Decet Romanum Pontificem

This article deals with the papal decree of the excommunication of Luther of 1521. For the papal decree of the same name of 1622 on the procedure of papal election, see Apostolic Letter to the Conclave .

Decet Romanum Pontificem

Decet Romanum Pontificem is a papal bull of excommunication from January 3, 1521 , with which Leo X executes Martin Luther's excommunication announced in the bull threatening exsurge domine , after Luther did not obey the request expressed in this bull to revoke his theses. In addition, Luther and his followers are declared heretics .

meaning

With the excommunication of Luther, the path of an internal church reform movement is finally denied. The papal side gave negative reasons for the split that led to the religious independence of the Reformation churches. The positive development of the Reformation up to the Augsburg Confession of 1530 can also be interpreted as a necessary reaction to the new situation in the documented opposition to the Pope. The persecution of the followers of the Reformation accompanying the bull failed, in contrast to earlier persecutions of church reform movements; The reason for this was not least the current political conditions in the empire .

Luther's excommunication was never lifted again; Since it is uncommon in the Roman Catholic Church to lift excommunications posthumously, and the excommunication of Luther implies the condemnation of his teachings, such efforts as in the Worms Memorandum of 1971, for example, have so far been unsuccessful.

Web links

• The bull "DECET ROMANUM PONTIFICEM" Leo X for excommunication to Martin Luther. ( Memento of September 25, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Vatican Apostolic Archives , Historical Documents.