Luther’s Break With Rome

Well, now he is cut off from the Roman Catholic church, labeled as a heretic, and he is branded as a “wild boar.” He had also acquired a good many followers by this time.

What we see next is kind of interesting, because we see sort of the interaction which was still taking place between the Holy Roman Empire and the secular rulers and the Roman Catholic church. Because Luther had been cut off, had been excommunicated, from the church, those who were the princes, the Electors, in Germany, were curious and wondering how they should treat Luther and his following. And so, he was summoned to an Imperial Diet. (No, it wasn’t the Slim-Fast Diet.) A “Diet” was a formal, general assembly of princes in the Holy Roman Empire. And so, he was summoned to this Imperial Diet that met in Worms in 1521. He was supported by his friend, Elector Frederick of Saxony, along with some of the other princes of different regions. He was encouraged by them to stand firmly before this Imperial Tribunal. Well, the Diet demanded that he would recant his teachings. (Now, remember, these were the secular rulers of the Holy Roman Empire who were making this demand.) They demanded that he recant his teachings and that he remove himself from any further disturbance and activity of trying to reform people from their Catholic persuasions.

Luther would have none of that! He said that he would only recant the things that he had said, the things that he had written, if those things were proved false by the Word of God, and he concluded his defense with this well-known statement. His statement was, “Here I stand. I cannot do otherwise. God help me.”

Well, Luther’s actions led the Diet to condemn him as an “outlaw” and to prohibit the circulation of his work. He had left Worms, but on the way back to Worms, he was kidnapped, not by his foes, but by his friends, people who were concerned for his safety, for his well-being, because now he had not only been alienated and cut off from the Catholic church, but he had also been condemned by the Holy Roman Empire. And so, he was spirited away to the Castle of Wartburg where he remained in disguise for several months.

These months in seclusion were not wasted, though, because while he was in this secluded time, in this secluded place, he wrote several books, including making a translation of the New Testament into the German language. This was not the first translation into German, but it remains, even to this day, as perhaps the most powerful, scholarly and dignified German translation.

Even in Luther’s absence, even while he is in seclusion, the “revolution,” so to speak, continued on. In many ways, and in the view of many, Luther was a “conservative reformer.” Now, one thing that is important to understand is that we’re talking about Luther—and he has his place in history and this place of prominence in the Reformation, and so on—but his ideas and his actions were not excusive. There were others, not only here in Germany, but in other places at this same period of time, who were conducting their own revolt, attempting their own reformation of the Catholic church. And so, Luther had contemporaries. And in the view of some of his contemporaries, he was “too conservative”; he didn’t go far enough. However, there were some other contemporaries who considered him to be “too radical” in the things that he was doing.

We’re going to be talking in a little while about what was going on during this same period, or about this same period, in Switzerland that were indeed contemporaneous in terms of movements that were going on in both places. But the two could never get together. Those who were involved in the revolt against the Catholic church in Switzerland and those who were of Luther’s ilk [in Germany] couldn’t agree on a number of things, and so they were never united in their approach, and thus would never make a united front against the Roman Catholic church.

Well, by 1529, the Catholic forces in the Empire were able to use their majority in Imperial Diet to hamper the growth of Lutheranism. This Diet met in Spire, and ordered that no further changes be made in the religious status. Catholics in Lutheran territories were to be granted freedom of worship, while the same privilege, by the way, was denied to Lutherans in Catholic territories in the Empire. The Lutheran princes, those who were followers of Luther, who were princes, who were individuals of power within the Empire, found this to be unacceptable. Thus, they filed a formal protest against it.

The only reason that I bring this up… I mean, in a study of the Reformation, it’s certainly pertinent and has its place. But the reason I bring this up is because this is where the term, where the name “Protestant”—pro-tes-tant—comes from. It was this protesting that was done by these princes, who were followers of Luther, about the unfair treatment. And so, this term, this word “protestant”, will eventually be applied to all of those in the West who break free from Rome.

The following year, 1530, the Diet met at Augsburg. At this meeting, Charles V, who had only recently been crowned Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, attempted to seek a means of restoring religious liberty in the Empire. The Lutheran position at this Diet was presented by a young colleague of Luther, and there was a document which was produced from this Augsburg Diet, which was called “The Augsburg Confession.” If you’re familiar with Lutheran doctrine and their creedal information, and so on, this Augsburg Confession remains an important part of the Lutheran doctrine and religious practice even to this day.

Well, there were other Protestant groups that were present, and they set forth their positions separately—separate from the Lutherans. But the Protestant position was unacceptable to the Catholics—no surprise there, and thus, no agreement could be reached. As a result, for the next twenty-five years hostilities, even open warfare, continued between Protestants and Catholics in Germany. And before this period of war and bitterness came to a close, Luther would die. He died in 1546. And the leadership of this movement that he had founded, that he was attributed to, moved on to others.

In 1555, the Diet, again meeting at Augsburg, came to a settlement that allowed Germany to have a long, but uneasy truce, from these religious wars. The so-called “Peace of Augsburg” provided that the princes of Germany would determine the religion of their realm. No prince was to disturb the religious practice or the religious belief of another territory. If, on religious grounds, a person wanted to move from one area to another, he was allowed to sell his property and move. And this agreement pretty well settled the religious “geography,” so to speak, of Germany. And, as a matter of fact, its result, its effect, is still seen today. In the country of Germany, the northern part is predominately Lutheran, and the southern part is predominately Catholic.

Well, Lutheranism spread rapidly from northern Germany into Scandinavia. And in most cases, the rulers, it seems, accepted this new faith, and then they spread it among their people. And so, within a generation, within a period of about twenty years or so, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, along with Iceland, Finland and the Eastern Baltic regions had all become Lutheran.