On the 15th of July, 1520, three months before the coronation of Charles
V., the pope issued his world-renowned bull against the intrepid monk.
He condemned Luther as a heretic, forbade the reading of his writings,
excommunicated him if he did not retract within sixty days, and all
princes and states were commanded, under pain of incurring the same
censure, to seize his person and punish him and his adherents. Many were
overawed by these menaces of the holy father, who held the keys of
heaven and of hell. The fate of Luther was considered sealed. His works
were publicly burned in several cities.
Luther, undaunted, replied with blow for blow. He declared the pope to
be antichrist, renounced all obedience to him, detailed with scathing
severity the conduct of corrupt pontiffs, and called upon the whole
nation to renounce all allegiance to the scandalous court of Rome. To
cap the climax of his contempt and defiance, he, on the 10th of
December, 1520, not two months after the crowning of Charles V., led his
admiring followers, the professors and students of the university of
Wittemberg, in procession to the eastern gate of the city, where, in the
presence of a vast concourse, he committed the papal bull to the flames,
exclaiming, in the words of Ezekiel, "Because thou hast troubled the
Holy One of God, let eternal fire consume thee.
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