8 ὅ8. THE DIET OF WORMS. 1521. 289
1868 (June 25) a splendid monument to Luther and his fellow-laborers by Rietschel was erected at Worms, and dedicated with great national enthusiasm.
The religious question threw all the political and financial questions into the background, and absorbed the attention of the public mind.
At the very beginning of the Diet a new papal brief called upon the Emperor to give, by an imperial edict, legal force to the bull of January ὃ, by which Luther was finally excommunicated, and his books condemned to the flames. The Pope urged him to prove his zeal for the unity of the Church. God had girded him with supreme earthly power, that he might use it against heretics who were much worse than infidels. On Maundy Thursday, March 28, the Pope, in proclaiming the terrible bull In Coaena Domini, which is annually read at Rome, expressly condemned, among other heretics, Martin Luther by name with all his adherents. This was the third or fourth excommunication, but produced little effect.
The Pope was ably represented by two Italian legates, who were afterwards created cardinals, — Marino Caracciolo (1459-1538) for the political affairs, and Jerome Aleander (1480-1542) for the ecclesiastical interests. Aleander was at that time librarian of the Vatican, and enjoyed great reputation as a Greek scholar. He had lectured at Paris before two thousand hearers of all classes. He stood in friendly
1 See description of the celebration by Dr. Friedrich Eich, Gedenkbldtter, Worms, 1868; and his book on the controversy about the locality of the Diet, In welchem Locale stand Luther zu Worms vor Kaiser und Reich? Leipzig, 1863. He decides for the Bishofshof (against the Rathhaus).
2 “* Multo deteriores hereticos.’’ The new papal bull of eondemnation, together with a brief to the Emperor, arrived in Worms the 10th of February. Aleander addressed the Diet three days after, on Ash Wednesday. Ranke, I. 329. Koéstlin, I., 422 sq.
ὃ Luther published this bull afterwards with biting, abusive, and contemptuous comments, under the title, Die Bulla vom Abendfressen des aller-
heiligsten Herrn, des Papsts. In Walch XV. 2127 sqq. Merle d’Aubigné gives characteristic extracts, Bk. VII. ch. 5.
290 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1580.
relations to Erasmus; but when the latter showed sympathy with the Reformation, he denounced him as the chief founder of the Lutheran heresy. He was an intense papist, and skilled in all the arts of diplomacy. His religious wants were not very pressing. During the Diet of Worms he scarcely found time, in the holy week, “to occupy himself a little with Christ and his conscience.” His sole object was to maintain the power of the Pope, and to annihilate the new heresy. In his letters he calls Luther a fool, a dog, a basilisk, a ribald. He urged everywhere the wholesale burning of his books.!. He employed argument, persuasion, promises, threats, spies, and bribes. He complained that he could not get money enough from Rome for greedy officials. He labored day and night with the Emperor, his confessor, and the members of the privy council. He played on their fears of a popular revolution, and reminded them of the example of the Bohemians, the worst and most troublesome of heretics. He did not shrink from the terrible threat, “If ye Germans who pay least into the Pope’s treasury shake off his yoke, we shall take care that ye mutually kill yourselves, and wade in your own blood.” He addressed the Diet, Feb. 13, in a speech of three hours, and contended that Luther’s final condemnation left no room for a further hearing of the heretic, but imposed upon the Emperor and the Estates the simple duty to execute the requirements of the papal bull.
The Emperor hesitated between his religious impulses — which were decidedly Roman Catholic, though with a leaning towards disciplinary reform through a council —and political considerations which demanded caution and forbearance. He had already taken lessons in the art of dissimu-
1 Janssen, who praises him very highly, remarks (II. 144): ‘‘Um der Haresie Einhalt zu thun, hielt Aleander die Verbrennung der lutherischen Bicher fiir ein iiberaus geeignetes Mittel.’? But I can not see why he sxys
(p. 142) that Aleander prided himself on being “ἃ German.’”? Aleander was born in Italy, hated the Germans, and died in Rome.