The Edict of Worms
The Edict of the Diet of Worms (26 May 1521, dated 8 May)
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor — drafted by Aleander, the papal nuncio
More about Emperor Charles V →
A sentence of outlawry, correctly drafted, properly sealed, and quietly ignored for eighty years.
- Catch rate
- 10 / 255
- Base research
- 268
- Stat total
- 344
Base stats
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
A few pages of imperial law, and it stayed on the books of the Empire for the rest of the century without ever being enforced.
It does not argue. It declares a man an outlaw, forbids anyone to feed or shelter or read him, and permits anyone to kill him.
A legal instrument drawn by a papal nuncio and signed by an emperor. There is no flaw in the drafting. The flaw is that nobody obeyed it.
Signed after most of the princes had gone home, and back-dated. Slow, and quietly done.
Cited for this book
Charles V was twenty-one when he heard Luther at Worms. The next morning he told the Diet that one friar could not be right against all of Christendom. The Edict was passed after most of the princes had left. Luther’s prince, Frederick the Wise, had him seized on the road home and hidden in a castle. The Edict was never enforced.
Moves learned
This book learns nothing new by levelling — everything it knows, it knew from the start or brought with it through development.
What answers it
The specific move or chapter of Scripture that cuts through this one, and why. The number is how much harder it hits than usual — ×4 is four times the normal force.
It cannot be refuted by an edict, which is the only instrument in the room.
Twenty-five books on a bench and not one of them read out. Sorting them is the answer nobody wanted.
Written by the man it is about to outlaw, about people he disagreed with, and it is nearly the modern doctrine three hundred years early.
An old soldier said this on the steps and it is worth more than the whole afternoon of Latin.