September 25- The Religious Treaty of Augsburg

Thanks, Imperator, for stepping in during my sabbatical, I'm back and this time,... it's personal.

On September 25, 1555 the �Augsburger Religionsfrieden�, a treaty between the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and the Protestant Princes of Germany was signed in the South-German City of Augsburg.

The treaty of Augsburg guaranteed for the first time after the Reformation religious freedom in the Empire, not necessarily for its population, but for the rulers of the many independent principalities that constituted the HRE.
Luther�s rebellion against the Catholic Church and the Papacy had deeply divided Germany, as it would consequently the whole of Europe. It had spread like wildfire amongst the people who not only embraced Protestantism not only as their new faith, but also as the core of a political ideology that had informed a series of social rebellions in Germany that had , unsuccessfully in the end, attempted to overthrow the feudal society. The German Peasant War of 1525 had initially endangered the archaic social and political structures of the Empire, but in the end the mercenary armies of Germany�s rulers had defeated the rebellion, last but not least because Luther himself had come out in support of the Dukes and Princes of Germany and condemned the uprising of the peasant as an offense against the Divine order.

The outcome of the Peasant�s War and Luther�s role resulted in the first steps towards the official emancipation of the Protestant faith, in it�s more moderate form it had become acceptable for the ruling classes at last.
A number of German rulers, predominantly in Northern and Middle Germany, had adopted Luther�s religion, not always for its beliefs but also for its political implications, and still being under constant thread from the still Catholic HRE and states of Southern Germany, they formed in 1531 the �Union of Schmalkalden�, an alliance with a common army and foreign policy that sought the support of other Protestant countries, or indeed any other state that had issues with the HRE.




HRE Charles V and his chin

The united Protestant states soon became a political power that first of all could neither be defeated nor be ignored, and that secondly, seriously endangered the fragile territorial unity of the Empire. In a desperate attempt to salvage what was left of the HRE, in 1555 Charles V finally agreed to a religious truce, the�Augsburger Religionsfriede� . The treaty established that each ruler of each of the many states inside the HRE could choose his religion , practice it and force his subject to adopt his faith as well.
The principle � cuius regio, eius religio� (he who rules, his religion) was introduced, and it had enormous consequences for the subsequent course of German history.
Germany became that religious patchwork that it still is today, Catholic and Protestant areas being scattered around the country. But even more significant were the political implications, although the power of the HRE had been constantly eroded up to the 16th century, the treaty was a further nail in the coffin. It paved the way for the further federalization of Germany, the formation of many states of various sizes that would increasingly pursue a policy completely independently from the HRE that became nothing more than a hollow and anachronistic super-structure.
The treaty of Augsburg far from removed all the reasons for further conflicts between the German princes, and only 60 years later religion was once again used as the excuse for an all out war, the �Thirty Years War�, that devastated the country to an extent that even WW2 couldn�t repeat.



The divided Germany in 1600

What else happened on this day?

1066 In the battle of Stamford Bridge (No, not Chelsea�s homeground) the English King Harold Godwinson defeated an invading Viking army under King Harald Hardraade and Harold�s own brother Tostig, who were both killed in the battle. Immediately afterwards the busy Harold had to rush down to the South coast to face yet another invader, William of Normandy, and the Battle of Hastings on October 14 didn�t quite end that fortunately. The rest is history.

1396 A crusading Christian army, led by John Nevers and King Sigismund of Hungary, was annihilated by Sultan Bajezid I's Ottoman forces at the battle of Nicopolis.
    

Full list:

Wikipedia

Edited by Komnenos