WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE DIET OF WORMS?
“HERE I STAND” — DID LUTHER ACTUALLY SAY IT?
Few scenes from the Reformation are more famous.
Martin Luther stands before the emperor. His books are placed before him. He is asked to withdraw what he has written.
According to the familiar story, Luther answers:
“HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER.”
It is a memorable statement.
But did he actually say those words?
The earliest records of his speech do not contain that famous sentence. The wording appears in later accounts.
That gives us an opportunity to apply our own rule:
TEXT B4 TRADITION.
Even to Martin Luther.
1. HOW DID LUTHER GET TO WORMS?
The controversy had moved a long way since 1517.
Luther began by questioning indulgences. Then he challenged claims about papal authority and the authority of church councils.
In 1520, Pope Leo X issued a document condemning a number of Luther’s teachings and demanding that he retract them.
Luther refused.
He publicly burned a copy of the papal document.
In January 1521, he was excommunicated.
But that did not end the matter.
Luther lived within the Holy Roman Empire, and the controversy had become a political question as well as a religious one.
The emperor was Charles V.
Luther’s case would now come before an imperial assembly.
2. WHAT WAS THE “DIET OF WORMS”?
The name sounds rather strange to modern ears.
Diet did not mean something Luther was eating.
A Diet was an imperial assembly.
And Worms was the German city where it met.
So the Diet of Worms was an assembly of the Holy Roman Empire held in the city of Worms.
Emperor Charles V was there, along with princes and other imperial representatives.
Luther was summoned to appear before them.
3. WHY WOULD LUTHER GO?
That was not a small decision.
A little more than a century earlier, Jan Hus had appeared before the Council of Constance.
He had been condemned and burned at the stake in 1415.
Luther knew that history.
He therefore traveled to Worms under a promise of safe conduct.
His supporters wanted him to receive a hearing rather than simply be arrested.
Luther arrived in Worms on April 16, 1521.
He appeared before the assembly on April 17 and returned the following day.
APRIL 18, 1521, WOULD BECOME ONE OF THE MOST REMEMBERED DATES IN REFORMATION HISTORY.
4. LUTHER EXPECTED TO DEFEND HIS TEACHING
But the proceeding was not simply an open Bible discussion.
Luther’s books were placed before him.
He was asked two basic questions.
Were these books his?
And:
WOULD HE RETRACT THEM?
The first question was straightforward.
Yes. They were his books.
The second question was much more difficult.
Luther asked for time to consider his answer.
He was given until the following day.
5. WHY ASK FOR MORE TIME?
That detail is important.
The popular picture can make Luther appear to stride into the room and immediately deliver a dramatic speech.
The historical account is more complicated.
He understood what was at stake.
Recanting would mean withdrawing teachings he believed were true.
Refusing could expose him to serious consequences.
So he asked for time.
That does not settle whether his teachings were correct.
But it reminds us that the decision before him was serious.
This was not simply a university debate.
6. LUTHER RETURNED ON APRIL 18
The next day, Luther gave a longer answer.
He did not treat all his writings as though they were identical.
He distinguished among books dealing with Christian faith and life, writings criticizing abuses, and writings directed against particular individuals.
He acknowledged that some of his attacks on individuals had been harsher than they should have been.
But he would not simply withdraw everything he had written.
Why?
Now we reach the important part.
7. WHAT DID LUTHER ACTUALLY SAY?
The wording varies somewhat among the surviving accounts and translations.
But the central argument is well attested.
Luther said he could not accept the authority of popes and councils as sufficient reason to retract his writings, because he believed they had sometimes erred and contradicted one another.
He asked to be convinced by:
SCRIPTURE
or:
CLEAR REASON.
He said his conscience was bound by the Word of God.
Unless convinced that he was wrong, he could not retract.
That was the heart of his response.
Notice what Luther was claiming.
He was not simply saying:
“I DISAGREE WITH THE POPE.”
He was arguing that the teachings for which he had been condemned needed to be examined against Scripture.
But that leaves us with another question.
WAS LUTHER’S INTERPRETATION OF SCRIPTURE CORRECT?
His appeal to Scripture did not, by itself, answer that question.
8. WHAT ABOUT “HERE I STAND”?
Here history becomes interesting.
The famous words:
“HERE I STAND. I CAN DO NO OTHER.”
became closely associated with Luther’s appearance at Worms.
They express the position for which he became famous.
But the earliest surviving record of his speech does not include that sentence.
The familiar wording appears in later versions of the account.
So should we quote it?
We can identify it as the traditional version of Luther’s statement.
But we should not present it as a certain verbatim quotation.
Why does that matter?
Because a memorable account is not necessarily an exact record of what happened.
TRADITION CAN MAKE A STORY EASIER TO REMEMBER WITHOUT PRESERVING EVERY WORD ACCURATELY.
That principle applies to Protestant history just as much as it applies to Catholic or Orthodox history.
9. THE MORE IMPORTANT WORDS ARE WELL ATTESTED
Luther did not need the famous sentence to make his point.
His central argument was that his conscience was:
CAPTIVE TO THE WORD OF GOD.
That distinction matters.
He was not merely saying:
“MY CONSCIENCE TELLS ME I AM RIGHT.”
He was claiming:
“MY CONSCIENCE IS BOUND BY WHAT I BELIEVE GOD’S WORD TEACHES.”
But even that claim requires examination.
A person may sincerely believe that Scripture teaches something and still misunderstand the passage.
That brings us to the question of conscience.
10. LUTHER WAS NOT MAKING PERSONAL CONSCIENCE THE FINAL AUTHORITY
Suppose I say:
“MY CONSCIENCE TELLS ME THIS IS RIGHT.”
Does that make it right?
No.
A conscience can be badly informed.
Paul once persecuted Christians while believing he was serving God.
Later, he wrote:
“Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.”
— 1 Timothy 1:13, KJV
Paul had acted in ignorance.
His earlier conviction did not make his conduct right.
So conscience itself cannot be our final standard.
Luther’s argument at Worms was that he believed Scripture required him to maintain his position.
He believed he could not deny what God had taught merely because powerful people ordered him to do so.
But we still must ask whether he had correctly understood the Scriptures.
11. THE NEW TESTAMENT ALSO SPEAKS ABOUT CONSCIENCE
Paul repeatedly speaks about conscience.
He said:
“And herein do I exercise myself, to have always a conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.”
— Acts 24:16, KJV
But conscience can be:
WEAK.
Read 1 Corinthians 8:7.
It can be:
DEFILED.
Read Titus 1:15.
And it can even be:
SEARED.
Read 1 Timothy 4:2.
So simply saying:
“FOLLOW YOUR CONSCIENCE”
is not enough.
We must also ask:
WHAT HAS INFORMED YOUR CONSCIENCE?
For Luther, the answer at Worms was supposed to be the Word of God.
For our study, we need to go one step further.
HAS THE WORD OF GOD BEEN UNDERSTOOD CORRECTLY?
12. WHAT DID LUTHER MEAN BY “CLEAR REASON”?
This also needs care.
Luther was not simply placing human reason above Scripture.
He was asking to be shown why his interpretation was wrong.
That could involve biblical evidence and sound reasoning from that evidence.
This matters because Scripture must be interpreted.
A person can quote a verse and still misuse it.
Satan quoted Scripture to Jesus.
Read Matthew 4:5–7.
The problem was not that the words Satan quoted were absent from Scripture.
The problem was how he used them.
So the question is never merely:
“CAN I FIND A VERSE?”
The question is:
“DOES THE VERSE ACTUALLY MEAN WHAT I SAY IT MEANS?”
13. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY EXEGESIS MATTERS
A Catholic can quote Scripture.
Luther could quote Scripture.
A Lutheran can quote Scripture.
A Baptist can quote Scripture.
A Presbyterian can quote Scripture.
A Church of Christ preacher can quote Scripture.
And two people quoting Scripture can reach opposite conclusions.
So merely saying:
“THE BIBLE SAYS…”
does not end the discussion.
We must ask what the passage means in its context.
Who wrote it?
Who was being addressed?
What problem was being discussed?
How does the passage fit with the rest of the writer’s argument?
Are we drawing our conclusion from the text?
Or bringing our conclusion to it?
That is the difference between:
EXEGESIS — DRAWING MEANING OUT OF THE TEXT.
And:
EISEGESIS — READING OUR OWN IDEAS INTO THE TEXT.
That distinction is important when examining Luther.
It is just as important when examining ourselves.
14. LUTHER’S POSITION WAS DANGEROUS
Think about where Luther was standing.
Before him was the emperor.
Behind the controversy stood the pope.
Luther had already been excommunicated.
Now imperial authority was involved.
He was refusing to withdraw his writings unless he could be shown that they were wrong.
Whatever we ultimately conclude about Luther’s theology, his refusal exposed him to serious danger.
But remember:
COURAGE DOES NOT PROVE TRUTH.
A person can courageously defend something false.
So we still have to examine Luther’s teaching.
15. WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?
Luther was allowed to leave Worms under the protection of his safe conduct.
But soon afterward, Emperor Charles V issued the:
EDICT OF WORMS.
The edict condemned Luther and his writings.
It placed him under the imperial ban and prohibited others from sheltering or assisting him.
The situation had become dangerous.
Then something unexpected happened.
16. LUTHER DISAPPEARED
On his journey home, Luther was intercepted by armed men.
For a time, many people did not know what had happened to him.
Had he been arrested?
Had he been killed?
Actually, the apparent kidnapping had been arranged for his protection.
Luther’s powerful supporter, Frederick the Wise, had him taken secretly to:
WARTBURG CASTLE.
There Luther disappeared from public view.
He lived under an assumed identity.
And he began one of the most influential projects of his life.
17. LUTHER TRANSLATED THE NEW TESTAMENT INTO GERMAN
At Wartburg, Luther worked on a German translation of the New Testament.
Remember what had just happened.
At Worms, Luther had said his conscience was bound by the Word of God.
Now he was helping make that Word available in language ordinary German readers could understand.
Luther was not the first person to translate biblical material into German.
German Bible translations existed before him.
But Luther’s New Testament appeared in 1522, in the age of printing.
Copies could spread widely.
People could read it.
Preachers could use it.
Families could hear it.
The Bible was becoming increasingly accessible beyond the world of clergy and university scholars.
But wider access to Scripture would not settle every disagreement about its meaning.
18. THAT CREATED A NEW PROBLEM
If ordinary people could read Scripture for themselves:
WOULD THEY ALL AGREE?
History would soon show that they did not.
Luther read Scripture.
Zwingli read Scripture.
Calvin read Scripture.
Anabaptists read Scripture.
And they did not always reach the same conclusions.
So perhaps the solution cannot simply be:
“EVERYBODY READ THE BIBLE.”
Something more is needed.
We must learn to examine how each writer uses the text and whether the conclusions being drawn are supported by it.
19. THE QUESTION BECOMES: HOW DO WE READ IT?
This takes us directly to the purpose of Text B4 Tradition.
The Bible can be opened while tradition still controls the reader.
We can read a verse already knowing what we expect it to say.
We can search for passages supporting what our church already believes.
We can ignore passages that create problems.
We can combine verses that were never intended to answer the same question.
We can inherit an interpretation and mistake it for the text itself.
So opening the Bible is only the beginning.
We must learn to:
LET THE TEXT SPEAK IN ITS OWN CONTEXT.
20. THE REFORMATION DID NOT REMOVE TRADITION
This may be one of the most important lessons we will discover.
Protestants sometimes speak as though Catholics have tradition while Protestants simply have the Bible.
History will not allow us to say that.
Lutherans developed traditions.
Reformed churches developed traditions.
Anglicans developed traditions.
Baptists developed traditions.
Methodists developed traditions.
Churches of Christ developed traditions.
And modern nondenominational churches have traditions too.
Some traditions may preserve valuable wisdom.
Some may be harmless.
Some may be mistaken.
But:
EVERYBODY HAS TRADITIONS.
The real question is:
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN OUR TRADITION MEETS THE TEXT?
21. LUTHER’S QUESTION NOW BECOMES OUR QUESTION
At Worms, Luther was essentially asking:
“SHOW ME FROM THE WORD OF GOD.”
That is an important principle.
But we need to take it one step further.
Not merely:
SHOW ME A VERSE.
But:
SHOW ME THAT THE VERSE MEANS THAT.
In context.
Following the writer’s argument.
Taking account of the whole passage.
That requires more work.
But it also helps us distinguish what Scripture actually teaches from what we have become accustomed to hearing.
22. AND NOW SOMETHING UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
Luther challenged Rome.
He appealed to Scripture.
The Bible became more widely available.
The Reformation spread.
So did everyone who rejected Roman authority unite around one understanding of Scripture?
No.
The Reformers began disagreeing with one another.
And one of their sharpest disagreements concerned something Jesus had said at the Last Supper:
“Take, eat; this is my body.”
— Matthew 26:26, KJV
Luther believed those words supported one understanding of the Lord’s Supper.
Ulrich Zwingli understood them differently.
Both appealed to Scripture.
Both believed the other had misunderstood Jesus’ words.
That gives us our next opportunity to practice Text B4 Tradition.
Two Reformers.
One Bible.
One sentence from Jesus.
Different conclusions.
WHY COULDN’T LUTHER AND ZWINGLI AGREE ABOUT THE LORD’S SUPPER?
TEXT B4 TRADITION
Read First. Conclude Later.
RETURN TO MAIN SERIES: ONE CHURCH, SO MANY DIVISIONS—WHAT HAPPENED?
NEXT STUDY: WHY COULDN’T LUTHER AND ZWINGLI AGREE ABOUT THE LORD’S SUPPER?