The Holy Roman Empire and the German states

Hi everyone 

I read that the Holy Roman Empire was a catholic enterprise.

After the Protestant Reformation and the subsequent Thirty Years war, I read that there was fighting in the German states between the Protestants and the Catholics with different states taking different sides.

I read that the Holy Roman Empire dissolved in 1806 after the Napoleonic wars.

With the German states being part of the Holy Roman Empire, would that not make all of them Catholic by default - at least up until 1806?

Thank you.

naav, do you have any sources?

Edited by Achilles - 31-May-2006 at 12:51

nope. the head of the Holy roman Empire was the Holy Roman Emperor, elected by the grand electors of all of the states that made up the empire from the candidates(kings). So sometimes the Holy Roman Emperor was the King of Austria, sometimes it was the King of Bavaria, ETC....

Originally posted by Achilles nope. the head of the Holy roman Empire was the Holy Roman Emperor, elected by the grand electors of all of the states that made up the empire from the candidates(kings). So sometimes the Holy Roman Emperor was the King of Austria, sometimes it was the King of Bavaria, ETC....

Originally posted by Achilles werent the Hollenzollerns emperors a few times?

Hi, thank you to all and please excuse my ignorance

1. So between 1555 and 1806 did some or all of the German states of the Holy Roman Empire become Protestant?

2. Did the rest of the Holy Roman Empire (until 1806), consisting of the Habsburg empire, remained Catholic?

3. To beome the 'Holy' Roman Emperor didn't one have to be accepted (read 'blessed') by the Pope? If so, then the Emperor would obviously have to be catholic?

Thank you

Edited by naav - 31-May-2006 at 19:17

Originally posted by pikeshot1600 Originally posted by rider No, though Catholic was official religion of the Emperor, in the Augsburg Conference, religious freedom was declared.   Atleast, I believe it was so.   At Augsburg, (1555?) the doctrine Cuius regio, eius religio was adopted.  The faith of the prince was to be the faith of his subjects.  This ended the first round of religious wars between Catholics and Protestants.  The "Augsburg Confession" of 1530 was a statement of faith that became the basis of the Lutheran Church, and was recognized by the Emperor.   The Church did not officially recognize the Augsburg Confession, and there was no pretense of religious liberty.  The Peace of Augsburg was a political settlement among princes, and only Lutheran princes were recognized.  No Calvinists or Anabaptists, etc.

Edited by rider - 01-Jun-2006 at 03:01

Hi, thank you very much!



Edited by naav - 04-Jun-2006 at 08:23

Hmm. as you I believe know, the states could create undependent alliances under the HRE. There were a few of such. Still, I believe the Emperor had some power over everyone but make this clear: no single family has controlled ever the entire HRE.

Quiet oddly Habsburg didn't really have German territories, except Austria but one could argue it is not properly German. Besides they were lords of the Netherland that after 1555 weren't in the HRE any longer, lord of Milan (in the HRE but not German), king of Bohemia (idem), lord of Burgondy but once again it wasn't in the proper German core of the HRE.

Besides, you shouldn't forget that as emperors the Habsburgs were the overlords of any member of the HRE. Hence the most important link between, let say, the landgrave of Hesse and Charles V was the feodal pledge. But one member of the HRE could launch a war against another (feud) and even against the emperor if he had enough reasons. As the emperor depended for the taxes on the approval of all, he was rarely able to get any money for the Empire and had to get satisfied with what he could raise on his own realms. Because of that the Emperors (though they tried very hard) never managed to turn the HRE into a modern state. To keep on ruling they had to ally with different state rulers within the HRE usually it was Bavaria.

Concerning Charles V precisely, first he bacame HRE two years befor Luther even invented the protestantism. Catholics never create a league in the early 16th c. as far as I know (maybe I'm wrong) but anyway Catholics and Protestants never set an alliance against Charles. Nonetheless once in a while a catholic prince would join the protestant against charles and other times protestant princes would join charles against the league. The result was that anyway the Habsbug was highly dependent on its inner allies and never really tried to diminuish their power (on the contrary of its successors Ferdinand I and Maximilian II).

M.