Protestation at

Speyer

This article needs additional citations for

verification. Learn more
The Memorial Church (consecrated in 1904) which
commemorates the Protestation at Speyer

On April 19, 1529, six princes and

representatives of 14 Imperial Free Cities
petitioned the Imperial Diet at Speyer
against an imperial ban against Martin
Luther, as well as the proscription of his
works and teachings, and called for the
unhindered spread of the evangelical
faith.[1]

The "Protestants"
The Protesting Speyer, part of the Luther Monument in
Worms
The 6 Princes

1. John the Steadfast of Wettin, Elector

of Saxony
2. George the Pious of Hohenzollern,
Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach
3. Ernest I the Confessor of Brunswick-
Lüneburg, Duke of Lüneburg-Celle
and his brother
4. Francis, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg,
Duke of Gifhorn
 5. Philip I the Magnanimous, Landgrave
of Hesse
6. Wolfgang of Ascania, Prince of
Anhalt-Köthen

The 14 Imperial Free Cities

1. Strassburg
2. Augsburg
3. Ulm
4. Konstanz
5. Lindau
6. Memmingen
 7. Kempten
8. Nördlingen
9. Heilbronn
10. Reutlingen
11. Isny
12. St. Gallen
13. Weissenburg
14. Windsheim

The "Protestants"
withdrawing their initial
support
 1. Cologne
2. Frankfurt am Main

Cause

"Hier stehe ich. Ich kann nicht anders. Amen." ("Here I

stand. I can not otherwise. Amen"), words of Martin
Luther now inscribed in the Memorial Church.

Eight years earlier Martin Luther had been

banned by the Holy Roman Empire at the
Diet of Worms of 1521. Emperor Charles V
had wanted to end the religious unrest
between the Catholic majority and the
evangelical minority at the Second Diet of
Speyer. The "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, as he could not personally
appear due to the 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.

The decision of the Reichstag

was protested by

John, Elector of Saxony in the Speyer Memorial

Church
1. Elector John the Steadfast of Saxony
2. Gregor Brück (Pontanus), Chancellor
of Elector John
3. Philipp Melanchthon, companion of
Elector John
4. Simon Grynaeus, companion of
Philipp Melanchthon
5. Johann Agricola, chaplain of Elector
John
6. Landgrave Phillip of Hesse
 7. Erhard Schnepf, chaplain of Philip of
Hesse
8. Margrave George of Brandenburg-
Anhalt
9. Duke Ernst of Braunschweig-
Lüneburg
10. Duke Franz of Braunschweig-
Lüneburg
11. Johann Förster, Chancellor of Dukes
Franz and Ernst of Braunschweig-
Lüneburg
12. Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt
13. Count William of Fürstenberg
14. Bürgermeister Christoph Tetzel,
representative of Nürnberg
15. Bürgermeister Christoph Kreß,
representative of Nürnberg
16. Bürgermeister Bernhard
B(P)aumgärtner, representative of
Nürnberg
17. Councillor Jakob Sturm,
representative of Straßburg
18. Guildmaster Matthias, clergyman,
representative of Straßburg
19. Bürgermeister Bernhard Besserer,
representative of Ulm
20. Bürgermeister Sebastian Hagelstein,
representative of Windsheim
21. Bürgermeister Josef Weiß,
representative of Reutlingen

The decision of the Reichstag

was voted for by
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor by Lucas Cranach the
Elder, 1533

1. Holy Roman Emperor Charles V,

2. Ferdinand, imperial commissioner
and representative of Charles V
3. Grand Chancellor Bernhard Cles,
Bishop of Trent, imperial
commissioner
4. Freiherr Georg Truchsess von
Waldburg, vice-regent of King
Ferdinand
5. Dr. Johann Faber, canon of Konstanz
and Basel
6. Probst Balthasar von Waldkirch,
imperial commissioner
7. Frederick II, Elector Palatine, imperial
commissioner
 8. William IV, Duke of Bavaria, imperial
commissioner
9. Leonhard von Eck, chancellor of Duke
Wilhelm IV. of Bavaria
10. Louis X, Duke of Bavaria
11. Eric I, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg,
imperial commissioner

See also
Approximate original German of the
Protestation of 19 April on p. 50 of the
edition ed. J. Ney; original German of
the Appellation of 25 April on p. 27 of
the edition ed. J. Ney. "Approximate
original," I say, because according to
Ney, “The protesting princes retained
apparently no copy of the Protestation
written down in a hurry and handed over
to the Reichstag. For this reason , only
the ‘approximate’ content of the
Protestation handed over on the 19 April
could be included in the Instrument of
Appellation" (Ney, p. 50, note 1 ; cf. Ney,
pp. 12 ff. ). According to Eike Wolgast's
entry in the Oxford encyclopedia of the
Reformation ("Speyer, Protestation of"),
"On 12 April 1529 the evangelical rulers
submitted a written declaration to the
diet that constituted an early draft of the
subsequent protestation. . . . On 19 April
. . . the first protestation followed. It was
rejected. Accordingly, the evangelical
estates presented a second protestation
on 20 April which repeated the previous
day's arguments in greater detail. . . .
The protestation received legal status
through the appeal that the Protestant
princes and imperial cities lodged
before two notaries in Speyer on 25 April
1529. This appeal contained a report on
the proceedings between majority and
minority and all important documents.
The text was immediately disseminted
in print," etc. (vol. 4, p. 104).
An English translation of the
Protestation.[2]
Speyer Memorial Church, consecrated in
1904 in honor of the Protestation.
References
1. Roland Bainton (2007). Here I Stand -
A Life of Martin Luther. ISBN 1-4067-
6712-3.
2. http://northerncatholicarchives.wordpr
ess.com/2011/01/17/the-protest-at-
speyer/

Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Protestation_at_Speyer&oldid=868182202"
 Last edited 1 year ago by Gerda Arendt

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

otherwise noted.