 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(April 2014) |
On 19 April 1529, six princes and representatives of 14 Imperial Free Cities petitioned the Imperial Diet at Speyer against an imperial ban of Martin Luther, as well as the proscription of his works and teachings, and called for the unhindered spread of the evangelical faith. [1]
Eight years earlier, Martin Luther was banned by the Holy Roman Empire at the Diet of Worms of 1521. Emperor Charles V wanted to end the religious unrest between the Catholic majority and the evangelical minority at the Second Diet of Speyer. Lutheran Heresy and the resulting religious strife did not figure in his political plans.
The Edict of Worms had been suspended in 1526 when the Diet of Speyer decided that every prince should hold whichever religious beliefs he could justify before his King and God.
Three years after the Diet of 1526, on the 1 March 1529, Charles V announced the second Diet of Speyer. He again let himself be represented by his brother Ferdinand, since he could not personally appear due to the ongoing war with France.
In his opening address, Ferdinand gave the decision of the Emperor: the annulment of the Diet's decision in 1526, recognition of "great mistakes and misunderstanding", and the threat of Imperial ban against "seduction by false beliefs". Until clarification from another council all further new developments would remain forbidden. He also made further declarations:
"Those that until now have followed the Edict of Worms should continue to do so. In the areas where this has been deviated from, there shall be no further new developments and no-one shall be refused Mass. Finally, the sects which contradict the sacrament of the true body and blood, shall absolutely not be tolerated, no more than the Anabaptists."
On 19 April, the majority of representatives accepted the revocation of the 1526 edict. The evangelicals were told that they should yield "to the fair and proper decisions" of the majority. At this point the evangelical princes left the hall. When they returned somewhat later, Ferdinand wanted to leave the hall and refused to listen to them. So their objection was read out: they protested against the decision of the majority, to undo the decision of the 1526 Reichstag. Ferdinand demanded that they "accept and obey the decision".
The Protestant delegates refused to be bound by secular authority in matters of faith. On 20 April they presented the "Letter of Protestation", which Ferdinand refused to accept. Therefore, it did not come to be read out, but was printed and made public.
The "Letter of Protestation" was signed by Johann, Elector of Saxony, Georg, Margrave of Brandenburg, Ernst, Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Philipp, Landgrave of Hesse, and Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt.
At the final sitting of the Diet on 24 April, the "decision of the Diet" was once more read out, but no word was said of the protest by the evangelical princes. In response the councils of the evangelical princes and the agents of the Free Cities met on 25 April and drew up a Instrumentum Appellationis, in which complaints against the decision of the Diet were once more summarised. This text was brought to the Holy Roman Emperor by an embassy. Since this Diet in Speyer the adherents of the reform movement became known as "Protestants", and thus the protestation of the Princes and Free Cities has been seen as the birth of Protestantism. [2]
The Diets of Nuremberg, also called the Imperial Diets of Nuremberg, took place at different times between the Middle Ages and the 17th century.
Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, nicknamed der Großmütige, was a German nobleman and champion of the Protestant Reformation, notable for being one of the most important of the early Protestant rulers in Germany.
The Schmalkaldic War was the short period of violence from 1546 until 1547 between the forces of Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, commanded by the Duke of Alba and the Duke of Saxony, and the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League within the domains of the Holy Roman Empire.
John Frederick I, called the Magnanimous, was the Elector of Saxony (1532–1547) and head of the Schmalkaldic League.
The Gedächtniskirche der Protestation is a United Protestant church of both Lutheran and Reformed confessions in Speyer, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, that commemorates the Protestation at Speyer in defense of the evangelical faith, specifically Lutheranism. Built between 1893 and 1904, the church was constructed in memory of the protest that took place at the Diet of Speyer by the Protestant rulers of the Holy Roman Empire in 1529. The tower is the tallest bell tower in the whole Palatinate at 100 metres (330 ft).
The Diet of Speyer or the Diet of Spires was a Diet of the Holy Roman Empire held in 1529 in the Imperial City of Speyer. The Diet condemned the results of the Diet of Speyer of 1526 and prohibited future reformation. It resulted in the Protestation at Speyer.
The Diet of Speyer or the Diet of Spires was an Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in 1526 in the Imperial City of Speyer in present-day Germany. The Diet's ambiguous edict resulted in a temporary suspension of the Edict of Worms and aided the expansion of Protestantism. Those results were repudiated in the Diet of Speyer (1529).
Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt-Köthen, was a German prince of the House of Ascania and ruler of the principality of Anhalt-Köthen. He was one of the earliest Protestant rulers in the Holy Roman Empire.
Matilda of Brandenburg, a member of the House of Ascania, was first Duchess consort of Brunswick-Lüneburg from 1235 to 1252 by her marriage with the Welf duke Otto the Child.
The Augsburg Confession, also known as the Augustan Confession or the Augustana from its Latin name, Confessio Augustana, is the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church and one of the most important documents of the Protestant Reformation. The Augsburg Confession was written in both German and Latin and was presented by a number of German rulers and free-cities at the Diet of Augsburg on 25 June 1530.
Francis of Brunswick-Lüneburg (1508–1549) was the youngest son of Henry the Middle. Following a thirty-year joint reign of Brunswick-Lüneburg with his brother Ernest the Confessor, he ruled the newly founded Duchy of Gifhorn from Gifhorn Castle for over 10 years from 1539 until his death in 1549. He was given the duchy as an inheritance settlement by his brother Ernest.
The Imperial Diet was the deliberative body of the Holy Roman Empire. It was not a legislative body in the contemporary sense; its members envisioned it more like a central forum where it was more important to negotiate than to decide.
John, known as John the Steadfast or John the Constant, was Elector of Saxony from 1525 until 1532 from the House of Wettin.