May 25, 1521

Edict of Worms

The Edict of Worms is read to representatives of the imperial estates

One edict, three defensible dates: 8 May on its face, 25 May for its reading, 26 May for Charles's signature and publication mandate.

25 May 1521, inside the emperor's palace

On 25 May 1521, Imperial Vice-Chancellor Mercurino Gattinara read the Edict of Worms at a gathering in Charles V's palace — after a formal session of the Diet, not during one.

Joachim of Brandenburg announced the assent of the electors and princes who were present. The text was put to them for acknowledgment rather than reopened for substantive deliberation.

The draft had been prepared by the papal nuncio Hieronymus Aleander.

What the edict commanded

It declared Luther an obstinate schismatic and notorious heretic, forbade sheltering or supporting him, and ordered his capture once the safe-conduct period ran out — twenty days from his departure.

It also prohibited buying, possessing, reading, printing, preaching or defending his writings.

The operative instruction was to capture and hold him for further imperial instructions.

Signed the next day, dated weeks earlier

Charles V did not sign the German and Latin instruments until 26 May, when he also issued the publication mandate. Both documents nevertheless carried the date 8 May.

Printed copies were then distributed, and implementation varied sharply by territory: some princes promptly published and enforced the edict, while several cities delayed and other territories resisted.

Sources

Researched 23 Aug 2026 5 sources not yet audited Date disputed

How this was checked

Researched from the web into a fact sheet and rewritten from that sheet. This article has not yet had an independent model audit. How the pipeline works →

Date disputed. Sources disagree about when this happened.

What the sources leave uncertain

The conventional 25 May date refers to the reading and assent, not Charles’s signature. The document was backdated to 8 May and signed with its publication mandate on 26 May.
Sources use “issued,” “promulgated,” and “published” differently for the stages on 8, 25, and 26 May. A precise account should name the procedural act rather than assign all of them to one day.
The assertion that the Diet itself ended specifically because Charles issued the edict on 25 May oversimplifies the sequence; the reading occurred outside the formal Diet session.