§ 47. The bull of Excommunication. June 15, 1520.
The bull "Exurge, Domine," in the Bullarium Romanum, ed. CAR. Cocquelines, Tom. III., Pars
III. (ab anno 1431 ad 1521), pp. 487–493, and in Raynaldus (continuator of Baronius): Annal.
Eccl., ad ann. 1520, no. 51 (Tom. XX. fol. 303–306). Raynaldus calls Luther "apostatam
nefandissimum," and takes the bull from Cochlaeus, who, besides Eck and Ulemberg (a Protestant
apostate), is the chief authority for his meager and distorted account of the German Reformation.
A copy of the original edition of the bull is in the Astor Library, New York. See Notes.
U. v. Hutten published the bull with biting glosses: Bulla Decimi Leonis contra errores Lutheri et
sequacium, or Die glossirte Bulle (in Hutten’s Opera, ed. Böcking, V. 301–333; in the Erl. ed.
of Luther’s Op. Lat., IV. 261–304; also in German in Walch, XV. 1691 sqq.; comp. Strauss:
U. v. Hutten, p. 338 sqq.). The glosses in smaller type interrupt the text, or are put on the margin.
Luther: Von den neuen Eckischen Bullen und Lügen (Sept. 1520); Adv. execrabilem Antichristi
bullam (Nov. 1520); Wider die Bullen des Endchrists (Nov. 1520; the same book as the preceding
Latin work, but sharper and stronger); Warum des Papsts und seiner Jünger Bücher verbrannt
sind (Lat. and Germ., Dec. 1520); all in Walch, XV. fol. 1674–1917; Erl. ed., XXIV. 14–164,
and Op. Lat. V. 132–238; 251–271. Luther’s letters to Spalatin and others on the bull of
excommunication, in De Wette, I. 518–532.
Ranke: I. 294–301. Merle D’Aubigné, bk. VI. ch. III. sqq. Hagenbach, III. 100–102. Kahnis: I.
306–341. Köstlin: I. 379–382. Kolde: I. 280 sqq. Janssen: II. 108 sqq.
After the Leipzig disputation, Dr. Eck went to Rome, and strained every nerve to secure the
condemnation of Luther and his followers.^249 Cardinals Campeggi and Cajetan, Prierias and Aleander,
aided him. Cajetan was sick, but had himself carried on his couch into the sessions of the consistory.
With considerable difficulty the bull of excommunication was drawn up in May, and after several
amendments completed June 15, 1520.^250
Nearly three years had elapsed since the publication of Luther’s Ninety-five Theses. In the
mean time he had attacked with increasing violence the very foundations of the Roman Church,
had denounced popery as an antichristian tyranny, and had dared to appeal from the Pope to a
general council, contrary to the decisions of Pius II. and Julius II., who declared such an appeal to
be heresy. Between the completion and the promulgation of the bull, he went still further in his,
"Address to the German Nobility," and the book on the "Babylonian Captivity," and made a
reconciliation impossible except by an absolute surrender, which was a moral impossibility for
him. Rome could not tolerate Lutheranism any longer without ceasing to be Rome. She delayed
final action only for political and prudential considerations, especially in view of the election of a
new German Emperor, and the influential voice of the Elector Frederick, who was offered, but
declined, the imperial crown.
(^249) As Luther said, to rouse "the abyss of hell" (Abgrund der Hölle) against him. Eck seems to have been acting also in the interest of
the banking firm of Fugger in Augsburg, which carried on the financial transactions between Germany and Italy, including the transmission
of indulgence money. See Ranke, I. 297.
(^250) Ranke (I. 298) dates the bull from June 16; Walch (XV. 1691) from June 24; but most historians (Gieseler, Kahnis, Köstlin, Lenz,
Janssen, Hergenröther, etc.) from June 15. The last is correct, for the bull is dated "MDXX. xvii. Kal. Julii." According to the Roman
mode of reckoning backwards, counting the day of departure, and adding two to the number of days of the preceding month, the Kalendae
Julii fall on June 15. Ranke probably overlooked the fact that June had only twenty-nine days in the Julian Calendar. Janssen refers to an
essay of Druffel on the date of the bull in the "Sitzungsberichte der Bayer Academie." 1880, p. 572; but he does not give the result.