Dat. Romae apud S. Petrum anno incarnationis Dominicae Milesimo Quingentesimo
Vigesimo. XVII. Kls. Julii. Pontificatus Nostri Anno Octavo.
Visa. R. Milanesius.
Albergatus.
Impressum Romae per Iacobum Mazochium
De Mandato S. D. N. Papae.^279
§ 48. Luther burns the Pope’s bull, and forever breaks with Rome. Dec. 10, 1520.
Literature in § 47.
Luther was prepared for the bull of excommunication. He could see in it nothing but blasphemouspresumption and pious hypocrisy. At first he pretended to treat it as a forgery of Eck.^280 Then he
wrote a Latin and German tract, "Against the bull of Antichrist,"^281 called it a "cursed, impudent,
devilish bull," took up the several charges of heresy, and turned the tables against the Pope, who
was the heretic according to the standard of the sacred Scriptures. Hutten ridiculed the bull from
the literary and patriotic standpoint with sarcastic notes and queries. Luther attacked its contents
with red-hot anger and indignation bordering on frenzy. He thought the last day, the day of Antichrist,
had come. He went so far as to say that nobody could be saved who adhered to the bull.^282
In deference to his friends, he renewed the useless appeal from the Pope to a free general
council (Nov. 17, 1520), which he had made two years before (Nov. 28, 1518); and in his appeal
he denounced the Pope as a hardened heretic, an antichristian suppresser of the Scriptures, a
blasphemer and despiser of the holy Church and of a rightful council.^283
At the same time he resolved upon a symbolic act which cut off the possibility of a retreat.
The Pope had ordered his books, good and bad, without any distinction, to be burned; and they
were actually burned in several places, at Cologne even in the presence of the Emperor. They were
to be burned also at Leipzig. Luther wanted to show that he too could burn books, which was an
old custom (Acts 19:19) and easy business. He returned fire for fire, curse for curse. He made no
distinction between truth and error in the papal books, since the Pope had ordered his innocent
books to be destroyed as well. He gave public notice of his intention.
On the tenth day of December, 1520, at nine o’clock in the morning, in the presence of a
large number of professors and students, he solemnly committed the bull of excommunication,
together with the papal decretals, the Canon law, and several writings of Eck and Emser, to the
flames, with these words (borrowed from Joshua’s judgment of Achan the thief, Josh. 7:25): "As
thou [the Pope] hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may the eternal fire vex thee!"^284
(^279) Subscriptions are omitted by Cocquelines and Raynaldus.
(^280) "Ich höre auch sagen, Dr. Eck habe eine Bulle mit sich von Rom wider mich gebracht, die ihm so ähnlich sei, dass sie wohl möchte
auch Dr. Eck heissen, so voll Lügen und Irrthum sie sein soll; und er gebe vor, den Leuten das Maul zu schmieren, sie sollen glauben, es
sei des Papsts Werk, so es sein Lügenspiel ist. Ich lasse es geschehen, muss des Spiels in Gottes Namen warten; wer weiss, was göttlicher
Rath beschlossen hat." Von den neuen Eckischen Bullen und Lügen.
(^281) Widder die Bullen des Endchrists, Weimar ed. vol. VI. 613-629.
(^282) He wrote to Spalatin, Nov. 4 (in De Wette, I. 522): "Impossibile est salvos fieri, qui huic Bullae aut faverunt,aut non repugnaverunt."
He told his students, Dec. 11: "Nisi toto corde dissentistis a regno papali, non potestis assequi vestrarum animarum salutem."
(^283) Walch, XV. 1909 sqq. Erl. ed., XXIV. 28-35; and Op. Lat., V. 119-131. The appeal was published in Latin and German.
(^284) The "Holy One" refers to Christ, as in Mark 1:24; Acts 2:27; not to Luther, as ignorance and malignity have misinterpreted the word.
Luther spoke in Latin: "Quia tu conturbasti Sanctum Domini, ideoque te conturbet ignis aeternus." The Vulgate translates Josh. 7:25: