A month after Luther publicly burned Exsurge Domine outside the gates of Wittenberg the Catholic Church moved to excommunicate him. On the 3rd of January 1521, Luther was publicly censured via a Bull of Excommunication and cut off from the communion of the church.

This second Bull of Excommunication was separate from Exsurge Domine which had been published as a threat and a call to recant.

By Papal law, anyone who harbored a heretic was guilty by association which meant that Prince Frederick and the entire province of Saxony stood to be condemned by the church. In reality however political expediency forbade the church from acting rashly but they did recognise that problem that the irritable German monk posed was one that needed to be addressed once and for all.

Though the Church had dismissed Luther from its fellowship he still posed a serious threat to their authority and their hold on the people, one that needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.