Pope Leo and his court misunderstood Luther and his allies. At First, they thought of the dispute as yet one more fight among monastic orders, whose rivalries results quite regularly in theological squabbles and food fights. His de Medici concerns were much more important for him and, when emperor Maximilian I died, Leo needed Luther’s prince, Elector Frederick the Wise to keep King Charles of Spain from becoming Emperor. He even promoted Frederick as his candidate for the throne. Frederick was a worthy diplomat, who played imperial political chess just as ably as the De Medici pope. As theologians closer to Wittenberg soon informed him, however, the German professor had seriously undermined the theological rational for Papal power. From that point forward, he tried a combination of threats, rewards and possible compromises, offered by a succession of diplomats with a variety of credentials. He tried also to pressure Luther’s order and prince to silence the monk with no success at all.
When Charles of Spain became Charles V, Holy Roman Empire, Leo no longer needed Frederick the Wise nearly as much. In January of 1520, the Pope convened a commission to condemn Luther’s teachings. In the mean time, the Pope intensified his previous efforts to achieve a resolution. Pressure was applied to Luther’s immediate supervisor, Johann von Staupitz, who finally responded by resigning in May. In order to assist in the effort, Johann Eck came to Rome to convince the commission to issue a Bull against Luther. The result was a document cataloging 41 “errors” of Luther and threatening to excommunicate him if he did not retract them.
A Papal bull is a proclamation called that because of the lead seal used to certify such as official. (Latin for the seal is Bulla) This document is known as the Bull Exsurge Domine (“Arise O Lord”) for the opening words of the work. It was dated June 15, 1520 and proclaimed on 24 July, when it was posted on the door of St. Peter’s Basillica. It would not go into effect until it was published in Saxony and delivered to Luther personally. (Much like a legal summons is today in the United States) This did not happen until October of 1520.
Most of the charges had to do with Luther’s challenge to indulgences and the authority of pope. Missing from the perspective of today are all the signature doctrines of Lutheranism, even salvation by grace alone. The reason for this is that most of these were yet to be discovered by Luther. We will visit these as we talk about the anniversaries of the docments where he first discusses them.
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