Diet of Speyer

The Diet of Speyer was an important assembly held in 1529 by the Holy Roman Empire to address the growing Protestant Reformation. It aimed to unify the empire’s response to religious divisions by maintaining Catholic doctrines while granting some temporary toleration to new Protestant ideas. However, the decisions at Speyer sparked disagreement: some princes favored religious tolerance, while others sought stricter Catholic control. This divide led to the term "Protestant" as the princes who opposed the Catholic majority's decisions publicly protested, marking a key moment in the religious conflicts that eventually led to the Reformation's widespread change in Europe.