Edict of Restitution - The Edict

The Edict

The "Edict of Restitution" was an attempt to ensure that the "Ecclesiastical Reservation" of the Augsburg treaty was retroactively enforced. It had a tremendous polarizing effect causing the 1800 or so states of the Holy Roman Empire to shatter into disparate blocks of opposed interests.

If fully effected, it would have affected the already secularized archbishoprics of Bremen and Magdeburg, 12 bishoprics and over 100 religious houses around the German states. The Edict resulted in a great transfer of power and property away from the Protestants to the Catholics, and in effect broadened a divisive religious struggle into that plus a dynastic struggle for power, as seen from the viewpoint of many smaller German princes, who might otherwise have stayed neutral.

Additionally, since the Edict discriminated against the free practice of the Protestant religion within the affected German states by authorizing attempts to forcibly convert Protestants back to Catholicism in direct contradiction to the Treaty of Augsburg, many Protestants felt threatened. Other states were greatly affected when the mercenary armies marched through neutral states or ravaged them in the course of their foraging expeditions. Thousands of Protestants fled to Protestant controlled states, generally broadening the war, and central Germany was ravaged repeatedly, by some estimates losing between 25–50% of its pre-war population because the competing armies continually took the food—the majority of civilian deaths being caused by the twin side-effects of famine, and deaths from endemic diseases under populations weakened by famine.

The greatest impact was in north-east Germany. It was here that Ferdinand’s power was at its weakest. Ferdinand appointed Imperial administrators to take over the secularized states and cities, re-establishing Imperial authority in an area that had been free of Imperial rule for nearly 100 years. Ferdinand's actions were not well received by the princes. It was a move that alarmed the French and led to the French intervention in the war.

The German princes could do nothing. They had seen the Coalition destroyed. Wallenstein had a massive army of 134,000 troops in the field to enforce Imperial authority.

Ironically, Wallenstein disliked the Edict as it trespassed into the region he considered his own but he played his part for the emperor to the full. He stated that "he would teach the Electors manners. They must be dependent on the emperor, not the emperor on them." The response of the princes was to rally behind Maximillian of Bavaria to pressure Ferdinand into dismissing Wallenstein.

Their chance came in 1630 when Ferdinand called a meeting of the Electors in Regensburg because he wanted his son, Ferdinand III, elected King of the Romans. According to the law, the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire was selected by a vote from the Electorate of German princes. Therefore, Ferdinand needed their cooperation to approve his son as successor. Ferdinand also hoped to persuade the Electors to approve greater Imperial involvement in the European wars.

John George I of Saxony and George William of Brandenburg (both Protestant) stayed away to protest the Edict of Restitution. Those Electors present realized that they had little to gain from additional involvement in the wars. However, Maximillian still asked Ferdinand for the dismissal of Wallenstein.

To win over the Electors, Ferdinand sacked Wallenstein on August 1630 though Wallenstein argued that he was allowed to resign to save face. The dismissal of the most powerful military figure in Europe was a major victory for the Electors and Regensburg must be seen as a defeat for Ferdinand.

All of this was overshadowed in July 1630 — Gustavus Adolphus landed in Pomerania with 4,000 men in response to the persecution of the Protestants. Without Wallenstein, Ferdinand had to turn to Maximillian and Tilly to stop the new threat.

In 1635 the Edict of Restitution was effectively revoked, with the terms of the Peace of Prague.