Protestation at Speyer

[1] Eight years earlier, Martin Luther was banned by the Holy Roman Empire at the Diet of Worms of 1521.

[2] Emperor Charles V wanted to end the religious unrest between the Catholic majority and the evangelical minority at the Second Diet of Speyer.

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.

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.

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.

The Memorial Church , consecrated in 1904, commemorates the Protestation at Speyer.
The Protesting Speyer , part of the Luther Monument in Worms
"Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Amen." ("Here I stand. I can not otherwise. Amen") , the words of Martin Luther now inscribed in the Memorial Church.
John, Elector of Saxony in the Speyer Memorial Church
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor by Lucas Cranach the Elder , 1533