The
Peace of Augsburg was a treaty between Charles V and the forces of
the Schmalkaldic League, an
alliance of Lutheran princes, on September
25, 1555, at the imperial city of Augsburg
, now in
present-day Bavaria
, Germany
.
It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups
and made the legal division of
Christendom permanent within the
Holy Roman Empire. The Peace established
the principle
Cuius regio,
eius religio, which allowed German princes to select
either
Lutheranism or
Catholicism within the domains they
controlled, ultimately reaffirming the independence they had over
their states. Subjects, citizens, or residents who did not wish to
conform to the prince's choice were given a period in which they
were free to migrate to different regions in which their desired
religion had been accepted.
History
Since the proclamation of a reformed church by Martin Luther, the
problems of two religious creeds coexisting in a single state had
consumed the resources of the German princes, prelates, and
imperial cities of the Holy Roman Empire.
Charles V had made a provisional ruling on the religious question,
the
Augsburg Interim of 1548; this
offered a temporary ruling on the legitimacy of two religious
creeds in the empire, and codified by law in 30 June 1548 upon the
insistence of Charles V, who wanted to work out religious
differences under the auspices of a general council of the Catholic
Church. The Interim reflected largely Catholic principles of
religious behavior in its 26 articles, but it did allow for
marriage of the clergy, and bread
and wine for the laity.
This led to resistance by the Protestant territories, who
proclaimed their own Interim at Leipzig the following year.
The Interim was overthrown in 1552 by the revolt of the Protestant
elector
Maurice of Saxony and his
allies. In the negotiations at Passau in the Summer of 1552, even
the Catholic princes had called for a lasting peace, fearing the
religious controversy would never be settled. The emperor, however,
was unwilling to recognize the religious division in Western
Christendom as permanent. This document was foreshadowed by the
Peace of Passau, which in 1552 gave
Lutherans religious freedom after a victory by Protestant armies.
Under the Passau document. He granted a peace only until the next
imperial Diet. Charles V called for the meeting in early
1555.
The treaty, negotiated on Charles' behalf by his brother
Ferdinand, effectively gave
Lutheranism official status within the
domains of the
Holy Roman Empire.
According to the policy of
cuius regio, eius religio
("whose realm, his religion", or "in the Prince's land, the
Prince's religion"), the religion (
Roman
Catholic or
Lutheran) of a region's
ruler determined the religion of its people. During a grace period,
families could choose to move to a region where their faith was
practiced. (Article 24: "In case our subjects, whether belonging to
the old religion or the
Augsburg
Confession, should intend leaving their homes with their wives
and children in order to settle in another, they shall be hindered
neither in the sale of their estates after due payment of the local
taxes nor injured in their honour.") Knights and towns who had
practiced Lutheranism for some time were exempted under the
Declaratio
Ferdinandei, but the
Ecclesiastical reservation
supposedly prevented the principle of
cuius regio, eius
religio from being applied if an ecclesiastical ruler
converted to Lutheranism.
Problems
The document itself had critical problems. While it gave legal
basis for the practice of the Lutheran confession, it did not
accept any of the Reformed traditions, such as
Calvinism and
Anabaptism. Although the Peace of Augsburg was
moderately successful in relieving tension in the empire and
increasing tolerance, it left important things undone. Neither the
Anabaptists nor the
Calvinists were protected under the peace, so many
Protestant groups living under the rule
of a Lutheran prince still found themselves in danger of the charge
of
heresy. (Article 17: "However, all such as
do not belong to the two above named religions shall not be
included in the present peace but be totally excluded from it.")
These minorities did not achieve any legal recognition until the
Peace of Westphalia in
1648.
The intolerance towards Calvinists caused them to take desperate
measures that led to the
Thirty Years'
War.
One of the more notable measures was the
Second
Defenestration of Prague (1618) in which two representatives of
the fiercely Catholic Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II were thrown
out of a castle window in Prague
Aftermath

Representatives of the German estates
at the Augsburg conference discuss the possibilities of a religious
peace.
The
principle of ecclesiastical reservation was tested in the Cologne War
(1583-1588), which grew out of the scenario
envisioned by Ferdinand when he wrote the proviso: the reigning
Prince-Bishop converted to
Protestantism; although he did not insist that the population
convert, he placed Calvinism on a parity with Catholicism
throughout the Electorate of
Cologne. This in itself created a two-fold legal
problem: first, Calvinism was considered a heresy; second, the
Elector did not resign his
see, which
made him eligible, at least in theory, to cast a ballot for
emperor. Finally, his marriage posed a very real potential to
convert the Electorate into a dynastic principality, shifting the
balance of religious power in the Empire.
A side effect of the religious turmoil was Charles' decision to
abdicate and divide Habsburg territory into two sections. His
brother Ferdinand ruled the Austrian lands, and Charles' fervently
Catholic son,
Philip II, became
administrator of Spain, the Spanish Netherlands, parts of Italy,
and other overseas holdings. Philip was responsible for initiating
protracted wars with England and the Dutch, which ultimately
crippled Spain and gave the Protestant movement new life.
Citations
External links