Reformation Day: 7 notable enemies of Martin Luther

6. Pope Leo X

Not to be confused with the current head of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo X was an Italian pontiff in charge when the Protestant Reformation began in 1517.

In 1521, Leo excommunicated Luther via a papal bull titled “Decet Romanum Pontificem,” in which he referred to the Reformation leader as “the slave of a depraved mind.”

“Martin … has scorned to revoke his errors within the prescribed interval and to send us word of such revocation, or to come to us himself; nay, like a stone of stumbling, he has feared not to write and preach worse things than before against us and this Holy See and the Catholic faith, and to lead others on to do the same,” read the edict.

“He has now been declared a heretic; and so also others, whatever their authority and rank, who have cared nought of their own salvation but publicly and in all men’s eyes become followers of Martin’s pernicious and heretical sect.”

The pope’s excommunication order built off an earlier document, titled “Exsurge Domine,” which denounced Luther’s views and labeled him a “wild boar.”

For his part, Luther famously burned the “Exsurge Domine” and continued to denounce Leo in print.