Protestantism Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Protestant=== Six princes of the [[Holy Roman Empire]] and rulers of fourteen [[Imperial Free City|Imperial Free Cities]], who issued [[protestation at Speyer|a protest]] (or dissent) against the edict of the [[Diet of Speyer (1529)]], were the first individuals to be called Protestants.<ref name="etymonline.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=protestant|title=protestant – Origin and meaning of protestant |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |access-date=31 December 2014|archive-date=31 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141231135327/http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=protestant|url-status=live}}</ref> The edict reversed concessions made to the [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] with the approval of [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] [[Diet of Speyer (1526)|three years earlier]]. The term ''protestant'', though initially purely political in nature, later acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church which subscribed to the main Protestant principles.<ref name="etymonline.com"/> A Protestant is an adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group descended from them.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |title=Definition of Protestant |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/protestant |website=Dictionary.com |access-date=15 October 2019 |archive-date=15 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191015034937/https://www.dictionary.com/browse/protestant |url-status=live }}</ref> During the Reformation, the term ''protestant'' was hardly used outside of German politics. People who were involved in the religious movement used the word ''evangelical'' ({{lang-de|evangelisch}}). For further details, see the section below. Gradually, ''protestant'' became a general term, meaning any adherent of the Reformation in the German-speaking area. It was ultimately somewhat taken up by Lutherans, even though [[Martin Luther]] himself insisted on ''Christian'' or ''evangelical'' as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed faith in Christ. [[Huguenots|French]] and [[Reformation in Switzerland|Swiss Protestants]] instead preferred the word ''reformed'' ({{lang-fr|réformé}}), which became a popular, neutral, and alternative name for Calvinists. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page