Summoned to Augsburg to answer for his writings against indulgences, Luther faced Cardinal Cajetan across three days of tense interrogation and, on October 18, refused outright to recant, insisting scripture had to override papal decree where they conflicted. His defiance, delivered to one of the era's sharpest theological minds, hardened the rift between reformer and Rome that would soon become irreversible.
Cajetan was no provincial bully; he was one of the most respected theologians in the Catholic world, and the Vatican expected him to either extract a quiet recantation from this troublesome German friar or have him arrested as a heretic. Luther arrived in Augsburg without safe assurances of his own safety, aware that men had been burned for less, yet he refused Cajetan's demands across several sessions of increasingly tense debate.
When Cajetan finally lost patience and dismissed Luther, telling him not to return unless he was ready to recant, Luther quietly slipped out of the city at night before an arrest order could catch him. The confrontation proved decisive: rather than crushing Luther into submission, it convinced him further that Rome would not engage seriously with his arguments, propelling him toward the more radical break that would fracture Western Christendom within a few short years.
Key people: Martin Luther, Cardinal Cajetan