58 - Luther and Diet of Worms

All right We are Continuing I've totally lost track of how many sessions we're up to but Now we're 50

Haven't hit 60 yet Okay 58 all right

Church history sessions and We are still in Visit in Deutschland hoiter

We are in the German German Reformation currently with brother

Martin and last time we were together we discussed the Dispute oshio that took place in Leipzig and You will recall

I hope that one of the Primary well the primary opponent that Luther faced

Luther and Andreas Karlstadt represented the University of Wittenberg and the

University of Leipzig was represented by a man by the name of Johann Eck and Eck was a brilliant guy brilliant debater

Eck won the debate by not debating indulgences, but by debating papal pronouncements he moved from the issue

Of indulgences to authority I can almost guarantee you that's what's going to happen June 4th in Dublin as well

I'm not Dublin Belfast when I debate a Roman Catholic apologist on the exact same issue of indulgences and It's going to go back to the issue of authority and the church's authority to define these things and so on and so forth and so this is where Luther is very strongly challenged to think through the foundations of his

Theology it's one thing to come to the conclusion of justification by faith

It's it's another thing to deal with the claims of the papacy and that being the foundation of those those beliefs and so If you're thinking about the solas of the

Reformation which of course is a backward looking definition in other words we looked back into history and Looking at Reformation teaching have said ah we here are the key issues in the form of solas so the what's called the

Material principle of the Reformation that which made up the the matter of the proclamation

It's called sola fide faith alone as the mechanism of justification not faith plus penances and works and sacraments and so on so forth, but Sola gratia grace alone sola fide faith alone

Faith alone is the material principle of the Reformation the formal principle that which gives form to the

Reformation however is sola scriptura Scripture as the sole infallible rule of faith of the church, and it is in Leipzig especially that Luther is forced to begin to See this and to formulate it in a in a clearer fashion

We have in the past over the past more than a year. We've been doing this study now

Seen early church fathers Who had enunciated the concept of sola scriptura

But that obviously had become eclipsed by the tradition of the church during the medieval period and so now you see one of those

Issues in the Reformation Returning us back to that it is a issue for every generation of the church

It is certainly a an issue in our generation as well not just in the sense of possible other religious authorities being brought in but especially in our day simply in the idea of the existence of Scripture at all the existence of Revelation at all is unfortunately

If you if you truly believe that God has given special revelation over against mere

General revelation in creation You are in a minority now amongst those who would call themselves

Christians or around the world especially a minority in the theological positions being enunciated in Seminaries and things like that so so as I mentioned when

Luther is traveling back from Leipzig He is very Pensive he is very thoughtful as to what has taken place during that time it was a very important Encounter but upon returning to Wittenberg he found himself a popular hero

With offers of protection coming in from armed camps that were opposed to papal influences again the rise of nationalism and things like that you might refer to him as sort of the estate militias of the old world in a sense and He's not really sure how to handle that kind of thing and so he begins to write and 1520 especially is the year of Luther's Explosion of we would call them pamphlets or booklets.

They weren't extensively long in in nature, but You can see all of these books

I have Pictures of them if I've taken the time to bring the computer and set up the projector and all the rest that stuff

I'd show you some of this stuff But you can see all of them if you ever visit

Wittenberg in the in the Luther house there They have most of these pamphlets original editions on display that you can take a take a look at In May he publishes his sermon on good works

And then in June the papacy at Rome in August the address to the

German nobility Which had a lot of political and social ramifications to it in September the

Babylonian captivity of the church likewise along those lines and in November a book that I read through last year the freedom of the

Christian man, which is a wonderful very pastoral

There really wouldn't be anything that you would find I think objectionable in In the freedom of the

Christian man, especially it remains. I think a relevant and useful work to this this day

These works all showed how deep the split had become for Luther especially because of the disputation in Leipzig These are

Protestant works in the true sense of the word even though the term Protestant didn't exist yet If you want to if you want to know when the term

Protestant origin is 1529 So we're only in 1520 so it's that the terms going to come about a decade later but in the sense of showing a conceptual break on Luther's part

With Rome and with the papacy all of these books and these are gonna be the primary books that When he is tried before Charles at the

Diet of Worms are going to be on the table And he's going to be asked if he will

Renounce what is in these books and it's especially to that book the freedom of the Christian man that Luther is referring to him

He says how can I renounce all these things? There's many things in them that even my worst opponents will admit are true and Christian and valid and and You know, how can

I renounce the things that everyone agrees are non -renounceable? These could be the books that are going to going to be there now on June 15th 1520 the

Pope promulgated the bull now if you have promulgated the bull that sounds interesting If you have watched

The videos and if you're visiting, I apologize jumping in the middle of things but there's really nothing you can do about that when you're doing a whole series in church history, but as we started the section on the

Reformation I Recommended to the class that you take the time. They're free on YouTube. So pretty much everybody has access to these things

Watching a couple of videos and you still have time to watch the radicals because it's gonna take us a while to get to the

Anabaptists, but Especially to watch the BBC production Martin Luther heretic or the 2004

Martin Luther movie either one will both If you had time would be would be fine

You will see the rather dramatic

Representation of the promulgation of this papal bull By Leo the 10th and it's entitled exerge a domine exerge a domine arise

Oh Lord a Wild boar has broken out in your vineyard

And It is a a bowl of excommunication against Martin Luther and Luther received the bull on October 10th and He was given 60 days to submit to that bowl

Instead 60 days later on December 10th At a an oak that is no longer there, but other oaks have grown in its place

It's a long time for oaks to live for 500 years in Germany But as you if you take the train to Wittenberg and get off at the stop there as you walk toward the main street where Luther house is and then on the other side of of The town square is where the castle church is

But if you walk that direction you will pass a little corner and If you look closely, you'll see a there is a plaque there that will tell you but It sort of goes down a little bit sort of a depression.

There is actually a running trail that goes sort of through there Mapped out most the running trails in Wittenberg got to teach there last year in May So I was sort of trying to figure out where to run the cobblestones are not fun to run on So it's best to find something else anyway

There is a little depression there next in this area. There's some oak trees and sort of the first corner you come to and This is where Luther joined a group of enthusiastic students who were burning

Roman theological works and burned the papal bull along with them and so You know the

Video presentation a movie presentation is him holding it up over the flames and by this bull

I am condemned by Rome by this bull Rome stands condemned before God and then you throw it in the flames and it burns and There you go

He had already in November Published a track titled against the execrable bull of Antichrist So he's not not really trying to get along real well at this point with with the

Pope though years later Years later there is still

Some Hope on his part maybe of some type of Reformation within Rome itself, but That's going to come

I think with some political developments to take place a little bit later on Now you may recall

I mentioned the Maximilian the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire had died. This is one of the reasons that Rome and the state were slow to move against Luther and That Charles the fifth had been elected as Holy Roman Empire as Holy Roman Emperor and had promised upon his election to give a hearing to anyone before condemning them and so on November 4th

Charles agreed to hear Luther at the upcoming Diet of Worms now the

Holy Roman Empire Was governed by an emperor, but there were electors who would meet in diets every few years

I Think there's wisdom in that. Can you imagine how much better things would be if Congress only met every few years?

Just think about how much smaller the budget would be if If Congress only met every few years

And that's what they did partly obviously in those days because of how long it took you to travel from one place to to another and So the

Diet of Worms was scheduled for the early part of 15 21 it's actually opened on January 27th of 1521

The diet had to take up the situation with Luther as the papacy was pushing for enforcement of Luther's excommunication the

German delegation as a whole strongly resisted and given that it was

Frederick's vote that had gotten Charles elected Charles agreed to allow

Luther to appear before the diet promising him to listen promising him safe conduct to and from the meeting

Now I say listen because if you're thinking back it wasn't all that long ago

That we encountered another figure in church history that had likewise

Been given safe conduct and safe passage to a major meeting and that was the

Council of Constance and the individual was Jan Huss and You remember what happened to Jan Huss?

He was burned at the stake by the Council of Constance and so This did

Now cross Luther's mind now that he had become significantly more aware of Huss's beliefs

He certainly was aware of the fact that Huss had been given safe conduct promise of safe conduct and So it is very clear from his letters that Luther in going to the

Diet of Worms expects to die He expects this is going to be his his fate in in going

So many people said many people in in Germany said to Luther don't be an idiot

Don't go You know and It is said the the again so much of this is somewhat legendary

But many of the legends do have at least a germ of truth in them it is said that as Luther rode in a in a cart to Worms Especially obviously while he's in friendly areas there are crowds come out to meet him

Frequently they stop and he will say some words or preach a short sermon But he is being greatly lauded

By the German people as he's going but as he actually enters into Worms on one of the walls next to the main road

Someone had scrawled on the wall Luther the

Saxon Huss Luther the Saxon Huss and so He could not help but see this this kind of thing and it would obviously reinforce in his mind the fact that he is basically been called to die and That he is standing for what he has come to believe to be true and So he arrives in Worms on April 16th of 1521

He was first called before the Emperor on April 17th at 4 p .m.

in the afternoon And so again, you've seen the dramatic portrayals of this

But you we We cannot go and visit the building any longer it is an open field now and There is a marker

To commemorate the location but the building was a wooden building wooden buildings burn easily they didn't have fire codes back in those days and that building actually stood however from 1521 for another 168 years and Was burned to the ground during some disturbances in the city of Worms Interestingly enough in a year that we all can easily remember 1689

So you can always remember when what Why is that?

You don't know why that's easy to remember If you'd attend if you'd attend the earlier part of the Sunday school, you would know why it's easier to remember

So Yes, I did not know that until standing there this past September and There was a guide guy that gave a little little chat it's like 1689 ha that's funny.

We had nothing to do with it. We didn't do it. Don't blame us But yeah, that's when

That's when it was burned down So you can't you know, we can't recreate Those scenes anymore.

I mean in some of the movies they actually shot in the actual locations so We could for example if we did a movie and I wish someone would on That what's called the

Marburg colloquy. We'll get to it a little later on Next week probably We could go and and shoot in that room and actually recreate what that would have

Looked like and in the 2004 Luther movie there's a scene where Luther and Staupitz are

Luther's scrubbing the floor after he comes back from Rome in 1510 and he's very upset about what he's seen the corruption of the church and and That was shot in the hallway right outside the chapel

Where Luther was ordained and I've got a neat picture that sort of recreates that exact spot We had a little bit of a

Lecture in one of the rooms right off of right off that So you could we could do that.

We can't do that with this this building But if you can imagine it probably wasn't the most brightly lit place and so he is called in and and he has shown his books and asked if they are his and This would primarily be those those books that we were just mentioning to you.

He admitted that they were he was then asked if he would recant anything that they contained and as as I mentioned one of his first responses is well

You have to be more specific because there's obviously a tremendous amount in these books.

It's just simple basic Christian faith, I'm not I can't recant those things

It had already been decided that this was not going to be a debate and it was not going to really be a discussion you either recant or you're condemned one or or the other and There's a lot of discussion now at this at this point in history

Why did Luther ask for 24 hours to consider? Was it because he wasn't being given a chance to speak and hoped to Ask Frederick or someone else for more opportunity to speak was he just Concerned about losing his life very quickly

What are what are the motivations? Well, we don't have video cameras. We don't have He wasn't wearing a heart rate monitor for us to know how nervous he was at that particular point in time things like that So we we don't know

But he asked for 24 hours to consider We know that he did Agonize in prayer that night and at 6 p .m.

On April 18th appeared before the Emperor once again and as he

Was once again, and this is interesting the Translator For the

Emperor was a man by name Johan Eck Now it's interesting there are some

I have read some works of history that Identify this

Johan Eck as the same Johan Eck that Luther had debated in Leipzig other sources

Say no, it was someone else the same name now. I found that to be fascinating My assumption is that some of those sources are just assuming there could have only been one

Johan Eck back then and Therefore it's the same guy. I think that would have introduced not only a really interesting dynamic, but a problematic dynamic for for Luther So and besides that I think you can pretty well prove that Eck was in Rome at this time anyways

So it was somebody else I think than the the

Johan Eck that would be his lifelong enemy but again, he's asked and Luther again attempts to engage he's accused of being evasive and It is that point where you you get his

Mini sermon that we have heard many times That fundamentally if you listen to it carefully and again, this is cobbled together from the memories the the the written

Records of the event do not exist today Instead you have those who are in attendance being asked questions sometimes many decades later as to what specifically was said as well as Luther's own recollection and Basically what he he says is since you demand a direct answer then

I will give you a direct answer He says it is not safe to go against one's conscience it is clearly evident that Popes and councils have contradicted each other now

That was sort of an accepted reality and truth in that day It would not be after the 1870s when you have the definition of Vatican one and the concept of papal infallibility but that hadn't developed yet and so it was

Not an overly controversial statement to say that Popes and councils have contradicted

Themselves, but by saying that What Luther is saying is there is a higher?

Authority than Popes and councils He asks to be shown he says I have asked to be shown from scripture or plain reason the errors in The books that you are demanding that I recant and you have not shown me these things

So I cannot go against conscience. I am I am held captive by my conscience and then some

Versions contain this some do not some historians will say that's obviously later edition others don't

But you you know the the famous line Here stay issues punished Anders got health of me here.

I stand I can do no other God help me and He turns some

Accounts say that he raised his arms and what was a sort of Teutonic Knight Yeah touchdown type type thing

I'm not sure that touchdown really would be the best way to describe it, but Others yeah, yeah

Yeah That's a new one. That's a thing Yeah, Mike drop

Man church history is going right down the tubes. It's just I take full responsibility once again

But it was appropriate that is that is sort of sort of what it what it would have represented in that that time period

Maybe a little bit better of a illustration than touchdown three -pointer something whatever Yeah, switch nothing but net we can do all sorts of illustrations here, but we're wasting our time and So he

He gives this final answer The next day Charles gave his decision against Luther the diet still quite behind Luther requested what all politicians do a

Committee yeah If you want to kill something, what do you do you assign it to a committee ask my

Presbyterian brother? And they just all like oh It's a committee. Yeah there we go

So they requested a committee to examine the issue Luther left verms on April 26th, so he

Stayed around for a while actually And he leaves verms on April 26 now.

What's what's Interesting is the final condemnation

By the diet of verms of Luther is not promulgated until May 26th a month later and at that point almost all the

German electors had already left go home This was purposeful

Charles is Doing what he has to do in light of the pressure from Rome But he's also allowing people like Frederick and others to you know have some level of Deniability or I didn't vote for it.

I wasn't there Type of situation you know that there were conversations going on Off the record over dinner in dark rooms and things like that.

It's very you know this is a lot of political material Included here

So Luther leaves April 26 and There's a lot you know he's got safe conduct but once he's back home that safe conduct is done and If the

Empire has condemned you Then the precedent is that those in charge

In your local area now must do what the Emperor says and arrest you and turn you over to Ecclesiastical authorities

For your condemnation and then eventually your execution But as you know and again this always becomes

Dramatized in a very interesting way because no one really knows how this how this worked out

Frederick very Surreptitiously and secretly so much so that he did not want to know where Luther was taken so he could literally say

I Don't know where Luther is tells his lieutenants his underlings to take care of Luther take him to a safe place and don't let anybody know where it is and So While traveling back toward Wittenberg Luther is kidnapped and The men who are traveling with Luther are not in on this so all of a sudden.

They're armed men masked armed men that Intercept them in the woods

They take Luther and the last they see of Luther is he's on a horse riding into the woods and boom he's gone so Immediately as the word spreads there is

You know were they just highway robbers Has he been kidnapped was he murdered was he thrown down a well someplace?

Nobody knows and so now this becomes the great subject of discussion where is

Luther and who Has him well he is taken to one of Luther one of Frederick's castles the

Vartberg castle and in Thuringia It is

It's an impressive Impressive building I will have to admit

You know this is this might This might actually be be big enough

My screen here, I mean not not really but Let me just Show you here real real quick it if you if you go

To to Germany I would highly recommend Swinging by and and visiting the castle

Let's see here, which what's a good a good picture, so I've got some great pictures from up at the top

But yeah, that's a That's a pretty decent one Yeah, it's not bad.

That's this is the castle today Vartberg castle and You know it's not your super British Style you know cannon sticking out the top type thing that's not really what it what it was designed to be but it's

It certainly has a commanding view of the of the countryside you can only see one of the towers there there is a second tower

That will become important at a later Time in our study when we were talking about some other people

But here's the the second tower sort of hidden behind the first one at the angles. We're looking at that's me saying at the bottom of it but it's it's not as big, but it is a actually a

Place where you can keep prisoners Buried deep inside of that and we will talk about one of the prisoners that was kept there a little bit later on So Luther is taken to the

Vartberg and a fairly elaborate system of secrecy is developed for him to Be able to communicate with a very small select group of people.

He's there for ten months so the ten month With what's called the flying return to Wittenberg for just a matter of like a day in December of that year

But he Takes a new name while he's there He takes the name of Junker Yorg night

George He grows out his hair and his beard almost as long as the brothers over here.

I suppose not quite and He Takes on a new identity.

He is hiding there and Changes look so much that he was able to travel and to actually talk with people about Luther on the way

When they would stop at an inn or something like what do you think of that Luther guy, you know? Well, he's really interesting.

No, okay I'm sorry

Not quite no I would not I would not make that that connection at all In fact, that's probably a heretical connection, but we'll deal with that later

Anyway Now he is What he he does during that ten months is amazing

The correspondence he keeps up as most everybody knows The most important thing that he does during the ten months that he's there is he translates the entirety of the

New Testament into German and the Luther Bibble He would later at Wittenberg with the help of Philip Melanchthon and others

Translate the Old Testament as well and create the Luther Bible, which is so very

Important in in solidifying the German language even to this day just as the King James Solidified English in many ways almost always in the

Bible is first translated into a language it it ends up Having a huge impact

But the Lutheran emphasis upon education literacy and the reading of the Bible incredibly important to the advancement of the the

German nation and the German people as as a whole and if you are if you're able to work with the original languages you realize that the translation of the entirety of the

New Testament is not a small task and Luther had to in essence develop an entire set of translational principles to to accomplish this task and he sort of went more of an

NIV route than an NASB route and He was sort of forced to do that because there are so many different dialects of German that to try to be explicitly formal

Or literal in your translation sometimes there just weren't German words to do it now. You know if you if you know anything about German What Germans tend to do when they need a new word is they just take a bunch of their old words and smack them into a really really really long word

That almost nobody else can actually pronounce And I mean that's that's just am

I am I not am I speaking the truth. Yeah, that's that's mm -hmm. Yes Yeah, well yeah, yeah

Krankenhaus and all sorts of yeah, yeah, that's exactly And so He had to you know he had to develop develop vocabulary and Translational principles and that would have been enough, but when you look at the correspondence he was dealing with theological issues

Eventually he's in correspondence with with Andreas Karlstadt With one of Frederick's right -hand men is sort of in charge of taking care of Luther Philip Melanchthon Using code words as to where he's going what's he's doing and all the rest of this kind of stuff is fascinating to read

If you decide you want to read up on it, then let me just warn you ahead of time This is also where his letters describe his physical problems

You really had to be one of you really had to be a good friend to Luther to put up with this portion of his discussion he blamed his problems on his rigorous fasting as a monk and They both movies mention it, but very

Briefly and sort of on the sly, but basically the man had a case of constipation.

It sounds like it should have been fatal And He was in agony

I wouldn't be able to translate the New Testament into any language If I was going through what

Luther described he would be going through for days and days and days on end It is surprising that he that he he survived what he describes in these letters and so Ah the only one other story that I'll share with you was

At one point the men at the Vartburg Convinced him and we know what room he stayed in you can go in there and and You can you can look around if anything was when when we walked in They If there's a big old sign right there that says no photographs

So you know being the the good doobie that I am I? Didn't get my phone out and and take a picture

My wife walks in I said you know she sees the sign takes her phone phone out takes picture

Luther's room in the end of Hartford Castle. This is where he did the translational work and All the rest that fun fun stuff is here in this this room and the

Vartburg Castle it did not have a picture of him on the wall at the time That's that is a later later edition obviously

But one of the Yes, I just swiped a picture from my wife later on, but made me feel less guilty, and it's like what

I? Never took a picture while I was in there no

I didn't but I do have one so two of them actually anyway the the people to Vartburg Convinced Luther that he needed to get out

Get some fresh air and so Come hunting with us. Well. We're gonna.

We're gonna go hunting and Luther is like I'm not a hunter and Come on younger

York. Let's okay, okay, so So Luther is out with these these guys, and they're hunting rabbits and These hounds

Know they're using hounds to scare them up and stuff like that well Somewhere along the line somehow this frightened rabbit runs up to Luther and so Luther picks up the little bunny rabbit, and He's you know he's he's holding the little little bunny rabbit and the hounds come upon him and They smell the rabbit and he hides it in the the big cloak

The you know the fold of the cloak of his in his arm well the hounds can smell it and they bite in They kill the rabbit in The sleeve of his coat

They crush it and he gave me probably the bones crushing and all the rest that they kill the poor rabbit in the sleeve of his cloak, and he is just He's mortified

That this cute little furry rabbit. He didn't go hunting anymore after that And and of course what he did is he ended up using it as an illustration of his letters that You know he's the he's the frightened rabbits

Hiding from the the demons of hell and the Pope that are going to crush him in you know wherever it is he's hiding and Comes up with a spiritual application to the the horrific situation that's that Is taking place so?

So anyway obviously once Luther disappears

Things aren't just going to stay the same in Wittenberg and So who is sort of next in command well

Philip Melanchthon was a really young young young man I mean, I think he became I think he was 21 and became professor of Hebrew, so he was he was a young guy

So Andreas Karlstadt Who had been with Luther at Leipzig and Has been you know he's represented in the films in a number of different ways is it's a little bit

Not sure what that exactly means yeah, but you can sort of interpret it as you wish Takes over and he begins radicalizing things rather quickly and so you have iconoclasm you have destruction of Images and statues

Karlstadt stops wearing clerical clothing This type of thing and as I mentioned to you before he announces for example in the

December That he is going to give the

Lord's Supper in both kinds Both the bread and the wine the wine had been taken away from the people for hundreds of years on New Year's of the next year and Frederick hears about and says oh, no you're not and so being the dutiful obedient person

Karlstadt does it on Christmas Eve instead and I used that story in the sermon that I preached in the castle church in September Because that's where we were where it happened and you just see the peasants flooding in there and the the tumult that resulted and Some of the applications from that on December 3rd and 4th so before that happened

December 3rd and 4th Luther makes is called a flying return to Wittenberg He has heard that things are sort of spiraling out of control and so he he returns back and when he's there

It's before this stuff with Karlstadt with the Lord's Supper. It's before what are called as wickow prophets came into town

We'll talk about them next week and So it doesn't look like it's really all that crazy when he gets there

It's sort of quiet, and so he doesn't really have a super accurate picture

But he sort of you know tells Karlstadt and everybody hey, you know I'm still alive

I'll be back eventually Be cool. Don't get Frederick too upset etc.

Etc. and So This is the situation toward the end of December When Another group shows up this wickow prophets will pick up try to remember remind me

Brick somebody remind me to pick up with this wickow prophets on the on our next lesson, okay?

We have run out of time All right, let's close time word of prayer Father once again.

We do. Thank you for the opportunity of looking back of seeing your work in the past May the light that we gain from that study guide us

Through your spirit and your word today as we seek to be faithful in our day. We pray in Christ's name