Chapter Six - The Heretic vs The Hat

CHAPTER SIX

The Heretic vs The Hat

BY 1520, MARTIN Luther wasn’t just a critic.

He was public enemy number one.

The Vatican had had enough.
Pope Leo X issued a formal warning, a papal bull titled Exsurge Domine. It gave Luther 60 days to recant or be excommunicated.

He didn’t just refuse.
He burned it. Publicly. In a bonfire.
Surrounded by cheering students and fellow rebels.
He threw in books of canon law for good measure.

This wasn’t a protest anymore.
It was an exorcism.

He followed it up with a barrage of publications, three major works that became the spine of the Reformation.
To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation: Which called on secular rulers to reform the Church if the Pope wouldn’t.
The Babylonian Captivity of the Church: Which claimed Rome had hijacked the sacraments and corrupted Christianity.
The Freedom of a Christian: Which laid out his core belief, faith alone saves, not works or priests or rituals.

He was a monk on a mission and every page he printed cracked Rome’s grip a little more.

And the insults flew.

The Church called him a heretic.
A schismatic. A devil in robes.
They accused him of pride, arrogance, and madness.

Luther fired right back.

He called the Pope the Antichrist.
Said the Roman Church was a “synagogue of Satan.”
Mocked indulgence sellers, theologians, and councils. Nobody was spared.

This wasn’t theology anymore.
It was war.

So the Church made it official.
On January 3, 1521, Luther was excommunicated.

But Germany was watching.
The students, the princes, and the merchants weren’t siding with the Pope.
They were siding with the monk.

Because for the first time in centuries, someone had stood up to the hat and didn’t flinch.

And now the Church couldn’t just shout at him from afar.

They’d have to put him on trial.