Exsurge Domine - Text

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Printed copies of this bull bore the Latin title Bulla contra errores Martini Lutheri et sequacium (Bull against the errors of Martin Luther and his followers), but it is more commonly known by the opening words of the bull's original Latin text: Exsurge Domine (Arise O Lord). These words also serve to open a prefatory prayer within the text of the bull calling on the Lord to arise against the "foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard" and the destructive "wild boar from the forest." In these poetic metaphors may be found an echo of Pope Leo X's engagement in the hunting of wild boars while residing at a hunting lodge in the Italian hills during the spring of 1520.

Following additional prayers of intercession directed towards the Apostles Peter and Paul and the "whole church of the saints" to defend Catholicism against Luther, the bull proceeds to list the forty-one propositions previously selected by the committee. The condemned propositions do not cover all disputed points of doctrine advocated by Luther. Many of Luther's important works setting forth his disagreements with Catholic theology, including On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, had not yet been published when this bull was issued. Moreover, on account of Eck's efforts to speed the committee along, it did not have sufficient opportunity to thoroughly examine the material Luther had already published. Therefore, the list of condemned propositions draws in large part upon the material with which Eck was personally familiar, including the 95 Theses, the lists of censures against Luther issued by the universities at Cologne and Leuven which Eck had brought with him to Rome, and Luther's Resolutiones (a detailed exposition of the 95 Theses). More than half of the forty-one censured propositions come from the 95 Theses or the Resolutiones; the larger part of the remainder are derived from the Leipzig debate. The selection of censures themselves in large part combines and amplifies those statements already selected as problematic by the universities of Cologne and Leuven.

Some of the condemnations confirmed prior judgments by the papacy. Luther's support for conciliarism is explicitly censured (proposition #28) and is singled out for further condemnation in the bull's conclusion: "... broke forth in a rash appeal to a future council. This to be sure was contrary to the constitution of Pius II and Julius II our predecessors that all appealing in this way are to be punished with the penalties of heretics." Other condemnations represent new papal interventions on matters that had been freely disputed among Catholic scholars and theologians before that time. For example, Luther's denial of free will after the Fall is censured even though the church father Augustine had taught the same view. Furthermore, Luther's opposition to the burning of heretics (proposition #33) and his anti-war stance with respect to the Ottoman Turks (proposition #34) reflect opinions also shared by Desiderus Erasmus. Moreover, Luther explicitly referred to the church father Jerome for support when he opposed the practice of burning heretics.

Pope Leo X then proceeded to issue an authoritative condemnation of these forty-one propositions in the following words:

With the advice and consent of these our venerable brothers, with mature deliberation on each and every one of the above theses, and by the authority of almighty God, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own authority, we condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected . . . We restrain all in the virtue of holy obedience and under the penalty of an automatic major excommunication....

Additionally, the bull contains a directive forbidding any use of Luther's works and decreeing that they should be burned:

...we likewise condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the books and all the writings and sermons of the said Martin, whether in Latin or any other language, containing the said errors or any one of them; and we wish them to be regarded as utterly condemned, reprobated, and rejected. We forbid each and every one of the faithful of either sex, in virtue of holy obedience and under the above penalties to be incurred automatically, to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or defend them. ... Indeed immediately after the publication of this letter these works, wherever they may be, shall be sought out carefully by the ordinaries and others, and under each and every one of the above penalties shall be burned publicly and solemnly in the presence of the clerics and people.:

Luther, along with his "supporters, adherents and accomplices," were given sixty days from the publication of this bull in which to desist "from preaching, both expounding their views and denouncing others, from publishing books and pamphlets concerning some or all of their errors." Luther himself was instructed to "inform us of such recantation through an open document, sealed by two prelates, which we should receive within another sixty days. Or he should personally, with safe conduct, inform us of his recantation by coming to Rome."