Images

Content

 On 15 June 1520, Pope Leo X issued a bull "Exsurge Domine". In this "Bulla contra errores Martini Lutheri et sequentium" 41 tenets of Martin Luther were condemned as heretical and contrary to Catholic doctrine. It was forbidden to read or distribute Luther's works or in any way disseminate his ideas. Disregarding this prohibition was punished with religious as well as secular excommunication: the condemned man or woman was debarred from church life, placed outside the law, and practising a trade was made impossible. The bull was printed in various places in Europe, in Rostock, but also in Antwerp by teh printer Willem Vorsterman.