The idea that the emperor had issued this edict against Luther helps us see how the medieval world, where church and state essentially formed a theocracy of sorts, was very much like a Muslim caliphate. We see that where the church and the state are essentially one, there can be no genuine—or “free”—church, and although Luther did not have what we think of as the separation of church and state on his mind, nor religious liberty, what he was doing nonetheless amounted to the same thing. To free the Gospel—to free freedom—meant tearing it out of the world and letting it stand alone.
