RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Westphalia, Peace of
The amnesty granted under the Peace of Prague in 1635 was now declared to be universal in principle. It was further ordered that, so 5. Amnesty far as possible, all spiritual and temand poral matters should be restored to Restitution. their former status. Accordingly the state of affairs as existing in 1618 should have been resumed; but against the overtures to this effect on the part of Sweden, France, and those imperial estates which had formed an alliance with them, the emperor and the Roman Catholic party insisted on regarding the year 1630 as the limit; nor would they relent until certain exceptions from this date were stipulated and the appointment of certain regulative times, respectively, for specific prospective restitutions was conceded. For instance, Bavaria would have had to restore to the descendants of Frederick V. the Electoral Palatinate, thus taking away from the Roman Catholics the balance of power in the electoral college; it would also have raised a claim of 13,000,000 thaler in favor of Bavaria against Austria for war indemnity. By the limit of 1618, Baden-Durlach lost the Upper Mark. Most unfavorably did the terms of settlement affect the Protestants in the hereditary lands of Austria. The efforts of Sweden in their behalf, to make the amnesty apply on the basis of 1618, remained fruitless. Exceptions were accorded only to the dukes of Brieg, Liegnitz, Miinsterberg and Oels, and the city of Breslau. To the other Silesian duchies was conceded merely the erection of three new Evangelical churches, the so-called ‘“ peace churches’ near Schweidnitz, Jauer, and Glogau. Besides, the inhabitants of the Silesian domains and the nobles of Lower Austria were not subject, on account of their adherence to the Augsburg Confession, to confiscation of possessions or to banishment, and they were to be permitted to attend the Evangelical worship outside their territory in neighboring places. In the event of a voluntary emigration, they were allowed freely to visit their unsold real estate for supervision and attention to cultivation.
The peace negotiations also vitally turned on the point of eliminating the confusions and grievances which had grown out of the previous relations of the religious parties, or of forestalling a recurrence of
the same. The imperial and the Swedish envoys negotiated the Evangelical grievances
6. Griev- in general; pertaining to the relations ances and of the Lutheran and the Reformed, Religious Sweden conducted the transactions for Relations. the former; and for the latter, Bran-
denburg, seconded by the Dutch and the Swiss. (1) The religious Peace of Augsburg and the Passau treaty were confirmed anew. (2) The peace instrument of Osnabriick expressly recognized the parity of the Reformed with the Roman Catholics and the adherents of the Augsburg Confession. However, the proviso in § 17 of the religious peace was reaffirmed, that no other religions than those mentioned were to be tolerated. (3) The legal equality of the two religious parties in the empire was expressly declared; and in application of this principle, it was ordered that a quota of members from both confessions should be chosen for the reg-
ular imperial deputations and for the imperial courts of justice. In matters affecting religion, or in a division of opinion between the Roman Catholic and the Protestant estates, the usual parliamentary vote by majority was to make way for an amicable adjustment among the estates of both religious parties. The terms thus stated, especially the principle of equal legal status for both religious parties, was to become practically applicable in accordance with the constitution and laws of the realm, and the consistent provisions of the treaty itself. Their execution was dependent on various actual antecedent conditions, subsisting in the diversity of relations between Roman Catholics and Protestants, and, within the latter, between Lutherans and Reformed. This led to the adoption of measures intended to regulate their mutual relations with reference to the standard principles first adopted. (1) With reference to ecclesiastical properties and institutions, Jan. 1, 1624, was agreed upon as the regulative day. The religious party having possession on that date were permanently to retain it, and all possessions of that date of which it was later deprived were to be restored. The advantages obtained through this measure by the Protestants were inconsiderable. Similar arrangements were made regarding the mediate foundations and cloisters. (2) On the “right of reformation,” the religious Peace of Augsburg had sanctioned the right of temporal estates of the realm both to go over to the Evangelical religion and to allow the same to their subjects. This right had not been conceded to the subjects individually; but, at that time, the principle was recognized that the territorial lord was to decide on the religious confession of his domain inclusive of that of his subjects. Now the following extensions were added: (a) Evangelical subjects under Roman Catholic, and Roman Catholic subjects under Evangelical sovereignty were to be left free to exercise what manner of religion they had practised until some time in 1624, and in this they were to be left unmolested in the future.
From this it followed that Evangelical subjects in a Roman Catholic territory or Roman Catholics in an Evangelical territory who had exercised religion neither publicly nor privately in 1624, now remained amenable to the jus reformandi; and the same pertained to any who, after the publication of the treaty of peace, would be converts to any other religion than that of the territorial sovereign. In both instances the latter had the alternative right of tolerance or enforcing emigration. In the former instance, the subjects were to be allowed freedom of conscience, the right of household worship, and of attending worship abroad, as well as legal equality with the adherents of the authorized confessions. If, on the contrary, the territorial sovereign should command, or the subjects voluntarily choose, emigration, then all molestation was forbidden, and a five years’ respite (or three years in case of a change of religion after the publication of the terms of peace) for emigration was conceded; neither should the testimonials of position and character be denied nor unusual reversions be demanded or emigration taxes beimposed. (b) With reference to the relation between Lutherans and Reformed, the status
Westphalia, Peace of Wettstein
at the time of the Peace of Westphalia subject to the treaties and privileges in power was to be prescriptive. In the future, if a territorial sovereign changed from the Evangelical state religion to another Evangelical confession, or succeeded to an Evangelical state having a different confession from his own, he was to have the right only to institute his court worship, and irrevocably to grant possible churches of his faith free religious exercise; but all this without altering the existing church order, and without disturbing the previous religious practise, church estates, and institutions. The congregations of the Evangelical state religion were to retain the appointment of their church and school officers, who should be subject to examination and ordination at the hands of a church board, subject to the approval of the sovereign, without obstruction. (3) The diocesan right and the spiritual jurisdiction of Roman Catholic officials, in cases of dispute among Protestants and between Protestants and Roman Catholics, were suspended, excepting (a) where Roman Catholics had been in obvious possession of the ecclesiastical jurisdiction in 1624, this might continue to be exercised in collecting revenues, tithes, and pensions; and (b) where the Protestant subjects of Roman Catholic estates in 1624 had acknowledged the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the same should continue, without prejudice to confessional freedom and liberty of conscience. On the other hand, in the case of Roman Catholic subjects of Evangelical estates, the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic bishops was to continue intact, according to the peaceable exercise of it in 1624, provided, however, that the Roman Catholics in the given territory maintained public exercise of religion in the year stated. The spiritual jurisdiction over Evangelicals in Evangelical territories received no mention; it was presumed to be a privilege of the territorial government.
The interest of the foreign powers in securing for the estates of the realm the largest possible status independent of the emperor coincided with the similar aspirations of the estates, and the difference in religion did not so separate the estates as to induce
them to work at cross purposes in this
7. Political common object. The original abso- Readjust- lute sovereignty of the emperor had ments; long ceased to be unquestioned, and Execution. the rights acquired by the estates in the course of time no longer submitted
to be defined as mere feudal investitures. Yet a distinct definition was not then attempted; under the adopted term jus territorialis the treaty expressly assured this right to the estates of the realm. In particular they were guaranteed the right of voting on all parliamentary deliberations concerning the affairs of the realm, and in concluding alliances with one another and with foreign powers for their self-preservation and security, reserving the rights of the emperor, the empire, and the peace of the land. The foregoing rights were also accredited in detail to the imperial cities. Likewise, the immediate imperial knighthood in point of religion was placed on a par with the estates of the realm. The peace was declared to be a permanent, universal law of the em-