September 25, 1555
Charles V
The Peace of Augsburg was signed, a treaty between Charles V and the forces of the Schmalkaldic League, an alliance of Lutheran princes, in present-day Bavaria, Germany. It officially ended the religious struggle between the two groups and made the legal division of Christendom permanent within the Holy Roman Empire. The Peace established the principle Cuius regio, eius religio (who rules, his religion), which allowed Holy Roman Empire’s states’ princes to select either Lutheranism or Catholicism within the domains they controlled. Subjects who did not wish to conform to the prince’s choice were given a period in which they were free to emigrate to different regions in which their desired religion had been accepted.
