I first came across the Diet of Worms when I was studying O-level
History. It was satisfyingly revolting for a 15-year-old boy - until I realised
that Worms was a place in Germany, and the word Diet meant Council. So when
Martin Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms in 1521 it wasn’t to force him
into a new food regime, but to make him answer before the imperial authorities
for the doctrines he had been proclaiming.
Famously Luther, an Augustinian priest and friar, was said to have
nailed his 95 Theses to the door of
the Castle Church in Wittenberg on 31st October 1517. In them he
took issue with what he saw as the fundamental errors being perpetrated in the
Church of his day - notably the selling of “Indulgences,” a supposed way of
buying yourself out of Purgatory while actually financing the building of St. Peter’s
Basilica in Rome. Which is why this
month is being celebrated (or not
celebrated) as the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. There’s
more to it than that of course - and many historians have concluded that Luther
never did actually nail his argument to the door. Others deny that at the Diet
of Worms he uttered the words, “Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me.”
But these arguments shouldn’t get in the way of the fact that the
thinking and actions of Luther were critical in religious and world history.
Popular history thinks of the Reformation in this country as being due to Henry
VIII deciding to create his own Church if he couldn’t get what he wanted from
the Pope. In fact Henry got his title Defender
of the Faith from the Pope for opposing Luther’s doctrines. Henry wanted to
be a Catholic, but on his own terms. Luther, on the other hand, struggled to
live his Catholicism until his reading of the Bible and his conscience took him
elsewhere - and he could have lost his life for maintaining what he believed.
Taken from the October issue of our Parish Magazine - find it online here
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