Page:History of the Thirty Years' War - Gindely - Volume 1.djvu/46

 here to mention, that several of the lands governed by the ecclesiastical princes had gone almost entire with the Reformation and were governed by administrators, who, although not bishops, still had, for this purpose, the powers of bishops and seats, as such, in the Imperial Diet.

Charles, humbled by the failure of his ambitions, and especially by his narrow escape of capture at Innspruck, allowed the Diet to act more freely, and, at Passau, it was decided that Protestants should not be excluded from the imperial chamber; that the ecclesiastical property which they then held should continue in their hands till otherwise ordered; that a Diet should be summoned within a year to settle the peace of the Church, and that until that time there should be no dispute about religion.

It was not, however, within a year, but about three years, after this time, that the following points substantially were settled: That no one of the Estates of the Empire should be abridged of its rights on account of religious belief or practice; that the former spiritual jurisdiction should not be in force over those who professed the Protestant faith; that there should be no attempts on either side to forcible conversions, and that those who, on account of religion, should wish to emigrate might be allowed to do so. Two points were strongly contested in the Diet at Augsburg: The Protestants claimed that the Catholic clergy should be free to pass over to the Augsburg Confession without loss of ecclesiastical rank and position; the Catholics claimed that they should be made an exception, and could only pass over for their own persons with loss of position. The other point related to the nobility, cities, communes, and subjects in general, who held the Lutheran faith and were under Catholic princes. It was agreed that these should not be