The Search for Allies 197meeting in Würzburg in February, which was attended by both mem-
bers and non-members of the League. Hence rather than rejecting the
demands outright they agreed to make the minimum concessions essen-
tial to meet the needs of the moment, while being careful to find a form
of words which would not prejudice their claims for restitution in the
longer term.
The electors of Mainz and Cologne, together with Maximilian of
Bavaria’s representative, were accordingly deputed to meet the delegates
of the Upper and Lower Saxon Circles, which they did in the small
Thüringian town of Mühlhausen in mid-March. There they successfully
limited their offer to guaranteeing that the Catholic side would neither
forcibly repossess secularised properties, nor assist others to do so, other
than in accordance with the due processes of the law. Even this was
restricted to Lutheran holdings and excluded Calvinists, while no con-
cession was made on the related demand that Protestant administrators
of relevant bishoprics should be allowed to take the seats in Imperial
institutions to which their previous Catholic heads had been entitled,
the blocking of which had thus far ensured the continuation of built-
in Catholic majorities. Nevertheless the undertaking was accepted on
behalf of the Protestants by the elector of Saxony and Landgrave Ludwig
of Hessen-Darmstadt in an agreement of 20 March 1620, to which the
emperor added his signature a month later.^32
Another contentious topic was whether the Imperial ban could be
applied to Friedrich of the Palatinate, as a rebel against the emperor. This
was a necessary step for Ferdinand to take almost immediately, in that
unless Friedrich were outlawed the proposed invasion of the Palatinate
would be illegal, and as a breach of the Imperial peace it would render
all concerned liable to penalties. Moreover it would also be important
subsequently in order to provide grounds for seizing Friedrich’s property
and electoral title in order to pay off Maximilian, and without this pre-
condition being met the latter might not move against Bohemia at all.
There were, however, legal, practical and political problems.
Every emperor since Charles V had sworn on his accession not to
apply the ban to any person, whether of high or low rank, without a
hearing and due process of law, but such procedures were always slow,
and summoning Friedrich to a court would delay military action for far
too long. Like many aspects of Imperial law, though, there were excep-
tions and precedents, albeit these were often disputed. An ordinance of
1555 provided that in the case of an open and violent breach of the
peace the emperor could order the perpetrator to desist, failing which
the ban could be applied immediately, while another of 1559 had gone