25
September 1555 A.D. Peace at Augsburg:
Good for Lutherans but Not “Those God-Awful Calvinists”
Graves, Dan. “Peace at Augsburg.” Christianity.com. Apr 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1501-1600/peace-at-augsburg-11629989.html#comments. Accessed 23 May
2014.
Great was the turmoil and many the monstrous crimes
committed in the name of Christ in the wake of the Reformation in Europe.
Religious passions quickly passed into political conflict.
At the Diet (a formal assembly of princes) of Worms
in 1521, Emperor Charles V outlawed Lutheranism . But he was unable to stamp
out the reform movement at the time because of other crises. Not until 1529 was
Charles able to follow up on the Lutheran issue. He sent word that Catholicism
was to be restored everywhere in Germany. Many German cities and princes
protested. These were called the "Protesting estates" and from them
we got the name "Protestant."
Charles saw that some sort of conciliation would be
in order. In 1530 he attended an assembly known as the Diet at Augsburg.
Lutherans presented the Confession of Augsburg in an attempt to prove to Rome
that their views were Biblical. This confession remains the basis of the
Lutheran faith. However, reconciliation proved impossible and Charles ordered
Lutherans to reunite with the Catholic church by April 15, 1531. This had the
effect of stiffening opposition against him. A military alliance of
Protestants, known as the Schmalkaldic League came into being. Charles crushed
this, but Elector Maurice switched sides and declared war on the emperor,
forcing him to negotiate with the Protestants. In 1552, at the Peace of Passau,
Charles accepted the existence of the evangelical church and promised to hold a
"diet" to settle the controversy.
The diet was not convened until 1555. Again it was
held in Augsburg. Peace was arranged between the Lutherans and Catholics on
this day, September 25, 1555. In
many respects it was imperfect. Although Lutherans were given legal standing,
Anabaptists and Calvinists were not. "[A]ll 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." Each German territory must take the faith of
its prince. This inbuilt religious divisiveness crippled Germany's ability to
unite as a nation. There was no toleration within a territory.
The Peace of Augsburg did, however, permit people
to transplant to a region whose faith was more congenial to each. "In case
our subjects, whether belonging to the old religion or to the Augsburg Confession,
should intend leaving their homes, with their wives and children, in order to
settle in another place, they shall neither be hindered in the sale of their
estates after due pay, net of the local taxes nor injured in their honor…”
The Peace of Augsburg offered the merest hint of
toleration. Weak as was the treaty, it brought increased stability. However,
not until the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 were Calvinists added to the list of
tolerated religions.
Bibliography:
1. "Augsburg, Peace of."
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by F. L. Cross and E. A.
Livingstone. Oxford, 1997.
2. Durant, Will. The Reformation; A
history of European civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300 - 1564. The Story
of Civilization, Part VI. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1957.
3. Kidd, B. J. Documents
illustrative of the Continental Reformation; edited by B. J. Kidd. Oxford,
Clarendon Press, 1967.
4. Simon, Edith and the editors of
Time/Life. The Reformation. Great Ages of Man. New York: Time Inc., 1966.
5. Various encyclopedia articles.
Last updated April, 2007.
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