The Burnt Bull

I don’t know about you, but I love history and old things, especially old books. Early American history is my favorite time period; Scottish history in the time of Sir William Wallace, and the Scottish Covenanters my second favorite…but that is another subject for another post. Currently, I am reading The History of the Reformation by D’Aubigne for history, and I think it’s fascinating! With the coming celebration of the Reformation 500 hosted by Vision Forum coming up in July, we thought it would be interesting to study about it beforehand, and it has been.

On December 10th, 1520, students and doctors of Wittemberg, Germany, led by Martin Luther, went to a place outside the city where a scaffoldhad been put up. It was lit, and as the flames rose, books and writings of the Catholic Church were brought out to the pile to be burnt. Luther caught up the bull of Pope Leo X and said, “Since thou hast vexed the Holy One of the Lord, may everlasting fire vex and consume thee!” With that, he threw it to the flames, and calmly entered the city again, the crowd cheering after him. D’Aubigne continues to describe this act:

“But the moment in which he burnt the bull, was that in which he declared in the most formal manner his entire separation from the Bishop of Rome and his church, and his attachment to the universal Church, such as it had been founded by the apostles of Jesus Christ. At the eastern gate of the city he lit up a fire that has been burning for three centuries.”

“The papacy [said Luther] is no longer what it was yesterday and the day before. Let it excommunicate and burn my writings!……let it slay me!……it shall not check that which is advancing. Some great portent is at our doors. I burnt the bull, at first with great trembling, but now I experience more joy from it than from any action I have ever done in my life.”

Esther