Martin Luther
Martin Luther's Account of the Hearing at Worms in
1521 (excerpts)
(Second hearing, April 18,
1521)
Sources: H.C.
Bettenson, Documents of the Christian Church (1903), based on Luther's Opera Latina
(Frankfurt, 1865-73);
Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A
Life of Martin Luther (1950)
[Dr. Eck, Archbishop of
Trier] . . . Do you wish to defend the books which are
recognized as your work? Or to retract anything contained in
them? . . .
[Luther:] Most
Serene Lord Emperor, Most Illustrious
Princes, Most Gracious Lords . . . I beseech you to grant a
gracious hearing to my plea, which, I trust, will be a plea of
justice and truth; and if through my inexperience I neglect to
give to any their proper titles or in any way offend against the
etiquette of the court in my manners or behavior, be kind enough
to forgive me, I beg, since I am a man who has spent his life not
in courts but in the cells of a monastery; a man who can say of
himself only this, that to this day I have thought and written in
simplicity of heart, solely with a view to the glory of God and
the pure instruction of Christ's faithful people. . . .
. . . Your Imperial Majesty and Your Lordships: I ask you to
observe that my books are not all of the same kind.
There are some in which I have dealt with piety in faith and
morals with such simplicity and so agreeably with the Gospels
that my adversaries themselves are compelled to admit them
useful, harmless, and clearly worth reading by a Christian. Even
the Bull, harsh and cruel though it is, makes some of my books
harmless, although it condemns them also, by a judgment downright
monstrous. If I should begin to recant here, what, I beseech you,
would I be doing but condemning alone among mortals, that truth
which is admitted by friends and foes alike, in an unaided
struggle against universal consent?
The second kind consists in those writings leveled against
the
papacy and the doctrine of the papists, as against those who by
their wicked doctrines and precedents have laid waste Christendom
by doing harm to the souls and the bodies of men. No one can
either deny or conceal this, for universal experience and
world-wide grievances are witnesses to the fact that through the
Pope's laws and through man-made teachings the consciences of the
faithful have been most pitifully ensnared, troubled, and racked
in torment, and also that their goods and possessions have been
devoured (especially amongst this famous German nation) by
unbelievable tyranny, and are to this day being devoured without
end in shameful fashion; and that thought they themselves by
their own laws take care to provide that the Pope's laws and
doctrines which are contrary to the Gospel or the teachings of
the Fathers are to be considered as erroneous and reprobate. If
then I recant these, the only effect will be to add strength to
such tyranny, to open not the windows but the main doors to such
blasphemy, which will thereupon stalk farther and more widely
than it has hitherto dared. . . .
The third kind consists of those books which I have written
against private individuals, so-called; against those, that is,
who have exerted themselves in defense of the Roman tyranny and
to the overthrow of that piety which I have taught. I confess
that I have been more harsh against them than befits my religious
vows and my profession. For I do not make myself out to be any
kind of saint, nor am I now contending about my conduct but about
Christian doctrine. But it is not in my power to recant them,
because that recantation would give that tyranny and blasphemy
and occasion to lord it over those whom I defend and to rage
against God's people more violently than ever.
However, since I am a man and not God, I cannot provide my
writings with any other defense than that which my Lord Jesus
Christ provided for His teaching. When He had been interrogated
concerning His teaching before Annas and had received a buffet
from a servant, He said: "If I have spoken evil, bear
witness of the evil." If the Lord Himself, who knew that He
could not err, did not refuse to listen to witness against His
teaching, even from a worthless slave, how much more ought I,
scum that I am, capable of naught but error, to seek and to wait
for any who may wish to bear witness against my teaching.
And so, through the mercy of God, I ask Your Imperial
Majesty,
and Your Illustrious Lordships, or anyone of any degree, to
defeat them by the writings of the Prophets or by the Gospels;
for I shall be most ready, if I be better instructed, to recant
any error, and I shall be the first in casting my writings into
the fire. I have been reminded of the dissensions whcih my teaching
engenders. I can only answer in the words of our Lord. 'I came
not to bring peace but a sword.' If our God is so severe, let us
beware less we release a deluge of wars, lest the reign of our noble
youth, Charles, be inauspicious. Take warning from the examples
of Pharoah, the King of Babylon, and the kings of Israel. God is
who confounds the wise. I must walk in the fear of the
Lord. I say this not to chide but because I cannot escape my duty
to my Germans. I commend myself to your Majesty. May you
not suffer my adversaries to make you ill disposed to me without
cause. I have spoken.
[Dr.
Eck, Archbishop of Trier]: Martin, you have not
sufficiently distinguished your works. The earlier were bad and
the latter worse. Your plea to be heard from the Scripture is the
one always mad by heretics. You do nothing but renew the errors
of Wyclif and Hus. How will the Jews, how will the Turks, exult
to hear Christians discussing whether they have been wrong all these
years! Martin, how can you assume that you are the only one to
understand the sense of Scripture? Would you put your judgment
above that of so many famous men and claim that you know more than they
all? You have no right to call into question the most holy
orthodoz faith, instituted by Christ the perfect lawgiver, proclaimed
throughout the world by the apostles, sealed by the red blood of
martyrs, confirmed by the sacred councils, defoined by the Church in
which all our fathers believed until death and gave us as an
inheritance, and which now we are forbidden by the pope and the emperor
to discuss lest there be no end of debate. I ask you,
Martin--answer candidly and without horns--do you or do you not
repudiate your books and the errors which they contain?
Luther: Your
Imperial Majesty and Your
Lordships
demand a simple answer. Here it is, plain and unvarnished. Unless
I am convicted [convinced] of error by the testimony of Scripture
or (since I put no trust in the unsupported authority of Pope or
councils, since it is plain that they have often erred and often
contradicted themselves) by manifest reasoning, I stand convicted
[convinced] by the Scriptures to which I have appealed, and my
conscience is taken captive by God's word, I cannot and will not
recant anything, for to act against our conscience is neither
safe for us, nor open to us.
On this I take my stand. I can do no other. God help me.
Amen.