At about this point in any discussion of the Reformation, somebody usually asks “How did they get to be called “Protestants”? Excellent question! Most of us generally assume that it means that they were “protesting” against the Pope and Rome. Actually, nothing could be farther from the truth. In fact, neither Luther nor Calvin saw themselves as “protesting” anything. They simply wanted to restore the Church to a cleaner and simpler worship.
The term “protestant” wasn’t even invented to serve a specifically religious purpose. It was largely a political word, and it denoted a set of political differences among the many German states.
Remember that Germany was not “Germany” as we know it, yet. There were literally hundreds of mostly small Counties, Principalities, Dukedoms, and so forth. All were, supposedly, subject to the Holy Roman Empire. Charlemagne had been crowned the first Holy Roman Emperor back in 800. But, in fact, by the 1500s, all those German states, along with others scattered all over Europe (including Spain, for instance) were caught up in an absolute maze of conflicting political and religious coalitions. When there was a threat to any of the states, a “Diet”, or “congress” was often called by the Emperor, to try to build a united effort at dealing with the threat. In 1526, such a Diet had been called, in Speyer, to deal with the Lutheran threat to the Church as it existed in Germany at the time, and the result was that the Empire, the “Holy Roman Empire”, voted to recognize Lutheran princes where they already existed, but not to expand the Reformation any further. Other reform movements, notably the Zwinglian and Anabaptist were excluded from even existing. The proceedings were raucous, and the Diet of 1526 was recessed without any real solutions. Another Diet was called in 1529, to figure out how to deal with the threat that the Turks represented, as they attacked Greece and the remnants of the Byzantine, or “Eastern Roman” Empire. At this Diet, several of the German princes who had been shut off in 1526 published a “protest” of the proceedings. Most of the protesting princes were Lutheran, but some were Calvinist, Zwinglian and Anabaptist. Ever after, Christians who believers in reform were called “Protestant”.
Interestingly, the real subject of the Diet-the pending likely Turkish invasion—was hardly addressed, and twenty years later, the last Christian stronghold in Eastern Europe fell to the Muslim Turks. The last chance Europe had to be united for half a millennium was lost.