Learning about His Holiness’s letter burnt in public, fires of fury and hatred smolder in the Pope’s narrowed eyes. The winter of 1521 has started early and it seems that it is going to last long. Luther has shown no sign of compromise, and it is time for a head-to-head confrontation.
Johann Eck, looking strangely satisfied from the recent developments, brings the Pope a letter. The Pope turns his eyes from the title, ‘Decet Romanum Bull’, to the line of the letter that reads: “We prescribe and enjoin that the men in question are everywhere to be denounced publicly as excommunicated, accursed, condemned, interdicted, deprived of possessions and incapable of owning them. They are to be strictly shunned by all faithful Christians.”
The Pope looks up. Johann Eck, the victorious smile still on his face, is impatiently waiting.
Breathing angrily, the Pope signs his name under the letter. The creepy laughter of the devil that he hears does not stop him. The friction between the pen and the paper makes a violent, high-pitch noise. The noise amplifies each time the Pope’s eyes fall on these words in the letter: excommunicated, accursed, condemned, interdicted, and deprived.