This week in Christian history: Pope Urban VI dies, Knights Templar arrested, Martin Luther debates cardinal

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, October 11, 2020

Martin Luther debates Cardinal – Oct. 12, 1518

Martin Luther debates Cardinal Thomas Cajetan from Oct. 12-14, 1518 in Augsburg, as depicted in a nineteenth century painting. . | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Protestant Reformation leader Martin Luther began what became a three-day debate with Cardinal Thomas Cajetan in Augsburg.

About a year after Luther had nailed the 95 theses to the church door in Wittenberg, Germany, he was summoned to meet with Cajetan and expected to recant his controversial positions.

“Luther followed the advice of his colleagues and prostrated himself before Cajetan, then rose to his knees to answer the cardinal’s interrogation. Luther, however, refused to recant his positions and instead pressed Cajetan for clarity on where he was in error,” noted Reformation 500.

“After the heated final session, Cajetan implored both Johannes von Staupitz, Luther’s Augustinian superior, and Wenceslaus Link, his Saxon legal counsel, to extricate a repudiation from Luther, but they were unsuccessful.”