Luther in Worms (Meinardus) explained

Luther in Worms is an 1876 German-language oratorio by Ludwig Meinardus to a libretto by Wilhelm Rossmann. The work received several performances around the time of the Martin Luther anniversary year 1883.^[1] The historical opposition of Emperor Charles V to the Reformation is mitigated by the invention of a villain, Glapio, to oppose Luther.^[2]

Notes and References

1. Barbara Eichner, History in Mighty Sounds: Musical Constructions of German National ... 1843837544 2012 "Of these oratorios the work Luther in Worms (1876) by Ludwig Meinardus was the only one to receive more than a handful of performances, mainly because it was written just in time for the Luther anniversary of 1883"
2. "From a political point of view the treatment of the character of the emperor is highly revealing: on the one hand Meinardus and his librettist W. Rossmann could not ignore that the historical Charles V had been an indefatigable enemy of the Reformation"