THE RELIGIOUS PEACE OF AUGSBURG
ABDICATION OF CHARLES V
A.D. 1555
WILLIAM ROBERTSON
By the victory of Charles V at Muehlberg, in 1547, the Emperor obtained a decided advantage over the Smalkaldic League, and seemed to be master of the situation in Germany. He convened a diet at Augsburg, and promulgated an "interim," or provisional arrangement for peace, but it was imperfectly carried out. Later interims also proving unsatisfactory, various other attempts at settlement were made, and finally, by the Peace of Passau (1552), religious liberty was granted to the Protestants.
Charles now appeared to be at the height of his power; but new danger threatened him from France. The alliance of King Henry II with Maurice of Saxony, and other Protestant princes, was followed by what is sometimes called the second Smalkaldic War. Charles was quickly worsted, and only escaped capture by fleeing into Switzerland. In a later attack upon France he gained but little success.
The Emperor was now more than ever anxious for peace, and only awaited the meeting of a diet which had been summoned soon after the Treaty of Passau. This meeting was delayed by violent commotions raised in Germany by Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg. It was further delayed by the engrossment in his own affairs of Ferdinand, King of Bohemia and Hungary. He was the brother of Charles, had exerted himself, though with slight success, to settle the religious disputes in Germany, and Charles needed his presence at the Diet, whereby he hoped to secure a final pacification.
As a diet was now necessary on many accounts, Ferdinand, about the beginning of the year 1555, had repaired to Augsburg. Though few of the princes were present either in person or by their deputies, he opened the assembly by a speech, in which he proposed a termination of the dissensions to which the new tenets and controversies with regard to religion had given rise, not only as the first and great business of the diet, but as the point which both the Emperor and he had most at heart. He represented the innumerable obstacles which the Emperor had to surmount before he could procure the convocation of a general council, as well as the fatal accidents which had for some time retarded, and had at last suspended, the consultations of that assembly. He observed that experience had already taught them how vain it was to expect any remedy for evils which demanded immediate redress from a general council, the assembling of which would either be prevented, or its deliberations be interrupted, by the dissensions and hostilities of the princes of Christendom; that a national council in Germany, which, as some imagined, might be called with greater ease, and deliberate with more perfect security, was an assembly of an unprecedented nature, the jurisdiction of which was uncertain in its extent, and the form of its proceedings undefined; that in his opinion there remained but one method for composing their unhappy differences, which, though it had been often tried without success, might yet prove effectual if it were attempted with a better and more pacific spirit than had appeared on former occasions, and that was, to choose a few men of learning, abilities, and moderation, who, by discussing the disputed articles in an amicable conference, might explain them in such a manner as to bring the contending parties either to unite in sentiment, or to differ with charity.
This speech being printed in common form, and dispersed over the empire, revived the fears and jealousies of the Protestants; Ferdinand, they observed with much surprise, had not once mentioned, in his address to the Diet, the Treaty of Passau, the stipulations of which they considered as the great security of their religious liberty. The suspicions to which this gave rise were confirmed by the accounts which were daily received of the extreme severity with which Ferdinand treated their Protestant brethren in his hereditary dominions; and as it was natural to consider his actions as the surest indication of his intentions, this diminished their confidence in those pompous professions of moderation, and of zeal for the reëstablishment of concord, to which his practice seemed to be so repugnant.