Luther Challenges the Diet of Worms. On this day, Martin Luther, the main architect of the Protestant Reformation, challenges the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V by refusing to recant his writings. Luther had been summoned to Worms, Germany, before the assembly of the Holy Roman Empire to answer charges of heresy. A professor of biblical exegesis at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, Luther had formulated his 95 Theses in 1517 against the Church’s corrupt practice of selling indulgences. He published other equally controversial and innovative theological writings, and his fiery words inflamed reformers across Europe. In 1521, the Pope excommunicated him, and Luther was summoned to the Diet of Worms before the emperor to defend his positions. Refusing to recant his ideas, he was declared an outlaw and a heretic, but he gained the protection of several powerful German princes. He died in 1546, but his ideas significantly changed Western thought.
