Peace of Augsburg

Promulgated on September 25, 1555, the Peace of Augsburg brought an end to years of religious tension and conflict in Germany and established the basis for the legal coexistent of Catholicism and Lutheranism in the Holy Roman Empire.

The peace was announced during a ceremony in the Guildhall. One of the immediate consequences was the development of narrow Protestant dogmatism, not least because only the Lutheran confession was given legal recognition.

The provision of the Peace of Augsburg included the guarantee of personal and legal security to the imperial of both parties which included rights of worship and church polity for the adherents of the Augsburg Confession; the recognition of princely sovereignty over religion on the principle that ‘where there is one ruler; there should be one religion’.

The Peace of Augsburg also specified that Protestants could keep the possessions of Catholic estates confiscated before 1552.

The origins of the Peace of Augsburg can the traced not only to earlier attempts to resolve the religious within the Holy Roman Empire but also to the compromises that the Holy Roman Empire emperor Charles V agreed to in order to gain the support of the Lutheran princes in his campaign against the Ottoman Turks and also against the French.
Peace of Augsburg