This Week in Christian History: A Pope's Death, a German Peace Agreement, and a Medieval Council
Peace of Augsburg – Sept. 25, 1555
This week marks the anniversary of the first agreement made between the Catholic Church and the nascent Protestant movement to coexist with one another.
In the years after Martin Luther began the Reformation, violence had ensued between Catholics and Lutherans in the German states within the Holy Roman Empire.
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On Sept. 25, 1555, the Diet of Augsburg released a peace agreement that allowed German princes to choose whether they wanted to adhere to a Protestant statement of faith known as the Augsburg Confession.
"His Imperial Majesty, and We, and the electors, princes, and estates of the Holy Empire will not make war upon any estate of the empire on account of the Augsburg Confession and the doctrine, religion, and faith of the same, nor injure nor do violence to those estates that hold it, nor force them, against their conscience, knowledge, and will, to abandon the religion, faith, church usages, ordinances, and ceremonies of the Augsburg Confession," read the Peace agreement.
"Nor shall We, through mandate or in any other way, trouble or disparage them, but shall let them quietly and peacefully enjoy their religion, faith, church usages, ordinances, and ceremonies, as well as their possessions, real and personal property, lands, people, dominions, governments, honors, and rights."
