The Diet of Worms

	When a pestilent monk stood before the mightiest monarch in Europe, there could be only one ending - except that there wasn't

The unassuming little town of Worms, in mid-Germany, is famous for only one thing - the Diet of Worms.

It sounds like a particularly unpleasant method of slimming, but in fact the Diet was the German equivalent of parliament and when the Diet is summoned by Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, King of Spain, the Netherlands and the gold-rich lands of South America, you approached the occasion with awe and trepidation.

Among those summoned in 1521 was a young monk who was causing a stir because of his radical views which were soundly condemned by the highest authority in the Roman Catholic Church. His opponents hoped that he would be over-awed by the occasion and would surrender to the church's authority; failing that he could be arrested, despite his safe-conduct, and burned for heresy.

What they hadn't counted on was that Luther, the young monk, would stick to his beliefs and that the new young emperor would stick to his pledged word and refuse to dishonour the safe-conduct. "I should not care to blush as Sigismund did," he remarked, in reference to a previous Holy Roman Emperor who had broken his word. Luther left town and went on to become the founder of Protestantism as well as the religious freedom that we in the West enjoy today.