Worms, Edict of

(1521), an edict issued by the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire Charles V in May 1521 and proclaimed in the Reichstag of the city of Worms. The Edict of Worms was directed against the leader of the German Reformation, M. Luther, and his teachings. It declared Luther a heretic and placed him outside the law, and it prohibited the support of Luther’s teachings and the reading or dissemination of his works. Luther, who appeared at the Diet of Worms under safe conduct of the emperor, refused to recant his teachings. Elector Frederick of Saxony hid him from persecution in the castle of Wartburg.