the mystical theology of valentin weigel - DataSpace at Princeton ...

The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 allowed the head of each territory in the Holy
Roman Empire to decide which religion would be permitted in his land (summed up by
the phrase cuius regio, eius religio), 57 but even before 1555, the evangelical movement
had, after parting ways with the church in Rome, begun to transfer the administration of
religious affairs over to secular rulers in the so-called Landeskirchen. In the case of the
Protestant churches in the Holy Roman Empire, 58 the administration of the Church was
taken over by the princes of certain territories, meaning that as doctrine became tied to
particular territories under the formal leadership of secular rulers, doctrinal disagreements
came to bear political consequences, and, conversely, that doctrinal conformity was
sought in order to maintain political unity. This meant giving the Prince oversight 59 over
Reformations- und Konfessionsgeschichte, ed. Luise Schorn-Schütte and Olaf Mörke, (Berlin: Duncker &
Humblot, 2002), 507.
57 The Peace of Augsburg did not propose to settle any doctrinal questions, but rather mandated peace in a
provisional fashion, until the Schism could be resolved. As Schmidt writes, “die Wahrheitsfrage wird aus
dem Friedensabkommen ausgeklammert.” (Schmidt, Konfessionalisierung, 4) For a summary of the terms
of conditions, see Heinrich Richard Schmidt, Konfessionalisierung im 16. Jarhundert (München:
Oldenbourg Verlag, 1992), 4. See also Robert von Friedeburg, “Church and State in Lutheran Lands, 1550-
1675,” Lutheran Ecclesiastical Culture 1550-1675, ed. Robert Kolb, (Leiden: Brill, 2008), 361-410.
58 The confessionalization literature takes all three confessions together as belonging to the same
“gesellschaftlichen Fundamentalvorgang” of the Early Modern Era (i.e. the developments affected society
as a whole rather than religious practice, organization and doctrine on its own). The implication is that
differences in theology and doctrine do not affect the trajectory of social and political development of the
territory in question. Though Catholic areas did not become Landeskirchen in the same way, constrained by
their continued alliegance to the Pope, the confessionalization thesis also argues that secular rulers
implemented the Catholic Reformation (i.e. the Counter-reformation) in a way that had similar results as in
Protestant territories (the classic example is Bavaria). This dissertation focuses on the Lutheran
Landeskirche in Saxony, and a discussion of the three confessions in parallel is beyond its scope. For a
clear summary of confessionalization in territories of all three confessions, see Schmidt,
Konfessionalisierung. See also the article on confessionalization in Anette Völker-Rasor, ed., Frühe
Neuzeit, ed. Anette Völker-Rason (München: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2000), 299-303.
59 The extent to which the agency for the reforms is given to the Prince or to his subjects is disputed—i.e.
whether confessionalization was a top-down or bottom-up process. This debate is not so important to this
study, and perhaps it need not be a contentious point at all. It seems that confessionalization was, most
likely, the result of negotiated cooperation between the Prince and his subjects, the balance of initiative and
enforcement differing according to contingent circumstances. Whether the people banded together and
lobbied their Prince to accept reforms and helped him carry them out, or the Prince implemented them out
of personal conviction against the wishes of his people, or again whether the Prince (sincerely or
opportunistically) anticipated the wishes of his people by calling for reform but limited their participation
beyond that, these configurations might affect the character of confessionalization in a given territory but
are not amongst the critiques that would call into question the fundamental insight of the
confessionalization thesis. When speaking of the Prince as the actor here, what is designated is his official
22