Diet of Worms (1521)
The Diet of Worms, held in 1521, was a significant assembly in the Holy Roman Empire that addressed Martin Luther's teachings. A diet is a formal deliberative assembly of magistrates. It largely functioned as a court session. Emperor Charles V, then 19 years old, called this diet as a court of inquisition in response to Pope Leo X's declaration of Luther as a heretic. Luther was summoned to appear in Worms, Germany before the diet to testify and renounce his teachings.
On April 18, 1521, Luther was questioned and pressed to recant his beliefs and retract his writings. Famously he refused to recant, stating that his conscience was bound to the Word of God. As a result, the Diet issued the Edict of Worms, which labeled Luther a heretic, banned his writings, and made him an outlaw. This event marked Luther's complete break with the Roman Catholic Church and is considered a pivotal moment in the Protestant Reformation. Despite the edict, Luther was protected by Prince Frederick III of Saxony and continued his work, including translating the Bible into German.
