Exsurge Domine

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Exsurge Domine (Latin for 'Arise, O Lord') is a papal bull that was promulgated on 15 June 1520 by Pope Leo X. It was written in response to Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses, which criticised various practices of the Catholic Church. The bull censured forty-one teachings found in the Ninety-five theses and Luther’s other writings. The bull also threatened Luther and his colleagues—one being Andreas Karlstadt—with excommunication unless they recanted their teachings sixty days after the publication of the bull in the Electorate of Saxony—now Saxony, Germany—and its neighboring regions. Both theologians refused to recant, and Luther responded instead by composing polemical tracts rebuking the papacy and publicly burning a copy of Exsurge Domine on 10 December 1520 at the Elster Gate in Wittenberg. As a result, Pope Leo X promulgated the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem on 3 January 1521, excommunicating both theologians.

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