The Thirty Years War

A Sourcebook

Peter H. Wilson

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781350307346
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European History
• Index: History

An edited and annotated collection of translated documents on the Thirty Years War, providing students with accessible source material on this destructive conflict. Covering all aspects of the war from a variety of contemporary perspectives, it brings together an exciting range of material from treaties to literature to eyewitness accounts.

1

Political and religious tension in the Empire after 1555

It was long customary for historians to blame the outbreak of the Thirty Years War on the failure of the Peace of Augsburg to resolve tensions in the Empire arising from the disputes over the Protestant Reformation [Doc. 1]. This treaty was deliberately ambiguous in its language to allow both Catholics and Lutherans to sign it whilst still disagreeing fundamentally over what constituted supposedly absolute and singular religious truth. The ambiguity was not immediately a problem and the treaty proved surprisingly durable, helping to sustain the longest period of peace in modern German history prior to the tranquillity that has lasted since 1945.

Nonetheless, three issues emerged as serious, long-term problems. The most significant was the fate of the ecclesiastical principalities and other lands of the Catholic imperial church (Reichskirche). These were full imperial Estates, represented in imperial institutions where their numbers gave the Catholics an inbuilt majority. They were ruled by relations of the Catholic princely and noble families, who had embarked on church careers and were elected by the senior clergy in each territory. Many of these clergy converted to Lutheranism, leading to the election in some principalities of sons from Protestant princely families eager to advance their political influence and confessional interests. These elections and the conversion of some incumbent ecclesiastical princes, like the elector of Cologne in 1583, threatened the influence of Catholic families and their majority in imperial institutions.

The second issue was the fate of the church property still in Catholic hands but lying within territories now ruled by Lutheran princes. The last issue was the presence of dissenting minorities in both Catholic and Lutheran territories. Most princes wanted to expel minorities in their own territory, but demanded toleration for their co-religionists living in someone else’s lands.

Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–64, r.1558) addressed these problems in a separate declaration [Doc. 2], but many Catholics denied this was a binding part of the Peace. Meanwhile, Lutherans rejected Article 18 of the Peace, claiming they had never agreed this during the negotiations. This article became known as the ‘ecclesiastical reservation’ and was intended to reserve the church principalities for Catholicism.

Further difficulties emerged with the spread of Calvinism after 1560. Though called a Religious Peace, the 1555 treaty did not define doctrine. Lutherans were referred to as the adherents of the Confession of Augsburg, a religious statement first issued in 1530 but revised subsequently. However, the treaty did not specify which version enjoyed the protection of imperial law. Calvinists claimed inclusion as a set of believers who were simply continuing Luther’s original mission. Catholics and most Lutherans rejected this; the latter often hating Calvinists more than the Catholics did, because most conversions to Calvinism came at their expense.

The 1555 treaty has entered history as the Religious Peace, but it was referred to in the later sixteenth and seventeenth century as the ‘Religious and Profane Peace’ because it also addressed other issues like public order. Disputes over doctrine were supposed to be settled by theologians, while those over legal jurisdictions and other matters would be adjudicated by the two imperial supreme courts. Unfortunately, the theologians could not agree, while many people found it hard in practice to distinguish between religion and law, since Christian morality was a benchmark for both. The Imperial Cameral Court (Reichskammergericht) was entrusted with adjudicating disputes arising from the 1555 treaty. It was an independent supreme court composed of Catholic and Lutheran judges selected by the imperial Estates. The court handled most cases with relatively few problems before the 1580s when the issues became increasingly politicised by the Calvinist elector Palatine and the Catholic duke of Bavaria. Both princes identified their own dynastic goals with wider confessional concerns.

The growing number of disputes prompted Emperor Rudolf II (1552–1612, r.1576) to intervene. Less circumspect than his two predecessors, Rudolf assigned cases to the Empire’s other supreme court, the Imperial Aulic Council (Reichshofrat), on the grounds that public order also fell within its remit. Protestants and some Catholics regarded the court with growing suspicion, because it was based in Vienna and staffed entirely by the emperor’s appointees. Most disputes still passed relatively smoothly, but Rudolf’s personal, heavy-handed intervention in some high-profile cases seriously damaged his reputation. The most notorious was his intervention through the Reichshofrat in the imperial city of Donauwörth after sectarian riots in 1605 [Doc. 3]. This city lay in the Swabian Kreis, one of the ten administrative regions in the Empire (see p. 1 and Map 2). It was customary to assign enforcement of court verdicts to the leading princes of each Kreis. In this case, Rudolf appointed the duke of Bavaria as imperial commissioner, even though his lands were in the Bavarian, not Swabian, Kreis. He then allowed the duke to annex Donauwörth in lieu of the costs he had incurred. It is easy to see why militant Protestants felt the emperor was deliberately promoting Catholic ‘tyranny’ in the Empire.

1. The Religious Peace of Augsburg, 1555

15 In order to bring the highly necessary peace to the Holy Empire of the Germanic Nation between the Roman Imperial Majesty and the Electors, Princes and Estates, let neither His Imperial Majesty nor the Electors, Princes, etc., do any violence or harm to any Estate of the Empire on account of the Augsburg Confession, but let them enjoy their religious belief, liturgy and ceremonies as well as their estates and other rights and privileges in peace; and complete religious peace shall be obtained only by Christian means of amity, or under threat of the punishment of the Imperial ban.

16 Likewise the Estates espousing the Augsburg Confession shall let all the Estates and Princes who cling to the old religion live in absolute peace and in the enjoyment of all their estates, rights and privileges.

17 However, all 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.

18 And since it has proved to be a matter of great dispute as to what was to happen with the bishoprics, priories and other ecclesiastical benefices of such Catholic priests who would in course of time abandon the old religion, we have in virtue of the powers of Roman Emperors ordained as follows: where an archbishop, bishop or prelate or any other priest of our old religion shall abandon the same, his archbishopric, bishopric, prelacy and other benefices together with all their income and revenues which he has so far possessed, shall be abandoned by him without any further objection or delay. The chapter and such as are entitled to it by common law or the custom of the place shall elect a person espousing the old religion who may enter on the possession and enjoyment of all the rights and incomes of the place without any further hindrance and without prejudging any ultimate amicable transaction of religion.

19 Some of the abbeys, monasteries and other ecclesiastical estates having been confiscated and turned into churches, schools and charitable institutions, it is herewith ordained that such estates which their original owners had not possessed at the time of the Treaty of Passau [1552] shall be comprised in the present treaty of peace¹.

20 The ecclesiastical jurisdiction over the Augsburg Confession, dogma, appointment of ministers, church ordinances and ministries hitherto practised (but apart from all the rights of the Electors, Princes, Estates, colleges and monasteries to taxes in money or tithes) shall from now cease and the Augsburg Confession shall be left to the free and untrammelled enjoyment of their religion, ceremonies, appointment of ministers, as is stated in a subsequent separate article, until the final transaction of religion will take place.

21 While the Estates of the old religion are entitled to their rents, interest, dues and tithes, those who pay them are to remain under the same secular jurisdiction of the Estate under which they stood at the start of this religious dispute. Likewise, these rents, interest, dues, tithes and properties are to sustain the necessary work of the church and schools, as well as poor relief and hospitals as before, regardless of religion.

22 If any disputes or misunderstandings arise over the use of such rents, interest, dues, etc., each party is to select one or two impartial arbiters to decide within six months. No one is to prevent such rents, interest, dues, etc. from being used to support their previous purpose until such a decision has been reached.

23 No Estate shall try to persuade the subjects of other Estates to abandon their religion nor protect them against their own magistrates. Such as had from olden times the rights of patronage are not included in the present 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 place, they shall be hindered neither in the sale of their estates after due payment of the local taxes nor injured in their honour.

Source: Karl Zeumer (ed.), Quellensammlung zur Geschichte der Deutschen Reichsverfassung in Mittelalter und Neuzeit (Tübingen, 1913), pp. 341–70.

2. The Declaratio Ferdinandea, 24 September 1555

We, Ferdinand, by the Grace of God King of the Romans¹, permanent enlarger of the Empire, king of Germany, Hungary, Bohemia, Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, etc., … hereby announce publicly through this letter that the adherents of the Augsburg Confession humbly submitted a petition at this imperial diet during the discussions to agree the religious peace that many knights, towns and communes in the territories of the archbishops, bishops and other ecclesiastics have long adhered to the Augsburg Confession and still do, and it was of concern that they are being pressured by their rulers … running the risk of violence between rulers and subjects. In order to prevent this and to preserve the most necessary peace in the Holy Roman Empire of the Germanic Nation, they humbly petitioned that the ecclesiastics be instructed to leave their subjects unhindered to observe the Augsburg Confession until these disputed points of religion can finally be resolved through amicable agreement. The adherents of the old religion, however, objected to this, so that neither party could agree this point.

Therefore, by the power of the plenipotentiary powers granted us by our dear brother and lord, His Roman Imperial Majesty [i.e. Charles V], we hereby rule and declare that the ecclesiastics’ knights, towns and communes, that have adhered to the Augsburg Confession for a long time and for years, and have used that religion’s church customs, ordinances and rites publicly and continue to do so until the present date, shall be left their religious beliefs, church customs and rites, to be disturbed by no one by force, until a Christian, final settlement of religion.

Source: Karl Brandi (ed.), Der Augsburger Religionsfriede vom 25. September 1555. Kritische Ausgabe des Textes mit den Entwürfen und der königlichen Deklaration (Göttingen, 1927), pp. 52–4.

3. The Donauwörth Incident, 1607: Emperor Rudolf II’s imperial ban, 3 August 1607

We, Rudolf the Second, by the grace of God Elected Roman Emperor … offer grace and all the best to all and everyone … who receives our ban letter and is summoned by it. High, and honourable, also high-born dear friends, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law, electors and princes, also high-born nobles and subjects. Having received complaints and requests from the honourable Heinrich Bishop of Augsburg¹ … we have placed the mayors, council and commune of the City of Donauwörth through verdict and law under the Holy Roman Imperial Ban and have authorised our respectable commissioner, the high-born Maximilian Count Palatine of the Rhine, Duke of Upper and Lower Bavaria,² our dear cousin and prince, to announce this publicly with due solemnity through the appointed imperial herald and exclude them from the peace, and apply the ban to their persons, property and possessions, credit and complaints. By the power of our open imperial letter, the aforementioned mayor, council and commune of the City of Donauwörth are denounced and are hereby declared open outlaws of ourselves and the Empire, and … you are all requested by Roman Imperial Authority upon pain of punishment to regard the entire oft-mentioned mayor, council and commune of the City of Donauwörth as our and the Empire’s outlaws, and not to admit, shelter or house, nor care, feed or water them on any account in our and the Empire’s, nor in our hereditary, lands, nor your principalities, lands, houses or accommodation, nor provide any assistance, help, furtherance, or promotion, nor purchase, sell or indeed have any other contact with them … Furthermore [if you] discover and find their persons, property or possessions, whethe...