This was followed by a similar league in North Germany between Catholic states, known as the League of Dessau, [Sidenote: 1525] and a Protestant confederation known as the League of Torgau.
[Sidenote: The Diet of Spires, 1526] The Diet held at Spires in the summer of 1526 witnessed the strength of the new party, for in it the two sides treated on equal terms.

Many reforms were proposed, and some carried through against the obstruction by Ferdinand, the emperor's brother and lieutenant.

The great question was the enforcement of the Edict of Worms, and on this the Diet passed an act, known as a Recess, providing that each state should act in matters of faith as it could answer to God and the emperor.

In effect this allowed the government of every German state to choose between the two confessions, thus anticipating the principle of the Religious Peace of Augsburg of 1555.
The relations of the two parties were so delicate that it seemed as if a general religious war were imminent.

In 1528, this was almost precipitated by a certain Otto von Pack, who assured the Landgrave of Hesse that he had found a treaty between the Catholic princes for the extirpation of the Lutherans and for the expropriation of their champions, the Elector of Saxony and Philip of Hesse himself.