interim [M16th] The Reformation produced upheaval in 16th-century Europe, and nowhere more so than in Germany. The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V attempted to settle the differences between the German Protestants and the Roman Catholic Church, making three provisional arrangements pending a settlement by a general council. This was called the Interim, and was reported in English in a diplomatic letter of July 1548. In Latin interim meant ‘meanwhile’. Very quickly people were using interim for other provisional arrangements, and then for ‘an intervening time, the meantime’.