Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms

500 years ago. A young Catholic monk nailed his 95 Theses to a door at Wittenburg University in Germany. They were his complaints about the way the church was being administered, mostly against Vatican priests and the Pope himself.

Pope Leo X and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V were the two of the most powerful men in the world and wanted Luther to recant his writings at a gathering of German princes called the Diet of Worms. This play is basically about Luther’s trial at Worms, events preceeding Worms and the results of the hearing.

Luther’s defiance of the Catholic Church led to a period called the Reformation with the great division of the Christian world into Catholics and Protestants.