There were many reasons for why Luther was summoned to the diet of worms, one of which was production the 95 theses by Martin Luther. Luther only sent his 95 Theses to a small number of bishops and a few of his close companions; he was not aiming for a response or retaliation form anybody. But copies of the 95 Theses over time had been distributed and printed in Basel Leipzig, and Nuremberg. The impact of this was that pope was informed about what was claimed as a ‘rebel in the ranks’ and decisions were made for his direct superior to calm him and his new ideas that could potentially harm the reputation of the church. But his ideas had spread too far and this made the Papal Court begin an inquisition. Another reason for why Luther was summoned to the diet of worms was because during the years 1520-1521 Luther had produced “Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation”, “The Babylonian Captivity” and “The Freedom of the Christian Man”, this was him expressively taking himself away from Rome.
As a result of this the pope was unsure of what to do now after these publications, so the inquisition against Luther started for the second time in 1520, and on the 15th of June 1520 Luther was presented with a Papal Bull of excommunication, whereby Luther was told to recant his writings, this was another attempt in which to silence Luther, but again it had failed. Additionally another reason for Luther being summoned to the diet of worms is, because he aggravated the church by his reaction to his ‘bull of excommunication’; as he burned the Papal Bull publically showing his discontent and his strong beliefs in his writings. This behaviour instigated a definite and final break with Rome for Luther. And On January 3, 1521 the Pope excommunicated Luther but this again still did not stop Luther and it made him more determined than ever to spread his views. This was helped by the fact that the Emperor, felt obliged to accept Luther and his views because of the popularity he had within the empire, and also because of the popularity he had with the princes who had a high level of influence on the emperor, and he needed to ‘keep them on his side’.
As a result of this support Luther was assured that he would have a safe journey on his trip to the Imperial Diet of Worms. This lead to further controversy within the church, and a spread in Luther’s ideas, further damaging the reputation of the church. Finally and most importantly, Luther was summoned to the diet of worms because, it was a’ last ditch attempt’ at silencing Luther, it was a common belief that if they could not stop him now then there would be a very small chance of stopping him in the future. Also the new HRE Charles V believed it was now his duty to silence Luther and wanted to prove his power in position, as all previous attempts had failed he was determined to ‘get it right’, as all of the prior efforts had only further enhanced Luther’s popularity with the German people. His views were spreading rapidly with the introduction of the printing press, and if this continued there could be the potential for a serious damage to the church and its reputation.
