7 Martin Luther
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the bull of formal excommunication (Decet Romanum Pontificem), although it was several months before the condemnation was received throughout Germany. On April 17, 1521, Luther appeared before civic and religious authorities at the Diet of Worms. When required to recant his assertions, he stated that he would not go against his conscience unless convinced of his error either by Scripture or by evident reason. The emperor cut the proceedings short and Luther was allowed to depart. Luther’s enemies, nonetheless, salvaged something when a rump Diet passed the Edict of Worms. It declared Luther to be an outlaw whose writings were denounced. The edict fettered his movements for the rest of his days. Luther departed to Wartburg, where he remained until March 1522. There he translated the New Testament into German. This volume was published in September 1522 and, like his later translation of the Hebrew Bible (1534), had deep and lasting influence on the language, life, and religion of the German people. In 1523 he issued a treatise Von weltlicher Obrigkeit (“Of Earthly Government”), in which he distinguished between the two realms of spiritual and of temporal government, and stressed the sinfulness of rebellion against lawful authority. In May 1525, after the Peasants’ War had broken out, Luther published the Ermahnung zum Frieden (“Exhortation for Freedom”), sympathizing with justified grievances, but repudiating the notion of a so-called Christian rebellion and claiming that the worldly kingdom cannot exist without inequality of persons. In June 1525 Luther married Katherina von Bora, a former nun who had fled her convent. His home and family meant a great deal to him and was an emblem for him of Christian vocation. He included domestic life among the three hierarchies of Christian existence in this world, the other two being political and church life. 83