What is "diet of augsburg"

Diet \Di"et\, n. [F. di[`e]te, LL. dieta, diaeta, an assembly, a day's journey; the same word as diet course of living, but with the sense changed by L. dies day: cf. G. tag day, and Reichstag.] A legislative or administrative assembly in Germany, Poland, and some other countries of Europe; a deliberative convention; a council; as, the Diet of Worms, held in 1521. Specifically: Any of various national or local assemblies; as,

1. Occasionally, the Reichstag of the German Empire, Reichsrath of the Austrian Empire, the federal legislature of Switzerland, etc.

2. The legislature of Denmark, Sweden, Japan, or Hungary.

3. The state assembly or any of various local assemblies in the states of the German Empire, as the legislature (Landtag) of the kingdom of Prussia, and the Diet of the Circle (Kreistag) in its local government.

4. The local legislature (Landtag) of an Austrian province.

5. The federative assembly of the old Germanic Confederation (1815 -- 66).

6. In the old German or Holy Roman Empire, the great formal assembly of counselors (the Imperial Diet or Reichstag) or a small, local, or informal assembly of a similar kind (the Court Diet, or Hoftag).

   Note: The most celebrated Imperial Diets are the three following, all held under Charles V.:

   Diet of Worms, 1521, the object of which was to check the Reformation and which condemned Luther as a heretic;

   Diet of Spires, or Diet of Speyer, 1529, which had the same object and issued an edict against the further dissemination of the new doctrines, against which edict Lutheran princes and deputies protested (hence Protestants):

   Diet of Augsburg, 1530, the object of which was the settlement of religious disputes, and at which the Augsburg Confession was presented but was denounced by the emperor, who put its adherents under the imperial ban.

The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in the German city of Augsburg. There were many such sessions, but the three meetings during the Reformation and the ensuing religious wars between the Roman Catholic emperor Charles V and the Protestant Schmalkaldic League in the early 16th century are especially noteworthy.

The session of 1530 attempted to calm rising tensions over Protestantism, especially due to fears of the rising Ottoman threat; the Ottomans under Suleiman had almost taken Vienna in 1529 and Charles V wanted Christianity to unite against this force. After the Edict of Worms had condemned Lutheranism, problems of enforcement emerged during the 1520s, as Charles V's wars against France and commitments in the rest of his empire prevented him from focusing on German religious problems. In 1529, however, he signed a successful peace treaty with France. After these successes, Charles aimed to assert his control over what he saw as German religious heresies. It brought forth the Augsburg Confession, a central document of Lutheranism that was presented to emperor Charles V.

After his victory over the Schmalkaldic League, Charles V convened the Diet of 1547/48 (geharnischter Reichstag), where the Augsburg Interim was proclaimed. This attempt to give Catholicism the priority was rejected by many princes, though, and a resolution of the confessional tensions was only achieved at the session in 1555, where the Peace of Augsburg was concluded. The treaty acknowledged the Augsburg Confession and codified the cuius regio, eius religio principle, which gave each prince the power to decide the religion of his subjects.

The decrees of the Council of Trent were acknowledged in Italy, Portugal, Poland, and by the Catholic princes of Germany at the Diet of Augsburg held in 1566.

The Diet of Augsburg were the meetings of the Imperial Diet of the Holy Roman Empire in the German city of Augsburg. Between 1500 and 1600, twelve of thirty-five imperial diets were held in Augsburg, a result of the close financial relationship between the Augsburg-based banking families and the reigning Habsburg emperors, particularly Maximilian I and Charles V. Among those diets three were especially noteworthy: the session of 1530, 1547/48 as well as 1555.

The 1530 Imperial Diet of Augsburg was requested by Emperor Charles V to decide on three issues: defending the empire against the Turks, welfare and currency policy, and disagreements over Christianity. One of the results of the 1530 Diet of Augsburg was the Augsburg confession, written by Philipp Melanchthon and was intended “to be an expression of the faith of the universal Church, and thus a basis for a reconciliation between the Lutheran Reformers and the Roman Church”. The Emperor Charles V called for the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 in attempt to reach some compromise and a chance to deal with the German situation. The climate during this time was vastly different from what we see today when the Lutheran church moved to reformation at the assembly of Augsburg.

Following the Diet of Augsburg in 1530 was the Augsburg Interim in 1548 which was the imperial decree given by Charles V after his army won against the Schmalkaldic League during the Schmalkaldic War of 1547/48. The tensions between Charles V and the German Lutheran princes were finally resolved with the Peace of Augsburg in 1555, which formally acknowledged Protestantism as a legitimate religion of the Empire.