Westphalia, Peace of

WESTPHALIA, PEACE OF. - A body of international treaties and internal provisions of the Kingdom of Germany (from this time generally called the Corpus Germanicum) that concluded the ruinous and complex Thirty Years' War (v.).

It was the result at once of the weariness of the belligerents, of changes of persons or of direction among those directing their policy, and of the patience and skill of the two mediating powers, the Pope and Venice, through which the oral and written negotiations were conducted, respectively through the nuncio Chigi with France and with the Catholic powers, and through the Venetian ambassador Contarini with Sweden and with the Protestants. Their beginning dates back to 1641, while Richelieu was still alive (the preliminaries of Hamburg); but the actual negotiations took place from April 1645 in separate seats, respectively at Münster (the imperial party, France, Holland, Spain, etc.) and at Osnabrück (the imperial party, Sweden, the German Protestant princes), above all in order to evade the conflict of precedence between Sweden and France. There thus came about two treaties: the Instrumentum pacis Osnabrugense (8 Aug. 1648) and the Instrumentum pacis Monasteriense (17 Sept. 1648), signed together at Münster on 14-24 Oct. 1648. However, as early as 30 Jan. 1648 Spain had concluded at Münster the peace with the United Provinces of Holland, recognizing them as an independent state with the territories in their possession in the East and West Indies. In these treaties three groups of provisions may be distinguished in relation to the threefold character of the wars they intended to bring to an end: a) territorial clauses, which transferred German territories to the victors and established compensatory balances; b) political-German clauses, which consolidated the quasi-independence of the German princes with respect to the Emperor and modified the internal structure of the Kingdom of Germany; c) religious-ecclesiastical clauses confirming and extending the provisions of the Peace of Augsburg of 1555.

a) From the territorial point of view, Sweden obtained Western Pomerania; France obtained confirmation of the territory of the three bishoprics of Metz, Toul and Verdun (already obtained in 1555) and the acquisition of Alsace on the middle Rhine, as well as of the fortress of Pinerolo in Piedmont; the territory of Holland, recognized as an independent Protestant state, was detached from the Kingdom of Germany; b) within the German sphere the princes obtained the right to ally among themselves and with states outside, provided it was not against the Emperor; the Count Palatine was restored to the electoral dignity, in accordance with the demand of the Protestants, but that dignity was preserved for the Duke of Bavaria, with a part of the Palatinate (thus increasing the electors from 7 to 8); the Diet was attributed sovereign power in matters of peace, war, taxes and army, with a further emptying of imperial authority; to the Elector of Brandenburg Frederick William of Hohenzollern were granted territorial indemnities in Eastern Pomerania, on the Elbe and on the Rhine with further secularizations of ecclesiastical states (he had in fact become the head of the Corpus evangelicorum). c) Particularly noteworthy are the ecclesiastical clauses, because of the consequences that by virtue of them the Peace of Westphalia had for the Catholic Church in Germany. First of all they provided for a large secularization of ecclesiastical property as indemnity for war expenses or territorial losses. Thus France received the aforementioned Lorraine bishoprics; Sweden received Bremen and Werden; Hesse-Cassel received, among other things, the rich abbey of Hirschfeld and a large sum charged to the Rhenish bishoprics; Mecklenburg received the bishoprics of Schwerin and Ratzeburg and commanderies of the Knights of St. John; Brandenburg received no fewer than four bishoprics; Braunschweig-Lüneburg received lesser territories. In the secularized bishoprics - a singular provision - the cathedral Chapters were to persist, but assigning the prebends to Protestant canons. Secondly, the exercise of religion was regulated anew. The religious freedom granted in the Peace of Augsburg to the Lutherans was also given to the Calvinists; as the "annus normalis", decisive for the legitimacy of the possession and exercise of religion by the confessions, there was established no longer 1552 (the Peace of Augsburg), but 1624 (excluding from it, however, on the one hand the hereditary territories of the Habsburgs, and on the other anticipating it to 1618 for the Palatinate, Baden and Württemberg). The "reservatum ecclesiasticum" was reconfirmed, but together with it the right of the princes to reform their territories, save for the right of subjects to religious freedom, if enjoyed in 1624. Finally, the equality of the confessions in the composition of the tribunals and deputations of the Empire was accentuated. In the Diets questions of religion were to be referred to delegations of the parties (Corpus catholicorum, Corpus evangelicorum) and not made the object of majority resolutions.

This peace marks in the international political field the beginning of the system of equilibrium with the defeat of the hegemonic attempts of the House of Habsburg within Germany and in Europe; in the ecclesiastical field the humiliation of the Papacy, which saw Catholic states disposing of ecclesiastical property without its consent (the protest of Innocent X with the bull Zelo domus Dei of 26 Nov. 1648 went unheeded) and the political-territorial weakening of the German Church; in the relations between the Churches in Germany, the establishment of the principle of parity, destined to influence deeply and for a long time the ecclesiastical law of that territory.

Mario Bendiscioli