Here I Stand...

On January 6, 1521 Martin Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms, a meeting ordered by Charles the V, Emporer of the Holy Roman Empire. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses, along with other books written against the Roman Catholic Church, had sparked such a controversy within the Roman Empire that he was ordered to appear before the Diet and recant his writings. On the first day, the chancellor of the Archbishop of Treves, told Luther to look upon the writings before him and agree to the fact that he had written them. Luther agreed. The chancellor asked Martin Luther to recant but Luther asked for more time saying that he wished to have time to prepare an answer that did not offend God’s Word. Luther was given 24 hours and he returned the next day to give his answer.

Chancellor: Martin Luther, yesterday you begged for a delay that has now expired. Now, therefore, reply to the question put by his majesty, who has behaved to you with so much mildness. Will you defend your books as a whole, or are you ready to disavow some of them?

Luther: Yesterday, two questions were put to me on behalf of his imperial majesty : the first, if I was the author of the books whose titles were enumerated; the second, if I would retract or defend the doctrine I had taught in them. To the first questions I then made answer, and I persevere in that reply. As for the second, I have written works on many different subjects. There are some in which I have treated of faith and good works, in a manner at once so pure, so simple, and so scriptural that even my adversaries, far from finding anything to censure in them, allow that these works are useful and worthy of being read by all pious men. If therefore I were to retract these, what should I do? I alone would abandon truths that friends and enemies approve, and I should oppose what the whole world glories in confessing. Second, I have written books against the papacy, in which I have attacked those who, by their false doctrine, their evil lives, or their scandalous example, afflict the Christian world and destroy both body and soul. If I were to retract these works, I should thus become a vile cloak to cover and conceal every kind of malice and tyranny. Lastly, I have written books against individuals who desired to defend the Roman tyranny and to destroy the faith. I do not recant these writings.

Chancellor: Martin Luther, you have not answered the question put to you. You were not summoed hither to call in question the decisions of the councils. You are required to give a clear and precise answer. Will you or will you not retract?

Luther: Since your most serene majesty and your high mightiness require from me a clear, simple, and precise answer, I will give you one, and it is this: I cannot submit my faith either to the pope or to the councils, because it is clear as the day that they have frequently erred and contradicted each other. Unless therefore I am convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or by the passages I have quoted, and unless they thus render my conscience bound by the Word of God, I cannot and I will not retract, for it is unsafe for a Christian to speak against his conscience. Here I stand; I can do no other; may God help me. Amen.

Chancellor: If you do not retract, the emperor and the states of the empire will consult what course to adopt against an incorrigible heretic.

Luther: May God be my helper; for I can retract nothing