Looking at a map of the Holy Roman Empire, the Pope sighs in frustration. It is June 15, 1520, three years after his counselors assessed Luther’s threat as negligible. Now that Luther’s ideas are spread not only in Saxony but also all over Europe, the Pope has summoned his counselors to Rome again to take action before it is too late; if it is not already.
Anxiously pacing outside the meeting room, Thomas Cajetan is furiously listening to his rival, Johann Eck, reading out loud a letter known as Exsurge Domine. Drowned in his thoughts, he suddenly loses his control and goes to enter. He, however, finds a huge, armed guard blocking the entrance. The guard shakes his head when Cajetan looks up. Although outraged, he has no choice but to swallow his rage and resume his pacing.
Johann Eck, holding the letter before him, stands very near the Pope, with whom he now has a special place. Eck was momentarily distracted, looking back at the entrance that is protected by the huge guard. While smiling victoriously, he takes his eyes off the entrance onto the Pop and resumes reading the letter out loud.
“Therefore, let Martin himself and all those adhering to him, and those who shelter and support him, …, know that from our heart we exhort and beseech that he cease to disturb the peace, unity, and truth of the Church. Let him abstain from his pernicious errors that he may come back to us. If they really will obey, and certify to us by legal documents that they have obeyed, they will find in us the affection of a father’s love, the opening of the font of the effects of paternal charity, and opening of the font of mercy and clemency.”
Eck finishes the last words while looking at the Pope’s content face. Flashing a big smile, the Pope mouths the words: ‘paternal charity‘, ‘mercy‘, and ‘clemency‘.
On December 10, 1520, standing before a large crowd in the city center of Wittenberg, Luther holds up the Exsurge Domine letter. Eyes wide open, the crowd is impatiently waiting to hear Luther’s response. He takes a burning wood, brings it near the paper, and burns the Pope’s letter in public. In no time the fire catches on and devours all the words alike, including peace and unity.