§ ὅ8. THE DIET OF WORMS. 1521. 287
§ 53. The Diet of Worms. 1521.
I. Sources. Acta et res geste 1). M. Luth. in Comitiis ‘Principum Wor-
On
matie. Anno 1521. 4°. Acta Lutheri in Comitiis Wormatie ed. Pollicarius, Viteb. 1546. These and other contemporary documents are reprinted in the Jena ed. of Luther’s Opera (1557), vol. II.; in WALcH’s German ed., vols. XV., 2018-2325, and XXII., 2026 sqq.; and the Erlangen-Frankf. ed. of the Opera Lat., vol. VI. (1872); Vermischte deutsche Schriften, vol. XII. (or Saémmtl. Werke, vol. LXIV., pub. 1855), pp. 366-383. FORSTEMANN: Neues Urkundenbuch, 1842, vol. I. LUTHER’s Letters to Spalatin, Cuspinianus, Lucas Cranach, Charles V., etc., see in DE WETTE, I. 586 sqq. SPALATIN: Ann. Spalatin is also, according to Kostlin, the author of the contemporary pamphlet: Etliche wunderliche fleissige Handlung in D. M. Luther's Sachen durch geistliche und weltliche Fiirsten des Reich’s ; but Brieger (in his “‘ Zeitschrift fiir Kirchengesch.,’? Gotha, 1886, p. 482 sqq.) ascribes it to Rudolph von Watzdorf.
the Roman-Cath. side, CocHLAus (who was present at Worms); PAL- LAVICINI (who used the letters of Aleander); and especially the letters and dispatches of ALEANDER, now published as follows: JOHANN FRIEDRICH: Der Reichstag zu Worms im Jahr 1521. Nach den Briefen des pdpstlichen Nuntius Hieronymus Aleander. In the ‘ Abhandlungen der Bayer. Akad.,’’ vol. XI. Munchen, 1870. ῬΊΕΤΗΟ BALAN (R. Cath.): Monumenta Reform. Lutherane ex tabulariis 5. Sedis secretis. 1521-1525. Ratisb. Fasc. 1., 1883. Contains Aleander’s reports from the papal archives, and is one of the first fruits of the liberal policy of Leo XIII. in opening the literary treasures of the Vatican. THEOD. BRIEGER (Prof. of Ch. Hist. in Leipzig): Aleander und Luther, 1521. Die vervolistandigten Aleander-Depeschen nebst Untersuchungen iiber den Wormser Reichstag. 1 Abth. Gotha, 1884 (815 pages). Gives the Aleander dispatches in Italian and Latin from a MS. in the library of Trent, and supplements and partly corrects, in the chronology, the edition of Balan.
II. Special Treatises. BoyE: Luther zu Worms. Halle, 1817, 1824. Zim-
MER: Luther zu Worms. Heidelb. 1521. TuzscHMANN: Luther in Worms. Darmstadt, 1860. Sox~pan: Der Reichstag zu Worms. Worms, 1863. Sreirz: Die Melanchthon- und Luther-Herbergen zu Frankfurt-a.-M, Frankf., 1861. Contains the reports of the Frankfurt delegate Fiirstenberg, and other documents. HENNES (R. Cath.): M. Luther’s Aufenthalt in Worms. Mainz, 1868. Waxutz: Der Wormser Reichstag und seine Beziehungen zur reformator. Bewegung, in the “‘Forschungen zur deutschen Gesch.”’ Gottingen, 1868, VIII. pp. 21-44. DAN. SCHENKEL: Luther in Worms. Elberfeld, 1870. JuL. KOsTLIn: Luther’s Rede in Worms am 18, April, 1521. Halle, 1874 (the best on
288 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
Luther’s famous declaration). MAURENBRECHER: Der Wormser Reichstag von 1521, in his *‘ Studien und Skizzen zur Gesch. der Reform. Zeit,’’ Leipzig, 1874-(pp. 241-275); also in his Gesch. der kathol. Reformation, Nordlingen, 1880, vol. I., pp. 181-201. KARL JANSEN (not to be confounded with the Rom.-Cath. Janssen): Aleander am Reichstage zu Worms, 1521. Kiel, 1883 (72 pages). Corrects Friedrich’s text of Aleander’s letters. Tu. KoLpDE: Luther und der Reichstag zu Worms. 2d ed. Halle, 1883. BrizGrer: Neue Mittheilungen tuber L. in Worms. Program to the Luther jubilee, Marburg, 1883 (a critique of Balan’s Monumenta). KALKOoFF: Germ. transl. of the Aleander Dispatches, Halle, 1886. ELTER: Luther u. der Wornser Reichstag. Bonn, 1886. III. RANKg, I. 311-343. GIESELER, IV. 56-58 (Am. ed.). MERLE D’AUB., Bk. VII. chs. 1.-ΧῚ. Hagrnpacn, III. 103-109. G. P. FISHER, pp. 108-111. ΚΌΒΤΙΙΝ, chs. XVII. and XVIII. (I. 411-466). Kops, I. 325 sqq. JANSSEN (R. Cath.), 11. 131-166. G. WEBER: Das Zeitalter der Reformation (vol. X. of his Weltgeschichte), Leipzig, 1886, pp. 162- 178. BAUMGARTEN: Gesch. Karls V. Leipzig, 1885, vol. 1. 379-460.
On the 28th of January, 1521, Charles V. opened his first Diet at Worms. This was a free imperial city on the left bank of the Rhine, in the present grand-duchy of Hesse.’ It is famous in German song as the scene of the Mebelungenlied, which opens with King Gunther of Worms and his sister Chriemhild, the world’s wonder for grace and beauty. It is equally famous in ecclesiastical history for “the Concordat of Worms,” which brought to an end the long contest between the Emperor and the Pope about investiture (Sept. 29, 1122). But its greatest fame the city acquired by Luther’s heroic stand on the word of God and the rights of conscience, which made the Diet of 1521 one of the most important in the history of German Diets. After that event two conferences of Protestant and Roman-Catholic leaders were held in Worms, to heal the breach of the Reformation, —one in 1541, and one in 1557; but both failed of their object. In
1 Worms is 26 miles 5. 5. E. of Mainz (Mayence or Mentz, the ancient Moguntiacum, the capital of Rhenish Hesse since 1815), and has now over 20,000 inhabitants, about one-half of them Protestants, but in the beginning of the seventeenth century it had 70,000. It was almost destroyed under Louis XTV. (1683). The favorite German wine, Liebfrauenmilch, is cultivate! in its neighborhood. H. Boos, Urkundenbuch der Stadt Worms, Berlin, 1886.