Everything about The Peace Of Augsburg totally explained
The
Peace of Augsburg was a treaty signed between
Ferdinand, who replaced his brother
Charles V as
Holy Roman Emperor, and the forces of the
Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, on
September 25,
1555, at the city of
Augsburg in
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. In respect of the famous quote "
Cuius regio, eius religio", derived from the document allowed German princes to select either
Lutheranism or
Catholicism within the domains they controlled, ultimately reaffirming the independence they'd over their states. Families were given a period in which they were free to migrate to different regions of their desired religion.
History
The
Peace of Passau, which in 1552 gave Lutheran religious freedom after a victory by Protestant armies, foreshadowed the formation of this document. The one major problem of this document was that it didn't legally recognize various religious minorities, such as
Calvinism and
Anabaptism. Not until the
Peace of Westphalia in 1648 would these sects be given legal recognition.
The treaty effectively gave
Lutheranism official status within the domains of the
Holy Roman Empire. According to the policy of
cuius regio, eius religio ("whose reign, that 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'll be hindered neither in the sale of their estates after due payment of the local taxes nor injured in their honour.")
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 don't belong to the two above named religions shan't be included in the present peace but be totally excluded from it.") Tolerance wasn't officially extended to Calvinists until the
Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Many who didn't wish to adopt Catholicism or Lutheranism emigrated from the empire, with high numbers settling in the Netherlands and France.
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. This eventually led to more involved conflict between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
Another effect of the Peace was Charles' decision to leave the throne and divide the empire in two. His brother Ferdinand ruled the Austrian lands, and Charles' fervently Catholic son, Philip II, became administrator of Spain, the Netherlands, parts of Italy, and other overseas holdings. Philip was responsible for initiating war with England, which ultimately crippled Spain and gave the Protestant movement new life, contributing to the outbreak of the
Thirty Years' War.
By aligning religious divisions with political divisions, the Peace of Augsburg established the patchwork of states that characterized Germany until the 19th century.
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