Peace of Augsburg
The Thirty Years' War was a religious conflict between Protestants and Catholics in Germany. It originated in the of politics and religion that was common in Europe at the time. Its distal causes reside in the previous century, at the political-religious settlement of the Holy Roman Empire known as the Peace of Augsburg. The peace was an agreement between Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and the Protestant powers of the Holy Roman Empire in the 16th century. It established the legitimacy of Lutheranism in Germany and allowed Dukes and high lords to expel non-conforming subjects from their territory. Additionally, it permitted subjects of a different religion to peaceably move to land where their practices would be recognized and respected. There were also clauses in relation to ecclesiastical lords. When prelates who ruled an ecclesiastical fiefdom converted, the expectation was placed upon them to resign their temporal privileges. Some of these treaty stipulations would be violated on various occasions, as was the case with Gebhard Truchsess von Waldburg, Archbishop-Elector of Cologne. Despite various attempts to violate the provisions in the Peace of Augsburg no general European or German conflagration would erupt as a result of the violations. At the end of the conflicts, it was agreed that the provisions of the Peace of Augsburg would once again be adhered to. "All that the Lutheran church gained by the Peace of Augsburg was toleration; all that the [Roman] church conceded was a sacrifice to necessity, not an offering to justice" says one historian. However, the Peace of Augsburg could never be anything but a temporary cessation of hostilities. Its provisions contained an addendum which declared that it would only become active without reservation upon the meeting of a general council, and a final attempt at the reunion of the two confessions. There was no reason to believe these would ever happen unless the Lutherans were forced to do so.