12 The Origins of the Thirty Years War and the Revolt in Bohemia, 1618
Paris, and with it France, but others converted to secure more modest
inheritances, advantageous marriages or even a good job in the gov-
ernment. Princes were often able to make their personal, dynastic and
political objectives coincide with their religious affiliations, and Charles
IX of Sweden was far from being the only one to ‘beat the Protestant
(or Catholic) drum’ when it suited his aims. Hence it is wise to keep
well in mind that religion was rarely the only consideration in overtly
religious conflicts and confrontations in the hundred years after the
Reformation.
The initial response of the Empire to the Reformation which began in
1517 was to try to suppress it as an aberration, to which end Charles V
had Luther and his writings banned at the Reichstag meeting in Worms
in 1521. The new faith continued to spread nevertheless, and in an
effort to secure acceptance the Lutherans drafted a statement and jus-
tification of their beliefs, particularly stressing the points of agreement
with the Catholics, which they submitted to the Reichstag meeting in
Augsburg in 1530. However thisConfessio Augustana(Augsburg Con-
fession) was rejected and the earlier ban was reconfirmed. In response
several Lutheran states, led by the elector of Saxony, head of the
Ernestine branch of the Wettin family, established the Schmalkaldic
League for Protestant self-defence in the eponymous town in 1531. This
defiant act went unchecked for over a decade while Charles was involved
elsewhere, mainly in the Italian wars, but when he returned to Germany
in 1544 he started gathering allies, including ducal Saxony, the territory
of the rival Albertine branch of the Wettin family. Faced with his obvi-
ously warlike preparations the Schmalkaldic leaders decided to strike
first in 1546. War in that year was limited and inconclusive, marked
mainly by invasion and counter-invasion of each other’s territory by
the two Saxon dukes, but in the following year Charles won a decisive
victory at the battle of Mühlberg. As a punishment he transferred the
electoral title from the Ernestines to the Albertine Duke Moritz, and in
1548 he issued a decree known as the Augsburg Interim to prepare for
the reintegration of the Protestants into the Catholic church. Resistance
took the form of a further revolt by the Protestant princes in 1552, this
time led by the selfsame Moritz of Saxony, with French assistance. Their
superior forces prevailed, so that Charles was forced to flee, leaving his
brother Ferdinand to negotiate with the rebels. The emperor was thus
obliged both to cancel the Augsburg Interim and to accept the peace
of Passau of 1552, which formed the starting point for the more com-
prehensive settlement reached three years later at the Reichstag, also in
Augsburg.