Summoned by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V to answer for his heretical writings, Luther was given a final chance to recant before the assembled imperial diet. He declared he could not act against Scripture or conscience, a stand traditionally summarized as 'Here I stand.' The refusal led to his excommunication and outlawry, but also cemented the Protestant Reformation's break from Rome.
Martin Luther traveled to the city of Worms under an imperial safe-conduct, fully aware that a similar guarantee had not saved the reformer Jan Hus from being burned at the stake a century earlier. He arrived to a hostile assembly of princes, bishops, and the young Emperor Charles V, who demanded he recant the books and pamphlets stacked on a table before him.
Luther asked for a day to consider his answer. When he returned on April 18, he distinguished between his writings, some purely doctrinal, others fierce polemics against the papacy, and refused to disavow any of it unless proven wrong by Scripture itself. His closing words, whether spoken exactly as later recorded or not, captured the moment: he would not recant unless convinced by the Bible or plain reason, for to act against conscience was neither safe nor right.
The emperor issued the Edict of Worms weeks later, declaring Luther an outlaw whom anyone could kill without consequence. Luther escaped into hiding at Wartburg Castle, protected by sympathetic nobles, where he began translating the New Testament into German, a work that would shape the German language itself and permanently split Western Christianity.