It's been called the trial that led to the birth of the modern world.
On June 15, 1520, Pope Leo X told Martin Luther, a German monk, that he
would be excommunicated from the Catholic Church unless he recanted 41
sentences from his controversial writings, including the Ninety-Five
Theses, which criticized elements of the faith and urged its reform.
He
did not back down; instead he continued to preach his attack against the
Catholic church and specifically the Pope, saying man should not have
the power to determine what is right and wrong in matters of faith.
As a
result of his continued defiance, Luther was excommunicated from the
church on January 3, 1521.
But rather than being immediately expelled, in April Luther was given
the chance to appear before the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the Holy
Roman Empire held in the town of Worms, in what is now Germany.
He again
was offered the chance to repudiate his words, in refusal he uttered,
"Here I stand; I can do no other."
Luther went into hiding while the
assembly debated.
The following month, the members decided that Luther
should be captured and turned over to the emperor for punishment.
The
edict, however, was never enforced.
Though Luther's ability to travel
was restricted from then on, his words initiated the Protestant
Reformation that set the scene for religious wars that would last for
more than a century.