“I cannot and will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe.…Here I stand, I can do no other”
The Diet of Worms in April 1521 was a clash of the old world and the new, and one of history’s most dramatic confrontations. An epic showdown that would resound through the ages, it saw the celebrity professor Martin Luther summoned to the imperial free city of Worms on the banks of the Rhine by the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, to defend his radical beliefs. And though promised safe conduct, Luther’s life had never been in greater danger. He arrived in the city to huge, overexcited crowds, like Jesus entering Jerusalem. Then, a scene of terrifying suspense, as the gaunt monk in his plain black cassock entered a vast, torch-lit hall, filled with Europe’s greatest magnates bedecked in their finery. Would Luther’s rhetorical brilliance and passionate defence save his life and the future of protestantism, or would he doom himself to a fiery execution?
Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss one of the most groundbreaking moments of western history: Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, and the extraordinary twist of fate which saw the most famous man in Europe inexplicably vanish from the face of the earth. Defenestrated dogs, malevolent poltergeists, and scatological furores abound…
*The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!
Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com
Twitter:
@TheRestHistory
@holland_tom
@dcsandbrook
Producer: Theo Young-Smith
Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
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