2.8. DECET ROMANUM PONTIFICEM • Pope Leo X (15 June 1520). "Exsurge Domine".
Retrieved 2012-03-10.
• Schaff, Philip (1916) [©1888]. "The German reformation from the publication Luther's theses to the Diet of Worms A.D. 1517–1521". History of the Christian church. 6 (2nd rev. ed.). Charles Scribner's Sons.
• One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Sollier, Joseph (1908). "Theological Censures". In Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. 3. New York: Robert Appleton.
• Todd, John M. (1964). Martin Luther: A Biographical Study. Paulist Press.
• "The Bull Exsurge Domine by Leo X". Vatican City:
Vatican Secret Archives. c. 2006. Archived from the original on 2011-05-22. Retrieved 2012-02-28.
• Latin Text of Exsurge Domine • English Translation of Exsurge Domine Decet Romanum Pontificem Not to be confused with Romanum decet pontificem.
Decet Romanum Pontificem (English: It Befits the Roman Pontiff) (1521) is the papal bull excommunicating Martin Luther, bearing the title of the first three Latin words of the text.[1] It was issued on January 3, 1521, by Pope Leo X to effect the excommunication threatened in his earlier papal bull Exsurge Domine (1520) since Luther failed to recant.[2] Luther had burned his copy of Exsurge
Domine on December 10, 1520, at the Elster Gate in Wittenberg, indicating his response to it.
There are at least two other important papal bulls with the title Decet Romanum Pontificem: one dated February 23, 1596, issued by Pope Clement VIII, and one dated March
12, 1622, issued by Pope Gregory XV.
Toward the end of the 20th century, Lutherans in dialogue with the Catholic Church requested the lifting of this excommunication; however, the Vatican's response was that its practice is to lift excommunications only on those still living. Roland Bainton in "Here I Stand after a Quarter of a Century," his preface for the 1978 edition of his Luther biography, concludes: "I am happy that the Church of Rome has allowed some talk of removing the excommunication of Luther. This might well be done.
He was never a heretic. He might better be called, as one has phrased it, 'a reluctant rebel.'" Luther's rehabilitation Decet Romanum Pontificem has been denied however by the Vatican: "Rumors that the Vatican is set to rehabilitate Martin Luther, the 16thcentury leader of the Protestant Reformation, are groundless," said the Vatican spokesman, Jesuit Father Federico
The Lutherans of the Missouri Synod have shown little if any willingness to engage in reciprocity, as they continue to maintain that the Pope is "the very anti-Christ."[4]
[1] Papal Encyclicals Online.
"The Bull "Decet Romanum Pontificem" - Leo X Excommunicates Martin Luther Rome, 1521 January 3rd". Retrieved 2012-10-30.
[2] Doak (2006) p. 12
[3] Vatican spokesman calls rumors of rehabilitation of Luther groundless Catholic News Service, March 10 2008 [4] http://www.lcms.org/doctrine/doctrinalposition# anti-christ
• Doak, Robin (2006).
Pope Leo X. Minneapolis:
Compass Point Books. ISBN 0-7565-1594-7.