Worms, a German Bible, and the Hard Parts of the Record

By 1520 the argument had moved well past indulgences. In three treatises of that year Luther denied that the pope alone may interpret scripture, reduced the sacraments from seven to two or three, and set out the freedom of the Christian: perfectly free lord of all, subject to none, and at the same time perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to everyone. He was excommunicated in January 1521.

In April he was summoned before the emperor and the imperial diet at Worms, shown his books, and asked whether he would recant. He asked for a day to consider, and then refused, saying that unless he were convinced by scripture and plain reason his conscience was captive to the word of God and that it was neither safe nor right to go against conscience. The words here I stand appear in the printed version and not in the earliest transcripts. He was declared an outlaw, and was taken into protective custody at the Wartburg by his own prince, where in eleven weeks he translated the New Testament into German. The complete Bible followed in 1534, and its effect on the German language is usually compared to the effect of the King James Version on English.

Two parts of the record are ugly and the atlas states them rather than passing over them. In 1525, when the peasants rose citing his own writings, he published a pamphlet urging the princes to strike them down without mercy. And in his last years he wrote violently against the Jews, in terms later put to use by others; Lutheran churches have since formally repudiated those writings.