Peace of Westphalia

Background

The Peace of Augsburg of 1555 established in the Holy Roman Empire the principle that "the religion of the ruler is the religion of the land" (cuius regio, eius religio). However, the only form of Protestantism the settlement recognized was Lutheranism. Calvinism (the Reformed tradition) subsequently spread rapidly but had no legal standing. Through the Edict of Restitution, the Catholic side sought to recover church property that had passed into Protestant hands, and tensions between the confessions steadily mounted.

The Thirty Years' War (1618–1648) began in Habsburg-ruled Bohemia as a religious war between Protestant and Catholic forces. As the war dragged on, major European powers such as France, Sweden, and Spain intervened on the basis of national interest rather than religious conviction, and the conflict grew into an international war. The German lands suffered heavy devastation as a result.

Course of Events

• 1642: Cardinal Richelieu, chief minister of France, died. Catholic encyclopedias describe his death as a turning point that opened the way to peace negotiations.
• 1644: Negotiations began in Münster and Osnabrück, two cities in the region of Westphalia. Representatives of most of the European kingdoms and principalities involved in the war took part, and the talks continued for several years.
• January 30, 1648: Spain and the Dutch Republic concluded a separate peace first. This ended the Eighty Years' War between the two countries, and Spain recognized the independence of the Dutch Republic. Some sources date this Peace of Münster to May 15.
• March 1648: A final agreement on religious questions was reached. The outcome is generally regarded as relatively favorable to the Protestants, because the Protestant side was more united.
• October 24, 1648: Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand III, the princes of the Empire, France, and Sweden signed the treaties, bringing the Thirty Years' War to an end.

Outcomes and Impact

The principal religious provisions were as follows:

• The Peace of Augsburg was reaffirmed, and its scope was extended to include Calvinists. As a result, three confessions—Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed—became legally recognized within the Empire.
• Princes could no longer forcibly convert their subjects to their own religion. Christians who professed a confession other than the official confession of their territory were guaranteed the right to practice their faith privately.
• January 1, 1624, was adopted as the reference date (the "normative year"). The confessional status and church property of each territory were determined according to conditions on that date.
• The Imperial Diet agreed to settle religious matters not by majority vote but solely by compromise.

Politically, the principalities within the Empire were recognized as effectively sovereign, independent units, and the authority of the emperor was weakened. France gained Alsace as well as Metz, Toul, and Verdun. Sweden gained Western Pomerania, the port of Wismar, the Archbishopric of Bremen, and the Bishopric of Verden. Switzerland formally became independent of the Holy Roman Empire.

Pope Innocent X protested the treaties because the Catholic Church had lost a great deal of church property. He issued the bull Zelo Domus Dei, declaring the treaties null and void. The Reformed churches, by contrast, gained legal status within the Empire for the first time through these treaties. Church historians therefore treat the settlement as the occasion on which the Reformed tradition, which today includes Presbyterianism, received official recognition in the German lands.

Assessment

The Peace of Westphalia is commonly regarded as the event that brought to a close the era of religious wars that followed the European Reformation. Because it was not imposed unilaterally by victors on the vanquished but emerged from a diplomatic congress of the states concerned, it is sometimes called the first multilateral international treaty (that is, one concluded jointly by multiple states) and the starting point of modern international law. It is widely held that the principles of the modern international order—state sovereignty, noninterference in the internal affairs of other states, and the balance of power—originated in these treaties, and this order is referred to as the "Westphalian system."

There are also dissenting views. Some scholars point out that these principles did not arise all at once in 1648 but took shape over the following centuries, and others hold that 1648 can hardly be regarded as a clear point at which church and state were separated. In religious terms as well, only three confessions received the treaties' protection; other groups, such as the Anabaptists, were excluded. Accordingly, some also judge that the treaties did not fully guarantee religious freedom but rather legally fixed the coexistence of a designated set of confessions.