AUGSBURG. – Bronze portrait of AUGSBURG as a young man. Vatican Library, Profane Museum.
The religious settlement known as the Augsburg Interim (1548) was deliberately vague and imprecise. For example, the Mass was referred to as a “living sacrifice” (not expiatory); no mention was made of purgatory. The second part, which was disciplinary in nature and intended to placate the Protestants, permitted clerical marriage, allowed the laity to receive Communion “sub utraque specie,” and glossed over the usurpations of Church property.
Charles V accepted the formula despite the objections of the papal representatives and promulgated it on 15 May 1548 at the Diet of Augsburg, imposing its observance. As might have been expected, it satisfied no one: it displeased Catholics, who questioned by what authority the emperor presumed to dispense with clerical celibacy, and it disgusted Protestants, who wanted no talk of pope, hierarchy, or sacraments. Magdeburg, a Protestant stronghold, struck coins bearing the inscription: *Interim, vade retro, Satana*, took up arms, and resisted for ten months the prince Maurice, whom Charles, after Mühlberg, had appointed—though a Lutheran—as Elector of Saxony. Neglected by Catholics and opposed by Protestants, the Augsburg Interim failed in its purpose; instead of bringing peace, it exacerbated divisions.