Papal Bull: Threat of Excommunication Exsurge Domine, Ingolstadt 1520 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Rar. 1478)

The Ingolstadt professor of theology Johannes Eck (1486–1543) was a member of the Commission of Four which was commissioned by Pope Leo X (1475–1521, pope 1513–1521) to prepare a papal bull against Martin Luther (1483–1546) in Rome in the spring of 1520.

In this bull, 41 statements from Luther’s works are quoted verbatim and dismissed as heretical, false and causing offence. Without distinguishing precisely between the individual offensive articles, it was ordered that Luther’s writings were to be burnt. He himself had to revoke these “errors” within 60 days. Otherwise, he and his followers would be declared as heretics and banished.

The bull dated 15 June 1520 begins with the words of the psalm (Ps 74:22) Exsurge Domine, which gave the bull its name. The papal librarian Hieronymus Aleander (1480–1542) and Johannes Eck as nuncios were entrusted with the publication within the Holy Roman Empire. Eck encountered resistance in some places.

In Ingolstadt, the Senate, after initial hesitation, had the bull read out on 29 October 1520 at the university. On the same day, Eck in his parish church Saint Maurice and Georg Hauer (1484–1536) in the parish church of Our Lady read it out. The bull had been printed in book form in Rome; reprints in Latin and German translation were made in Ingolstadt and other German cities.

Luther did not revoke his doctrine, but burnt the bull on 10 December 1520 in Wittenberg. Pope Leo X then imposed the ban on Luther with the bull “Decet Romanum Pontificem” (It Befits the Roman Pontiff) on 3 January 1521.

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