Thank you Rosalind - I felt it was WORMS but could find no link of any kind - I thought perhaps it could have been WORCS as it mentioned ''place'' - but now you have enlightened me I have vague recollections of I think it was Martin Luther and such a thing.
Thanks again
I also wondered if the "mean" referred to that childhood refrain "Nobody loves me, everybody hates me, think I'll go and eat worms" but probably not!
Yes, a diet in this case means assembly and Luther appeared before it charged with heresy.