Talks

The Diet of Worms 1521
by Professor Elaine Fulton

Date: Tuesday 8 October 2019

This talk will explore the significance of the Diet of Worms, when Martin Luther defied Holy Roman Emperor Charles V.

The Diet of Worms 1521

This talk will explore the significance of the Diet of Worms held in Germany in 1521, when the Protestant reformer Martin Luther stood in front of the 21 year old Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, and refused to recant his views on the need for reform of the Catholic Church. Luther’s alleged declaration: ‘I cannot and will not recant…here I stand, I can do no other’ is well known. What is often less well known is the circumstances that brought both men to this point, and the full extent of its ramifications for Christianity, Europe, and the wider world.

Elaine Fulton is Professor of History Education at the University of Birmingham. Originally from Northern Ireland, she did her undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at the University of St Andrews, Scotland, before taking up a lectureship in early-modern European history at Birmingham. She has published on the Catholic Reformation and on natural disaster in early-modern Europe. She has also been Head of Department of History at the University of Birmingham, 2015-18.

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