Augsburg 1555 – Map of the officially accepted religions in European territories

The Reformation changed the map of Christian Europe in the sixteenth century. In 1555, some European states stayed with the Catholic church, whereas others had established new Protestant churches of different kinds. In many cases, the ruling belief was not very tolerant towards divergent beliefs, which led to all kind of conflicts, wars and emigration. People had to find solutions to cope with religious diversity. This map shows only the officially accepted religions:

Legend:

• Red: Protestant – Wittenberg Reformation/Lutheran

• Salmon: Protestant

• Orange: Reformed

• Yellow: two or more denominations on equal terms

• Light blue: Roman catholic

• Purple: Anglican

• Dark green: Orthodox

• Light green: Islamic

• Yellow framed on light blue: multi-confessional

• Yellow framed on grey: denominational adherence on parish level

Context:

The Reformation brought a division of the Christian church in Central Europe. Theologians like Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, and others established new teachings on the Christian faith and belief. They soon found many followers. The different German states split up between the Catholic and the Evangelical side and divided into two political parties as well. After years of political struggles, this conflict even ended up in civil wars after 1546. In 1555, the envoys of the German states met in Augsburg. They sought for a way to settle the conflict and end the religious wars in Germany. The Augsburg Peace of Religion of 25 September 1555 finally accepted the existence of two different Christian churches. The princes and rulers could decide whether to stay with the old Catholic church or to adhere to the new Lutheran belief as formulated in the Augsburg Confession of 1530. The Lutheran states were now on an equal footing with the Catholic ones. Other religious groups, which came up with the Reformation, were, however, excluded from the Peace treaty. Freedom of religion applied only to the German estates, i.e. the princes and imperial cities. Their subjects had to follow the faith of their sovereign or were allowed to emigrate. The Peace of Augsburg heralded a long period of peace in the German lands, which did not end until the Thirty Years’ War in 1618.

Further information about The Peace of Augsburg can be found at On Site, In Time.

For more information on this and other peace treaties, see

Henning P. Jürgens, Patrick Pasture, Bram De Ridder, Christophe Schellekens, Naum Trajanovski. Reports on historical peace treaties and agreements. Retopea Deliverable 2.3. (November 2022).