luther denied any error existed in his teachings and he was supported in his ideas by the German princes. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V found Luther’s teachings to be contrary to the whole of Christian tradition and upheld Catholic teaching from the diet until his eventual abdication in 1555. As a result, Luther came to rely on the German princes to protect him from imperial and ecclesial censure. The princes desired to break free of imperial power and gain greater control over the Church in their own territories. They aided Luther in instituting his notion of reform and Luther in turn capitulated to some of the princes’ demands to maintain their favor. Luther became a means for the princes to circumvent imperial and ecclesial authority. This thesis by Jarred L. Kohn fulfills the thesis requirement for the master’s degree in Theology and is approved by: Advisor: Rev. David J. Endres, Ph.D. Readers: Rev. Msgr. Frank P. Lane, Ph.D. Alan D. Mostrom, M.A. iii Table of Contents Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: The Historical Context of the Diet of Worms ............................................. 3 Political Ideology ............................................................................................................ 3 The New Holy Roman Emperor ..................................................................................... 6 The State of the Holy Roman Empire ............................................................................. 7 Luther’s Journey toward “Reform” ................................................................................ 8 Wittenberg University ................................................................................................... 11 Renaissance Humanism ................................................................................................ 12 The State of Religion in Germany preceding the Diet of Worms................................. 15 The Papacy in the Late Medieval Period ...................................................................... 17 Chapter 2: The Diet of Worms ...................................................................................... 20 Luther Provokes Rome ................................................................................................. 20 Debate over the Luther Controversy ............................................................................. 20 Luther Summoned ......................................................................................................... 25 Luther Appears before the Diet..................................................................................... 28 “I am bound by the Scriptures” ..................................................................................... 31 The Emperor Responds ................................................................................................. 35 Chapter 3: The Edict of Worms .................................................................................... 38 The Diet and Emperor Deliberate Luther’s Fate ........................................................... 38 The Edict Promulgated ................................................................................................. 41 The Edict Ignored ......................................................................................................... 45 Papal and Imperial Authority Undermined ................................................................... 47 Luther’s “Imprisonment” at Wartburg Castle ............................................................... 48 Charles Defers the Settlement of the Lutheran Controversy ........................................ 50 Luther after Worms ....................................................................................................... 51 The Christian Nobility of the German Nation .............................................................. 53 Charles V Attempts to Reassert His Authority ............................................................. 55 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 59 Bibliography .................................................................................................................... 62 iv Introduction While many would call Martin Luther’s nailing of his Ninety-Five Theses to the Wittenberg Castle Door on October 31, 1517 the beginning of the Reformation or at least the symbolic beginning of it, the Diet of Worms (January 28-May 26, 1521) would come to define how or perhaps more appropriately who would spread the Reformation. It would fall to the German princes and other nobles/government officials to institute Luther’s reform or at least the parts of that reform that suited them and their ends. The Diet of Worms would make Luther officially an outlaw within the Holy Roman Empire. Many of the princes would oppose this measure and Luther would have to avoid Holy Roman Emperor Charles V for the rest of his life after Worms. Charles would maintain his defense of the Catholic faith and dreams of Hapsburg hegemony in Europe and globally as the Spanish Empire expanded. All the forces that led to the Diet of Worms and its aftermath did not arise in 1517. For many years prior, the intellectual, religious, economic, and political currents worked to feed what would eventually begin with Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk from Saxony. In order to understand the Diet of Worms and its consequences, one must understand the context of the situation within Germany and beyond during the sixteenth century. The first chapter explores the context of the period leading up to the Diet of Worms. This context covers the social, political, and theological trends of the fifteenth and sixteenth century. The second chapter is an in depth account of the Diet of Worms. The various characters and political machinations that contributed to the diet’s outcome are evaluated. In the third and final chapter, the Edict of Worms and subsequent attempts 1 that tilt the balance between Catholicism and Lutheranism within Germany will be explored. This will help to explain how Luther came to depend on the German princes for protection and for the implementation of his reform, exploring, in addition, how the princes were able to circumvent the power of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. It has been argued that the Diet of Worms was the unleashing of the Reformation in which Luther definitively rebelled against the authority of the Church in favor of the authority of scripture, thus, allowing for a nascent form of religious liberty which gave the individual freedom to choose his or her religion. By using secondary sources from contemporary historians, the writings of Martin Luther, and texts of the earliest accounts of the diet itself, it will be argued that Luther did “free” Christianity in Germany from the authority of the Catholic Church, but not in favor of scripture alone, he also allowed greater pressure and influence from the princes and Luther’s personal interpretation to form part of the new authority within Christianity in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire ruled by princes in favor of Luther’s reform.1 Luther, despite an early hope to free the word of God, was confronted by a lack of unity as he found that other reformers interpreted the scriptures differently than himself and thus, Luther came to rely on the German princes to enact his revolution while also having to succumb to some of their demands in order to protect his ‘reform’ from being squelched or distorted at its core. 1 The main secondary sources used in this research include Harold Grimm, The Reformation Era: 1500-1750, which, in my mind, provides the most balanced view of Luther, his supporters, and the Catholic Church during the Reformation. Diarmaid McCullouch’s The Reformation, considered by many to be the standard text for understanding the Reformation since its publication in 2005, was consulted and cited. Heinz Schilling’s Martin Luther: Rebel in an Age of Upheaval, is the most recent biography of Martin Luther, published in 2017, which provides an up-to-date scholarly assessment of Luther. Harald Kleinschmidt’s Charles V: The World Emperor and Sam Wellman’s Frederick the Wise provided helpful accounts of two men who would shape the political arc of Luther’s reform. James Atkinson’s The Trial of Luther was useful because of its focus on the legal proceedings at the Diet of Worms and its many references to primary sources. 2 Chapter 1: The Historical Context of the Diet of Worms Political Ideology Leading up to the Reformation there were two distinct ideas of how to achieve peace between contending European powers. The first position was championed by the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam who focused primarily on maintaining the current makeup of Europe into nations, republics, and kingdoms of various sizes. This school of political theory believed that by encouraging the rulers of various European nations to focus on maintaining peace within their
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