Speyer
Imperial city on the Rhine where the diets of 1526 and 1529 met. At the second, a minority of princes and cities protested against the majority’s decision on religion.
Speyer stands on the left bank of the Rhine in south-western Germany. The diet held here in 1526 left each estate to act on the Edict of Worms as it could answer to God and the emperor (Recess of Speyer (1526) § 4 (Kidd no. 90, p. 185)). The diet of 1529 revoked that article, and a group of princes and cities protested that the decision did not bind them (Protestation of Speyer protest (Kidd no. 107a, pp. 243–244)). See the Protestation at Speyer.
What happened here
- 19 April 1529, firm dateThe Protestation at Speyer
At the diet of Speyer in April 1529 the majority revokes the latitude that the diet of 1526 had left to each ruler in religion. A group of princes and fourteen cities enter a formal protest, holding that in matters of salvation each must answer to God for himself.