The delegates from the Protestant states in the [[Holy Roman Empire]] charged with the protection of Protestant interests in the imperial diet. The organization of these delegates into a structured party was the product of a slow evolution, and it was not until the Diet of Ratisbon (1653) following the Thirty Years' War that a clear structure emerged. Saxony was chosen to serve as the permanent president of the Corpus, which now consisted of the thirty-nine Protestant states represented in the diet. The [[Corpus Evangelicorum]] was opposed by the [[Corpus Catholicorum]],* and both existed until the dissolution of the Holy [[Roman Empire]] in 1806.