Page:General History of Europe 1921.djvu/436

 3 1 6 General History oj Europe IV. 535. Religious Division of North and South Germany. Charles V was occupied at this time by his quarrels with Francis I, and was in no position to return to Germany and undertake to enforce the Edict of Worms against Luther and his followers. Germany, as we have seen, was divided into hundreds of practi- cally independent countries, and the various electors, princes, towns, and knights naturally could not agree as to what could best be done in the matter of reforming the Church. Southern Germany decided for the Pope and remains Catholic down to the present day. Many of the Northern rulers, on the other hand, adopted the new teachings, and finally all of them fell away from the papacy and became Protestant. Since there was no one powerful enough to decide the great question for the whole of Germany, the diet which met at Speyer in 1526 determined that pending the summoning of a Church council each ruler should "so live, reign, and conduct himself as he would be willing to answer before God and His Imperial Majesty." For the moment, then, the various German govern- ments were left to determine the religion of their subjects. 536. Origin of the Term "Protestants." The emperor, Charles V, commanded the diet, which again met at Speyer in 1529, to order the enforcement of the Edict of Worms against the heretics. The princes and towns that had accepted Luther's ideas drew up a protest, in which they claimed that the majority had no right to abrogate the edict of the former diet of Speyer, which had been passed unanimously and which all had solemnly pledged themselves to observe. Those who signed this appeal were called from their action Protestants, Thus originated the name which came to be generally applied to those who do not accept the rule and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. 537. Diet at Augsburg and the Augsburg Confession. Ever since the diet at Worms the emperor had resided in Spain,