The Golden Bull of 1356 was a decree issued by the Imperial Diet at Nuremberg and Metz headed by the Emperor Charles IV which fixed, for a period of more than four hundred years, important aspects of the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire. It was named the Golden Bull for the golden seal it carried.
The golden seal that earned the decree its name
Page from the Golden Bull manuscript of King Wenceslaus, about 1400, Austrian National Library.
Imperial Diet in Metz during which the Golden Bull of 1356 was issued.
Incunable of the Golden Bull in Early New High German, late 15th century, University of Jena
Imperial Diet (Holy Roman Empire)
The Imperial Diet was the deliberative body of the Holy Roman Empire. It was not a legislative body in the contemporary sense; its members envisioned it more like a central forum where it was more important to negotiate than to decide.
Seating plan for an inauguration of the Imperial Diet in the Regensburg Town Hall from a 1675 engraving: Emperor and prince-electors at the head, secular princes to the left, ecclesiastical to the right, deputies of imperial cities in the foreground.
The summons for Luther to appear at the Diet of Worms, signed by Charles V. The text on the left was on the reverse side.
"Here I stand": Martin Luther at the Diet of Worms, 1521 19th-century painting by Hermann Wislicenus
The coats of arms of prince electors surround the Holy Roman Emperor's, from flags book of Jacob Köbel (1545).
