Cuius regio, eius religio, principle accepted and established in the Religious Peace of Augsburg (1555, see Augsburger Religionsfriede). A compromise designed to cope with the existing situation, it laid down that the subjects of the states of the Holy Roman Empire must accept the religion of their respective rulers or emigrate.

The Oxford Companion to German Literature. Copyright © 1976, 1986, 1997, 2005 by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.