Augsburger Religionsfriede

Augsburger Religionsfriede, a settlement of the religious problems of 16th-c. Germany, promulgated as an imperial law on 25 September 1555. Its principal provisions were: (1) confirmation of existing rights of territorial sovereignty irrespective of religion; (2) that the religion of a sovereign should determine the religion of his subjects (this decision, summed up in the legal Latin tag cuius regio, eius religio, is the best-known clause of the Peace); (3) that subjects refusing to conform must emigrate; (4) that sovereigns who changed their religion should forfeit their throne. See also Augsburgische Konfession and Landeskirchen.