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[[File: 759px-Carlos V en Mühlberg, by Titian, from Prado in Google Earth.jpg|200px300px|thumb|left|Emperor Charles V at the Battle of Mulhberg]]The Peace of Augsburg (1555) was a peace treaty that sought to end the religious struggle in the German lands and in the Holy Roman Empire in the mid-sixteenth century. The Peace of Augsburg was signed by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor, who was a Catholic and the Protestant Schmalkaldic League. The treaty of Augsburg was an attempt to end the series of religious wars that had destabilized the Holy Roman Empire, which was the largest political entity in Europe at the time. The treat, also known a the Settlement of Augsburg sought to prevent Catholics and Protestants from going to war again and to end religious tensions and violence in the Imperial lands.
The treaty , also known a the Settlement of Augsburg, sought to prevent Catholics and Protestants from going to war again and to end religious tensions and violence in the Imperial lands. The treaty briefly did maintain peace in the Holy Roman Empire , but the treaty ultimately failed. This article is concerned with the reasons for the failure of Why did the Peace of Augsburg fail and why how did it ultimately led lead to the Thirty Years Wars. The settlement failed because it did not, admit Calvinist to the terms of the treaty and it failed to define the religious status of the Episcopal states. Most importantly it created a mutually hostile Protestant and a Catholic bloc in Central Europe and this directly led to the Thirty Years War, the most brutal conflict according to some, in European history. ?
The rights supporters of members of these churches were also not recognized by the Peace and they not accorded parity of esteem Luther knew that Charles was too preoccupied with Catholics and Protestants. The treaty sought to ensure a balance of power between Germanys’ Protestant and Catholics and his wars in doing so to ensure peace Italy and an end the Ottoman’s to sectarian strifeintervene. In the near term, it did manage to end the war but It was only after Charles V had defeated the religious conflict was French king could he turn his attention to persist affairs in many areasGermany. The Peace of Augsburg guaranteed He formed a League that the House of Hapsburg would continue aimed to be elected destroy Protestantism and re-establish religious unity in the Imperial rulerEmpire. However, the Emperor had little or no control of northern Germany Charles and his army were victorious and captured Saxony and won a great victory at the heartland Battle of LutheranismMilberg.
===Bishops and Rulers=What did the Augsburg Settlement do?====In The Peace of Augsburg, also called the Augsburg Settlement was signed in September 1555 by Charles V, Holy Roman EmpireEmperor, there were very many ecclesiastical principalities and they ranged in size from a small town to large territoriesthe Schmalkaldic League, often containing significant urban centers such as Cologne. The Treaty after protracted negotiations had to deal with signed on 25 September 1555 at the issue imperial city of ecclesiastics who converted to LutheranismAugsburg.<ref>Elliot, J.H. The Catholic side was concerned that if a bishop or another religious leader converted that his realm would become Lutheran<i>Imperial Spain 1469–1716</i>. This had happened during the ReformationPenguin Books (New York: 2002), p. The Head of 208</ref> It officially ended the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, originally an order of warrior-monks had converted religious war and attempted to Protestantism and as establish a result all religious settlement in the Prussian territories had become Protestantsprawling German lands.<ref> Hale, p. 134</ref> The Catholics demanded that any bishop or religious leader that had converted to Lutheranism should return his realm as by rights their lands belonged to the Catholic Church. Howeverprinciple of <i>cuius regio, eius religio</i>, those bishops and others who had converted refused to return their lands and became was the secular ruler most important aspect of the former ecclesiastical principalitiestreaty. This was a source principle states that the ruler of continuing tension between the Protestants and realm decided the Catholics and many faith of the latter believed that the Protestant side had not respected or fully implemented the treaty of Augsburgpeople. <ref>Von Friedneburg, p 76</ref> This led was to frequent clashes between both members ensure the internal unity of both confessions over the future of Episcopal principalitiesstates within the Holy Roman Empire. For exampleIf a ruler was Catholic, then he could determine that all those who lived in the Cologne War (1583-1588), when the prince-archbishop became a Protestant it led his realm had to a brutal sectarian war between be Catholics and Lutherans. One of Those who did not accept the principal causes of the Thirty Years War situation could migrate to a jurisdiction that was the ‘lack of clarity over the status of these episcopal princedoms.’<ref> WilsonProtestant. p 67</ref>
The rights of members of these churches were also not recognized by the Peace and they not accorded parity of esteem with Catholics and Protestants. The treaty sought to ensure a balance of power between Germanys’ Protestant and Catholics and ensure peace and an end to sectarian strife. In the near term, it did manage to end the war, but the religious conflict persisted in some parts of Germany. The Peace of Augsburg guaranteed that the House of Hapsburg would continue to be elected the Imperial ruler. However, the Emperor had little or no control of northern Germany, the heartland of Lutheranism. <dh-ad/> ===Conclusion=Did the Peace of Augsburg end religious tensions?====[[File: Karel Svoboda Defenestrace.jpg |300px|thumb|left|Defenestration of Prague 1618]]The Peace of Augsburg created a temporary end to hostilities, it did not resolve the underlying religious tension in Germany and in central Europe. There were continued tensions between Catholics and Protestants. Despite the agreement that those who did not share the religion of the prince or ruler should conform or leave the realm, in the treaty many did not. This meant that there were rival groups of Catholics and Protestants living near each other in an uneasy peace. There are many instances of riots and violence between the two groups. The situation was made more complex by the spread of Calvinism in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Many Germans were drawn to the teachings of Calvin and his ideas on the ‘elect’ and ‘predestination’. Several German rulers, especially in Brandenburg and the Rhineland, tolerated Calvinists. The Calvinists although Protestants were not Lutherans and they were distrusted and even persecuted by Lutheran rulers. Catholics naturally saw them as just another Protestant sect. The rise of Calvinism in Germany was not foreseen by the Peace of Augsburg . At the time of the writing of the treaty, they were a small group. By the 1580s they were a significant minority and their activities helped to increase religious tensions in Germany. By the 1600s several rulers proclaimed themselves Calvinists, such as the Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel and the Elector of Brandenburg. As Calvinists, they were not covered by the principle of ‘one ruler, one faith’, this threw the entire Peace of Augsburg into doubt. Furthermore, Calvinists, because they were recognized under the Peace of Augsburg, were in effect unable to secure any tolerance for their faith in the Empire. This was to play an important part in the breakdown of the Augsburg Settlement. Indeed, the collapse of the Augsburg settlement can be attributed to actions borne out of Calvinists' frustrations. The so-called ‘defenestration of Prague’ involved Calvinists attacking and throwing representatives of the Holy Roman Emperor out a window. This was intended to give trigger the Thirty Years War that left most of central Europe a wasteland.<ref> Wilson, Peter, <i>The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy</i>. London: Belknap Press, 2011), p. 67</ref> ====Bishops and Rulers====In the Holy Roman Empire, there were very many ecclesiastical principalities and they ranged in size from a small town to large territories, often containing significant urban centers such as Cologne. The Treaty after protracted negotiations had to deal with the issue of ecclesiastics who converted to Lutheranism. The Catholic side was concerned that if a bishop or another religious leader converted that his realm would become Lutheran. This had happened during the Reformation. The Head of the Teutonic Knights in Prussia, originally an order of warrior-monks had converted to Protestantism and as a result, all the Prussian territories had become Protestant. The Catholics demanded that any bishop or religious leader that had converted to Lutheranism should return his realm as by rights their lands belonged to the Catholic Church. However, those bishops and others who had converted refused to return their lands and became the secular ruler of the former ecclesiastical principalities. This was a source of continuing tension between the Protestants and the Catholics and many of the latter believed that the Protestant side had not respected or fully implemented the treaty of Augsburg. This led to frequent clashes between both members of both confessions over the future of Episcopal principalities. For example, in the Cologne War (1583-1588), when the prince-archbishop became a Protestant it led to a brutal sectarian war between Catholics and Lutherans. One of the principal causes of the Thirty Years War was the ‘lack of clarity over the status of these episcopal princedoms.’<ref> Wilson. p 67</ref> ====What did the Peace of Augsburg accomplish?====<div class="portal" style='float:right; width:35%'> ====Related Articles===={{#dpl:category=German History|ordermethod=firstedit|order=descending|count=6}}</div>The Peace of Augsburg led to the partition of Germany into two separate confessional blocs, one Catholic and the other Protestant, even though they all inhabited the Holy Roman Empire. It sought to establish a lasting balance of power between them to ensure peace in the Empire. The settlement did succeed in establishing a balance of power in Germany but it was never a stable one and it only lasted so long because the Hapsburgs were distracted elsewhere. The Augsburg Treaty had effectively partitioned not only the Holy Roman Empire but also Christendom.<ref> Hale, p. 118</ref> After the Peace of Augsburg, Germany was composed of two separate confessions who did not trust each other and saw each other heretics. They both sought to gain an advantage over the other and to increase their territory at the expense of the other. The settlement of Augsburg did end a war but it also copper-fastened the division on the Empire into a Catholic and a Protestant bloc. When the balance of power broke down in 1618, these two mutually hostile religions began a war that was unprecedented in its loss of life and destruction.<ref>Wilson, p. 656</ref> ====Was the Peace of Augsburg successful?====The Peace of Augsburg was intended to give it Germany a religious settlement lasting peace that would prevent future religious wars. The settlement was successful in the sense that it did prevent a general religious war in Germany and Central Europe until 1618. However, the settlement reached at Augsburg in 1555 was fundamentally unstable and its eventual failure was almost guaranteed. Those who drafted the treaty failed to recognize that the growth of Calvinism would destabilize it the agreement and increase sectarian tensions in the Empire. Because they were not covered by the terms of the treaty they often worked against it and this was to lead to conflict in Bohemia that triggered the Thirty Years War. Then the The settlement did not failed to resolve the status of the episcopal principalities whose bishop bishops had converted to Lutheranism and this was to poison relations between both sides for decades. Perhaps the most significant failure of the settlement was that it created two mutually hostile blocs, and there was no mechanism designed by the settlement to defuse tensions or to resolve conflicts. This led to the collapse of the Peace of Augsburg and the Thirty Years War, one of the greatest tragedies in Europe’s long history.{{Mediawiki:AmNative}} ====References====<references/> {{Contributors}}[[Category:Wikis]] [[Category:German History]] [[Category:16th Century History]] [[Category:European History]]