Commenorating Luther's Stand

"On this date (April 18th) in the year 1521, in the city of Worms, Germany, Martin Luther, a 37 year-old Catholic monk was called to defend himself before Charles the Fifth, the Holy Roman Emperor.

The Emperor, acting on behalf of the Pope Leo X ( who had issued a Papal Bull condemning the writing and excommunicating Martin Luther from the Catholic Church) sought to pressure Luther into recanting his statements.

Johann Eck, speaking on behalf of the empire as assistant of the Archbishop of Trier, presented Luther with a table filled with copies of his writings and asked him if the books were his and if he still taught what they contained. Luther requested time to think about his answer, which was granted.

Luther prayed, consulted with friends and mediators and gave his response to the diet the next day. The speech, he delivered that day, along with Luther's 95 theses he nailed to the door of the castle church at Wittenberg years earlier, marked the beginning of the Reformation, a critical turning point in Christian history, that decisively altered the spiritual map of the world."