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In continental Europe the beginning of the Reformation in 1504 greatly changed the history of religion and the authority of the Papacy and Catholic Church, with European politics becoming dominated by religious conflict for much of the century. The religious divide in the [[Holy Roman Empire (Merveilles des Morte)|Holy Roman Empire]] would lead to the creation of the [[Rätian Union (Merveilles des Morte)|Rätian Union]], which challenged the traditional political norms of the Empire, and would lay the groundwork for the epochal Thirty Years' War toward the end of the century. | In continental Europe the beginning of the Reformation in 1504 greatly changed the history of religion and the authority of the Papacy and Catholic Church, with European politics becoming dominated by religious conflict for much of the century. The religious divide in the [[Holy Roman Empire (Merveilles des Morte)|Holy Roman Empire]] would lead to the creation of the [[Rätian Union (Merveilles des Morte)|Rätian Union]], which challenged the traditional political norms of the Empire, and would lay the groundwork for the epochal Thirty Years' War toward the end of the century. | ||
Meanwhile, in the Near East, the restoration of the [[Abbasid Caliphate (Merveilles des Morte)|Abbasid Caliphate]] in the late 15th century would lead to the Second Islamic Golden Age, a period defined for it's re-construction of the {{W|House of Wisdom}} and the standardization of the {{W|printing press}}, the expansion of the Caliphate across the [[Military History of the Abbasid Caliphate (Merveilles du Monde Map Game)|Arabia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia]], and the formation of the [[House of Rūm (Merveilles du Morte)|House of Abbas-Rūm]], whose rule over the Middle East was cemented through [[Abbasid-Georgian Wars (Merveilles des Morte)|a series of wars]] against the declining state of [[Georgia (Merveilles | Meanwhile, in the Near East, the restoration of the [[Abbasid Caliphate (Merveilles des Morte)|Abbasid Caliphate]] in the late 15th century would lead to the Second Islamic Golden Age, a period defined for it's re-construction of the {{W|House of Wisdom}} and the standardization of the {{W|printing press}}, the expansion of the Caliphate across the [[Military History of the Abbasid Caliphate (Merveilles du Monde Map Game)|Arabia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia]], and the formation of the [[House of Rūm (Merveilles du Morte)|House of Abbas-Rūm]], whose rule over the Middle East was cemented through [[Abbasid-Georgian Wars (Merveilles des Morte)|a series of wars]] against the declining state of [[Georgia (Merveilles des Morte)|Georgia]]. The [[Byzantine Empire (Merveilles du Monde Map Game)|Byzantine Empire]] would continue to expand their realm outside of Anatolia, conquering the {{W|Serbian Empire|Kingdom of Serbia}} in 1538. | ||
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Revision as of 07:31, 21 July 2021
| 15th Century: (1400-1499) |
16th Century: (1500-1599) Return to Overview |
17th Century: (1600-1699) |
The 16th Century is regarded by historians as the century in which the rise of Western civilization and the Age of the Islamic Gunpowders occurred. During the 16th century, the Hanseatic League, Spain, and others explored the Indian Ocean and opened worldwide oceanic trade routes, and colonization of Meridia and Kolumbia began in full force. Large parts of the New World became colonies of the Hansa, Spanish, Portuguese, English, and French. This era of colonialism established mercantilism as a leading school of economic thought, where the economic system was viewed as a zero-sum game in which any gain by one party required a loss by another.
In continental Europe the beginning of the Reformation in 1504 greatly changed the history of religion and the authority of the Papacy and Catholic Church, with European politics becoming dominated by religious conflict for much of the century. The religious divide in the Holy Roman Empire would lead to the creation of the Rätian Union, which challenged the traditional political norms of the Empire, and would lay the groundwork for the epochal Thirty Years' War toward the end of the century.
Meanwhile, in the Near East, the restoration of the Abbasid Caliphate in the late 15th century would lead to the Second Islamic Golden Age, a period defined for it's re-construction of the House of Wisdom and the standardization of the printing press, the expansion of the Caliphate across the Arabia, the Levant, Mesopotamia, and Persia, and the formation of the House of Abbas-Rūm, whose rule over the Middle East was cemented through a series of wars against the declining state of Georgia. The Byzantine Empire would continue to expand their realm outside of Anatolia, conquering the Kingdom of Serbia in 1538.
Reformation in Germany
Pre-Reformation
The Reformation began to take shape in the late 15th century in Thuringia, at a time when the sale of indulgences had begun to expedite in Germany after a series of church crusades and inquisitions, and the Henrician Civil War (1494-1495). As the center of the civil war and the recent crusade against the Adamites, Thuringia and its clergy was particularly take up or expand the realm of indulgences. Despite indulgences having been partially regulated since the days of the Hussites and the Ecumenical Council of Prague (1412-1414), rules had begun to be bent in war torn regions. Indulgences were sold to the desperate of the war—in favor of lost loved ones or those who had been condemned as heretics. There were churches who joined in the practice, hoping to use raised funds to fulfill their need to perform a certain amount of charity, and to meet their obligations to the Pope and their parishes alike. Others sell indulgences on behalf of the church, keeping half the amount raised for their own benefit.
A young theologian and writer at the time, Konrad Jung would become one of the most vocal opponents against the growing practice of indulgences. Additionally Jung began to formulate his own set of beliefs, and he gave a number of speeches in academic circles on the doctrine of justification, and God's act of declaring a sinner righteous, by faith alone through God's grace. In 1498 Jung created a thesis on the exploitation of the peasants and common people by powerful institutions. In 1500 he became Vicar of Saxony and Thuringia by his religious order, and he became the overseer of eleven monasteries in the region. In this post Jung would observe numerous problems or acts of corruption left over from the days of the Henrician Civil War, and he began an arduous process to try to right them. He presented many of his ideas about reforming the church and religion to the monasteries, leading to many secretly considering his position among the monasteries of the region. It was during this time that Jung developed the theory that God alone was able to grant forgiveness, not the Pope or any system within the church. While lecturing on the Psalms, and on the books of Hebrews, Romans, and Galatians, he came to view the use of terms such as penance and righteousness by the Catholic Church in new ways, and became convinced that the church was corrupt in its ways and had lost sight of what he saw as several of the central truths of Christianity.
It was during this time that Konrad Jung caught the attention of Betrand of Villingen, Archbishop of Mainz. Deeply impressed by his sermons, the Archbishop would invite Jung to meet with him and discuss theology and possible reforms. After numerous correspondences and assurances of safe conduct, Jung would meet the Archbishop in 1503. When he spoke with the Archbishop it quickly turned into a heated argument, as Jung fundamentally disagreed with many of the points the Archbishop brought up. Jung argued against the Archbishop’s idea of “a church with strong, centralized leadership in the form of the Pope”, emphasizing that God’s truth and the beliefs of Christians should be derived from the scripture alone. He pointed out that a strong, central leader also could easily lead to a tyrannical doctrine that was antithetical to the truthful doctrine preached by Jesus Christ, as there was no quality control for many of the Popes’ actions, something that a decentralized model could ensure. Jung was practically offended by the notion that the church would, “fracture into cults without the leadership of a qualified priesthood.”
Jung believed that any man should be able to be a priest in his own right, and to be able to read and understand the Bible himself, not filtered through the biased opinion of the centralized priesthood. He emphasized that he was a proponent of translating the Bible and making it easier for people to understand the word of Christ, therefore he couldn't support the Archbishop’s concept of a priestly elite with a monopoly on preaching. He pointed out that Mainz’s own policies were hypocritical; if you want a high standard of accountability and an educated populace, don’t impede their ability to read and understand the Bible and make their own judgements, he retorted. Jung pointed out that if the Archbishop believed that “the Church should be the leader in science and education”, he should not tolerate a church that has routinely persecuted free thinkers and scientists throughout history, and has routinely enforced, sometimes, violently, a certain status quo of thinking, that is not backed by the Bible or any truth espoused by Jesus, but rather by the traditions and sayings of Popes and their personal opinions.
Back in Thuringia, the discussion in Mainz would only fuel Jung’s fervor and cause him to become disillusioned at the possibility of reforming the current church. Likewise, during this time Jung wrote a work on Islam. He noted that the Abbasid Caliphate was but a scourge sent by God to punish Christians, as an agent of the Biblical apocalypse that would destroy the Antichrist, perhaps indicating that the Antichrist the Bible predicted was in fact the Church and the Pope. He rejected the concept of the “Holy War” and the idea of fighting in Jesus’ name: “as though our people were an army of Christians against the Turks, who were enemies of Christ. This is absolutely contrary to Christ's doctrine and name". Jung would later note that a secular war was not contradictory, but that spiritual war against an alien faith was separate, to be waged through prayer and repentance.
Konrad Jung
The Reformation is usually dated to 31 January 1504 in Erfurt, Thuringia, when theologian and writer Konrad Jung published his 105 Theses. Having finally reached a breaking point in his attitude toward the church, Konrad Jung had decided to compile an entire list of grievances. He sent this detailed list to the Pope in Rome and several other key theologians, such as the Archbishop of Mainz. Afterward, feeling as though he needs to get his point across, he nailed a copy of his grievances on the church door of Erfurt Cathedral. Although at the time Jung did not expect much, unknown to him this would lead to a series of changes commonly called the Reformation.
Among his complains were numerous practices of the Catholic church, from their pecuniary policies to their conduct in recent affairs. He protested the authority of the Pope and the church as a whole to interpret and create doctrine of their own, arguing that it was scripture alone that was key, and that God declares a sinner righteous—by faith alone through God's grace—not as a consequence of the Catholic Church’s sacrament of reconciliation. Also that year, the Thin White Duke published his manifesto in full for the first time, involving religious views but mostly his beliefs regarding political theory. Jung had been a prominent writer and frequent correspondent of the Thin White Duke since the mid 1490s, and the Duke's writings were likely based on Jung's.
Thanks in part to the robust printing press industry, both works began to rapidly spread. By the end of the year these texts had flooded Thuringia and much of the Holy Roman Empire. Within two weeks, copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months, they had spread throughout Europe. These writings spurred on numerous developments. Across Thuringia numerous monasteries experienced monks and nuns abandoning their positions, while others among the clergy of Thuringia latched on to Jung’s writings quickly. Having received some positive acclaim, Jung would spend the rest of the year into the next writing and enjoying a prolific career. He wrote numerous texts and gave speeches across Thuringia. One of those who attended his speeches would be Johann Freud, a professor at the University of Wittenberg. Having joined Jung’s side and having been convinced by him, Freud would go on to preach his message in the Duchy of Saxony.
After the previous debate in Mainz, Jung became increasingly convinced that he couldn't simply change the church, but would need to start over completely. Toward the end of the year he had a confrontation with a papal legate that had meant to be a simple debate, but it quickly turned into a shouting match. Jung would make a bold claim that Matthew 16:18 did not confer on popes the exclusive right to interpret scripture, and that therefore neither popes nor church councils were infallible, which ultimately led to Jung being labeled a heretic on the same grounds as Jan Hus. The legate had originally planned to arrest Jung, but he discovered that a monk had helped him escape later that night.
One group that took heed of Jung's work quickly were the Adamites, who had been practicing in secret for the past decade, primarily in eastern Thuringia. The conspirators in eastern Thuringia responsible for shielding the Adamites likewise helped to spread the works of Jung among the heretics and among the general population, so that by the end of the year the “evangelicals”, or as the Catholics derogatorily call them, the Jungists, came to form a majority in key areas in the far east of Thuringia. After years of preparation, said conspirators – Conrad von Lautertal, William of Mühlberg, William von Bibra of Meiningen, Gregor von Hanstein of Altenburg, et al – raised their armies to capitalize on this religious fervor and marched on Erfurt. The army met with the Thin White Duke and he relented to their demands. He gave an order that all church land in Thuringia, their numerous monasteries, abbeys, private lands, etc, were to be annexed to the state, and that the clergy of Thuringia (as Jung was the Vicar of Thuringia and Saxony) was to be taught the doctrine that Jung espoused, in a process that would take some time.
This causes immediate backlash, and soldiers were needed to carry out the confiscation of church lands in the center of Thuringia. Much of the wealth from these seizures was then distributed to the population, which helped to quell much of the unrest. By and large the peasantry and the population were not affected by these changes at all: the change in ownership was but a different name on the deed for those attending churches across Thuringia. However, in some areas this escalated, with protesters smashing artwork and statues, and pillaging the images at churches and other church properties. These protests grew across the state, causing nearly open war across Thuringia. Although devout Catholics in a place like Thuringia seemed hard to come by, there was some open resistance to the developments, leading to dozens of deaths.
Throughout all this the Thin White Duke began receiving potent visions once more, and he managed to convince much of the population that these developments were of grave importance and perhaps beneficial. This became more true in December when the Duke’s army fought and defeated a small coalition of Catholic lords, and declared any serfs of them to be freed. With all or most of the nobles of Thuringia being sympathetic or believers themselves, or just unable to resist, the Thin White Duke called for a conference in Erfurt among his vassals to come to an agreement the following year.
Within the year Pope Julius II would officially condemn Konrad Jung and his movement, escalating his belief that proper reconciliation with the church would prove impossible. Despite this, the Jungist movement was quickly latched onto in secret by several prominent nobles in Germany. In Hesse, Duchess Agnes became a quick adopter, due to her falling out with the Pope over her "accidental excommunication", as was Charles I of Brandenburg, known for his anti-papal conspiracy theory and the ensuing controversy.
Wolfen War
With religious heresy centered primarily around Saxony, the Bishop of Dresden and an alliance of minor Saxon states formed to combat the spread of Jungism. They would launch an attack on the city of Altenburg, which was controlled by "Conspirator" Gregor von Hanstein, after Jungist soldiers supposedly attacked Catholics across the border. It’s unclear if Gregor von Hanstein actually did deliberately order such an attack, or if the Bishop wanted an excuse to combat the Jungists, but a battle soon broke out almost immediately near Altenburg.
Fearing further retaliation from neighboring Catholic nations, the nations foremost affected by the rise of Jungism decided to meet in the small town of Wolfen to arrange for a conference. The result would be the League of Wolfen (or Wolfenbund), a defensive alliance chiefly between Duke Edmund Alwin of Saxony, Duke Charles of Brandenburg, and the Thin White Duke of Thuringia. Together these three states creatde a series of marriage alliances, and also began working with the “Conspirators”, including Gregor von Hanstein.
With Jungists being repulsed at Altenburg, the battle spured the creation of a new military in Thuringia. Firstly there were the White Knights, who through a series of internal fights, come to be dominated by Jungists, and the Thin White Duke would call them the world’s first “Jungist Holy Order”. A coup within the leadership of the organization placed Paul Osterberg as the head knight, and he organized a swift removal of devout Catholics from the organization, and a shift toward Jungist teaching. An event known as the Easter Purge occurred, in which a few hundred Catholics were killed within the army of the Conspiracy, creating a solely Jungist fighting force organized to “safeguard the reformation”. With 1,000 of these levies and 200 White Knights, Gregor von Hanstein marched out from Altenburg and began the “Long March” toward Dresden.
As he marched he spreads the message of Jungism through Meissen, attacking churches, and gaining followers. By the time he reached the Bishopric of Dresden's lands his army had increased several times over, and a siege ensued. Cut off from the rest of the alliance, the Bishop of Dresden quickly found himself surrounded by a nation converting in rapid numbers, and he surrendered. Elsewhere, the Wolfenbund sponsored the creation of the “Blue Army of the Elbe”, a force of Jungists raised from primarily Thuringia and Saxony. Under the command of Conrad von Lautertal, the Blue Army marched against the supporters of Dresden and led the charge in confiscating all church land between Erfurt and Wittenberg. The Bishopric of Naumburg was mediatised, while the Bishop of Merseburg was forced to flee. They discovered other religious leaders, such as the Bishop of Halberstadt, had decided to convert of their own volition.
The most zealous in Thuringia (such as the previously heretical Adamites) urged the creation of a “utopia” as defined by the writings of the Thin White Duke, in which life would return to how it was in the time of the Apostles, but their goal would fail to be achieved at that time. Through all of this the Thin White Duke urged Konrad Jung to help standardize Jungism as a separate religion completely, and Jung was eventually forced to appoint priests to meet demand. The unrest spilled over into the neighboring Bishopric of Bamberg, escalating the conflict, and knowing that the Emperor would likely get involved once the election was over and he has settled into his position, the Thin White Duke petitioned to have these series of disputes resolved diplomatically before a full war broke out.
By 1506 the defensive war against the Bishopric of Dresden and others was defeated, with Thuringia and the Wolfenbund successfully repulsing the attack. The result was that a militant attempt to contain Jungism was stopped, intimidating many in the area that such a move would not be prudent, and convincing others to not resist the spread of Jungism. The Long March of Gregor von Hanstein ended with him marching into Dresden to much celebration from the locals, who had begun to throw off their Catholic oppressors. With the Bishopric having been toppled, the Evangelical-Jungist Church of Saxony was declared, to serve as a model church for the reformation. A new Jungist bishop was declared with his seat in Meissen Cathedral, becoming the first proper diocese of Jungism. The Long March continued in a limited capacity, with Gregor von Hanstein pursuing a few towns who had supported the invasion of Thuringia. With the Blue Army in the Meissen area, and with the capital at Dresden now formally Jungist, the Thin White Duke would persuade his son-in-law Frederick VI, Margrave of Meissen to join the defensive alliance of the Wolfenbund as an equal member, and in exchange Thuringia supported ceding any captured towns to Meissen, including the valuable church lands. The rest of the territory captured by the Blue Army was converted to Jungism and remained as independent states, albeit under the influence of Thuringia temporarily in some capacities, with a small number of soldiers remaining in the region to protect the Wolfenbund from attack.
Speyer and Trent
Just as the Jungist movement was beginning, Emperor Frederick IV died unexpectedly, causing a crucial election within the Holy Roman Empire. The rapid number of emperors in Germany in quick succession, dubbed the Decade of the Five Emperors and the "Imperial Curse", had greatly contributed to further decentralization of the Empire in recent years, with the "Curse" being used as evidence by the Jungists of God's wrath against the Catholics, and by seemingly all as a bad omen. Similarly, Konrad Jung would be caught in a thunder storm, in which he was nearly struck by lightning, but managed to escape unscathed.
Ottokar IV of Bohemia, son of Henry the Great, would be elected as Emperor. As an adamant Catholic, he supported subsequent attempts to address and condemn the Jungist movement. Almost immediately after being crowned, Emperor Ottokar I would call for the Diet of Speyer. Jung was invited under the promise of safe conduct, and asked to explain himself before the Emperor, so that a judgement could be made on his beliefs. Archbishop Bertrand of Mainz and Ruprecht Moers, Archbishop of Cologne, would spearhead the effort to examine and ultimately condemn Jung's work. Despite Mainz taking a more reconciliatory approach and inviting Jung to an ecumenical council being held in Trent, Jung would reply that many reforms were impossible to be enacted on account of the Pope/church already decreeing him a heretic and condemning him, despite all in agreement that there were valid complaints to be had. He pointed out that it was therefore impossible for Jung and his followers to be represented legally in such a council.
Mainz would also condemn the Thin White Duke, as it was believed Thuringia was directly profiting off the conflict with the Bishop of Dresden, which began the Diet of Speyer on poor footing. The Diet of Speyer would end with Konrad Jung and likeminded theologians, as well as the Jungism movement as a whole, being officially condemned. However, the Empire failed to capture Jung or the Thin White Duke after leaving Speyer. The Count of Anhalt personally aided Jung in evading the law, after the Count had a strange dream the night before. The overall result, as of this diet, would be that the Imperial electorate and the Emperor had firmly placed their loyalty to the Roman Church.
It would be after Speyer in 1506 that Jung took up firmly the belief that his movement would need to formally split from the Catholic Church. After a staged kidnapping to escape Imperial authorities, Jung would go into hiding in a castle in Thuringia, where he continued working. He created his own translation of the New Testament from Greek into German, and also penned a work defending the principle of justification. He noted that at least the Archbishop of Mainz had been successfully shamed into temporarily prohibiting the sale of indulgences and into halting the violent inquisition. Jung argued that every good work designed to attract God's favor is a sin. All humans were sinners by nature, he explained, and God's grace (which can't be earned) alone can make them just.
He wrote to fellow theologian Freud on the same theme: "Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world. We will commit sins while we are here, for this life is not a place where justice resides." He condemned as idolatry the idea that the mass is a sacrifice, asserting instead that it is a gift, to be received with thanksgiving by the whole congregation. His essay On Confession, Whether the Pope has the Power to Require It, rejected compulsory confession and encouraged private confession and absolution, since "every Christian is a confessor." He also assured monks and nuns that they could break their vows without sin, because vows were an illegitimate and vain attempt to win salvation.
After several months in isolation, Jung returned to Thuringia and began aiding the government in reversing or modifying church practices, and attempted to help restore order. Although there were some peasant forces advocating for violent and radical political changes, Jung was not one of these advocates, and he spoke against violence. For the most part, Jungism continued to spread across Germany naturally and not through coercion, with only the Thuringia region seemingly fighting a war over the matter.
Toward the end of the year after his long exile, Jung gave a sermon in Erfurt to a large crowd. He was suddenly attacked by a mysterious man who stabbed him in the chest before fleeing, and Jung died a day later of his wounds. The city fell into a panic with violence breaking out; many Jungists took revenge on the small Catholic population that remains or on Jews, or commenced rioting and looting in general. With Jung dead there was public outcry all across the Empire, as he was the voice of a generation. He became a martyr for the cause and a symbol of the reformation, with his death being seen similarly to the martyrdom of the Apostles. Just like with the murder of Peter and Paul, the Jungists decried that Jung will not have died in vain, and the faith was only hardened. Jung never recanted his faith, and rejected the Catholic doctrines to his last breath, and that inspired more to take up the cause.
His funeral became a highly public event, with thousands paying their respect, even members of both sides of the religious debate. Many theories began to surface about who might be responsible. Some immediately suspected the Pope himself or the church of hiring an assassin to do the deed. One popular theory was that the Archbishop of Mainz, after being thoroughly embarrassed in the religious debates, decided to take matters into his own hands and order the assassination, or perhaps the Archbishop of Cologne was responsible as a means to try to silence Jung. However, Justiciar Ruprecht von Moers would commend Jung for pronouncing non violence, and condemned Jung's assassins for their extrajudicial killing.
After Jung
With Jung dead the movement spiraled into several directions. Jung was one of the more conservative reformers, and had advocated for non violence and was against holy war, but with his death fewer people were as conservative. Freud became one of the key leaders of the reformation, and he gained the aid of several bodyguards to travel with him at all times. Others took up more radical beliefs that Jung was never an advocate for, with some Jungist groups choosing violence after all, for the defense of innocent thinkers like Jung. There was a general attitude forming that reconciliation with the church was impossible now, and that the reformers have been hardened in their beliefs, and generally the assassination of Jung caused the Catholic Church to be viewed in a negative light. Jung had championed the common man and had inspired many to be better and more pious individuals, and his death was signaled as an act of tyranny.
Freud would reiterate the original tenets that Jung had created regarding the priesthood, saying there was a priesthood of all believers, as based on the New Testament; the medieval Christian belief that Christians were to be divided into two classes: "spiritual" and "temporal" or non-spiritual, was adamantly rejected. The Catholic Church was remarked to be the opposite of this truth, and was in fact a Great Apostasy, as the Church had fallen from the original practices of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. Freud argued that the “Pope” had led the church since these early days into degradation and apostasy, leading Jungists to discover the truth that the Papacy was the prophesied Antichrist.
A group known as the Centuriators of Anhalt, a group of Jungist scholars in Anhalt headed by Matthias Wundt, would write the 12-volume "Anhalt Centuries" to discredit the papacy and identify the pope as the Antichrist. However, the Jungists also wrote how Konrad Jung led a great tribulation to lead the faithful away from the Great Apostasy and restore the church to the teachings of Christ. It was foretold how before his death, Jung had gone into the woods to pray, and there John the Baptist appeared to him and bestowed upon him the keys of the priesthood, creating the Aaronic Priesthood. Thus, it came to be tradition that pastors must be “called” to the priesthood and receive this authority that was passed on to Jung.
Those within the church would organize the first synod, as a council of all the faithful to discuss issues and problems, called the consistory. It was ultimately in this collection of laity and priests alike that decisions for the good of the church would be made, rather than in the hands of a Bishop. On the most local level, all communities of the faithful were to be congregationalist.
In 1507 the preacher Hans Eysenck, along with Edward de la Marck, Count of Wasaborg and other prominent Saxons, traveled to Denmark to the court of Henry de la Marck, hoping to persuade the Danish King to accept Jungism over time. Around this time, an Egyptian man named Michael the Deacon of the Egyptian Orthodox Church traveled to Erfurt and met with several Jungist leaders. It was agreed that the Lutheran Mass and the one used by the Orthodox Church were in agreement with one another, and Michael gave his blessing to the creed created by Jung. Just like the Egyptians, "communion in both kind, vernacular Scriptures, and married clergy become customary in the Jungist movement. For Jungists, the Egyptian church’s blessing helped to confer additional legitimacy onto the Jungist movement, as the Egyptians were an ancient church tied to the Apostles.
Freud published a concise, written summary of Jung’s beliefs, which becomes known as the Augsburg Confession. Soon this document and signing onto it comes to be viewed as an official declaration of adopting Jungism.
Dutch Revolt
The nation of Lotharingia had been a center of reformation and religious violence, with the Wagnerist church securing control over Luxembourg and spreading across the south. By the mid point of his reign, John VI had begun to warm up to the reformed sect, and saw it as a way of separating Lotharingia from the power of the papacy and Holy Roman Emperor. In 1531 the King ordered the removal of Catholicism as the state religion of Lotharingia, prompting unrest among the most devout Catholics of the nation and many among the nobility. A group of nobles in the north would form the League of Deventer and make a petition demanding that the king rescind the religious policy. However, before this petition could be reviewed, Lord William the Silent of Utrecht, a leading member of the petitioners, would take matters into his own hands and attack a Jungist militia forming near Tiel. With armed conflict becoming inevitable, the nation became split largely between the Catholic north and the Protestant south, while a handful of coastal cities (Antwerp, Rotterdam, Amsterdam) abstained from either side and instead sought to promote their own autonomy from the crown. Each side of the conflict would begin forming alliances, with the coastal cities seek the aid of England France, the Catholics also appealing to England, and the Protestants primarily seeking the aid of neighboring German states.
While this was occurring, the government under Juliaen de Kremers, Nicolaas Everaerts, and Erasmus began the planning of a national, unified church distinct from both camps of the religious debate, in a similar style to that of nearby France. While negotiations continued in the city of Antwerp, the triumvirate announced a royal decree making it unlawful to form militias without consent of the Groot Belgische Raad, while also making attacks on any religious community illegal. Despite the attempts by the Lotharingian government to ban provincial armies, this did not manage to curb the already brewing conflict, with De Kremers himself raising soldiers and preparing for insurrection. Initially foreign involvement in the conflict was low, however, England would offer the coastal cities of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam the use of 3,000 English mercenaries in order to protect the interests of English merchants in those ports, while the Duchy of Hesse attempted an alliance with Wagner and other protestants in the south.
Despite the urging of the government, by 1533 full scale war had broken out. Non-Catholic rebels managed to seize the cities of Brussels and Antwerp, the latter causing the religious council called there to ultimately have to flee. William the Silent was selected the Plaathouder of the Catholic nobles, and he would disregard the Triumvirate's command to stand down, instead achieving victory against a Protestant attack in the Battle of Tilburg. The proposed "Belgian Church" managed to attract moderate Jungists and Wagnerists to support it, especially after Wagner, as de facto ruler of Luxembourg, himself supported it, after receiving promises that his doctrine would ultimately form the basis of it. However, this proposal would have negative consequences, as it further infuriated the Catholic north and mainstream Jungists, and in many ways only added another church claiming to be the standard to the bunch. By the end of the year the Protestants would also begin courting an alliance with the French, who crossed the border into Lotharingia in early 1534.
With French aid, the forces of Juliaen de Kremer would manage to retake Antwerp after a siege throughout the spring of 1534. Support for Kremer's army and his reforms would remain strongest near the southern border, while William the Silent found increased support from the region of Zeeland. William would become based in Middelburg, as the city's location and natural defenses made it difficult for loyalist forces to counter. While William began raising reinforcements to attack Juliaen de Kremer during an offensive in 1536, the Admiraal-generaal had died of old age at the age of 63, leaving his 18-year-old adopted son Paul de Kremer to succeed him. This would halt the Lotharingian army for much of that summer, and William the Silent made considerable gains in the center of the Lowlands and the north.
The following year Paul de Kremer would launch a general invasion of Flanders, hoping to push the Catholic rebellion firmly out of the south. The government's strategy became a strategy of attrition, with de Kremer believing that once Flanders fell and Zeeland was surrounded and cut off, as the Lotharingians retained dominance over the navy and thus the sea, that Zeeland would surrender. Instead Zeeland only became hardened in its resolve, and in 1540 it alienated itself by electing to form an independent Zeeland Republic, with William the Silent being elected as one of its leaders. Although the northern half of the nation had resisted the government as well, they had maintained an aura of still fighting for the proper government and the crown, instead of a formal secession from the unpopular government. Around the same time, on 1 May King John VI of Lotharingia would die, with Godfried II being crowned soon after. This succession would help to negotiate a ceasefire, as the new king was viewed more favorably to Catholics than his father had been.
Nonetheless, an invasion of Middelburg commenced that proved a costly affair for both sides. William the Silent would be assassinated before the invasion commenced, leaving the rebels without their principal leader. While de Kremer attempted to negotiate a surrender, his army would disobey an order to halt, and would unleash a harsh reprisal against the rebels, sacking the city. As a result the north negotiated an internal treaty, in which the provinces agreed to religious tolerance and pledged to fight together against the mutinous Lotharingian forces. For the mostly non-Catholic provinces, the destruction by southerners and their foreign mercenaries was the principal reason to join in an open revolt, but formally the provinces still remained loyal to the sovereign Godfried II. With Middelburg having fallen, the north stumbled in its response, and both sides became distracted with the wars of Henry von Kerpen on their eastern border, who actively intervened in the war in Lotharingia.
In 1543 the Lotharingian army would suffer a major defeat at Roosendaal, which managed to repulse the invaders and prevent them from building off their momentum at Middelburg. The north would also begin greater negotiations with the English, who now were no longer distracted by wars of their own. With an additional 6,000 Englishmen being transported to the north, they would manage to go on the offensive once more under the command of William's son Henry. Later that year the leaders of the Sack of Middelburg would be turned over to the north after the successful Battle of Brecht. A temporary peace would be formed lasting some 15 years, as Godfried II allowed for Catholicism to be the official religion of the north, and granted the northern provinces unprecedented autonomy, which effectively made their local governments independent of the central government. This tenuous peace would last throughout the Amiens War, primarily due to both sides being united in a common cause against France, but soon after tensions would flair up once more.
Amiens War
Disputes over the city of Amiens and other contested territories would lead to animosity between the nations of Arles-Burgundy, Lotharingia, and France. Following a civil war in Lotharingia and the outbreak of the Bishops' War in France, Arles sought to capitalize on this weakness by quickly taking Amiens and Lorraine from Lotharingia, declaring war in February 1547. Arles would be joined by an alliance of several nearby states, including the Messin Republic, Duchy of Habsburg, and the Alsace League, which had formed as an alliance against Lotharingian aggression previously. By 1548 Arles had succeeded in occupying Lorraine and the territories south of Luxembourg, but failed to reach Amiens before the French could respond. In November 1548 the French invaded Lotharingia themselves, seizing the city. The French would continue their campaign in Artois, while the Arles-led alliance managed to capture the crucial fortress of Luxembourg by the spring of 1549.
With the Amiens War resulting thus far in failure for Lotharingia, and with the cities of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht largely in a panic, Paul Dekremer was pressured to resign from his position of Admiraal-generaal. The position would be granted to a veteran of the Lotharingian Civil War named Ambrosius Bosschaert of Middelburg, who was supported by former supporters of the Zeeland Republic, such as Diederik Graeff of Amsterdam, as well as Protestants from the south, such as many prominent Wagnerists. Catholic and Columbite rulers of the north largely favored different candidates, as well as more direct rule by King Godfried II, beginning a worsening divide between north and south. Under Bosschaert's leadership the Lotharingians would manage to attract an alliance with the Count Palatine of the Rhine, and in December Archbishop Philip von Wied of Trier was pursued to lead a mutiny of the Alsace League against Habsburg hegemony. With the aid of talented Columbite general Maarten Tromp, the Lotharingians would halt the invasion from Luxembourg.
Despite Metz, Trier, and Alsace being pursued to join against the Habsburgs, in April 1550 Prince Frederick von Habsburg would defeat the coalition at Baden, laying the foundation for a Habsburg-led invasion of Alsace with Palatine cooperation. In May the Peace of Luxembourg formally ended the war between Metz, Arles, and Lotharingia, confirming the concession of Lorraine between Metz and Arles. With the co-belligerence between Arles and France broken down, the Frenco-Burgundian War would break out in June, now turning Arles and Lotharingia toward a mutual goal against France. France would soon face a war on three fronts, as a Spanish-backed plot instigated a Catholic revolt in the south, known as the Foix War, after Catholic leader Henry de Foix. Frederick of Habsburg would continue his campaign in southwest Germany, securing the Upper Rhine under Habsburg hegemony. This would culminate in the Battle of Wasselonne, which saw the Habsburgs subdue Metz, Trier, and the Alsace League in a decisive battle. With Lotharingia unable to repulse the French from southern Artois, the Amiens War would conclude in June 1551. France would annex Amiens, Artois, and territory west of the Meuse River. Conflict would continue against Arles-Burgundy and the Spanish-backed revolt, while in Germany an imperial civil war had begun.
Imperial Civil War Begins
During the ongoing Amiens War, Emperor Henry X from Bohemia favored the French, ruled by his brother Charles IV, and as such was hesitant to provide military support to Lotharingia. In January 1550 the outbreak of war between the Alsace League and the Duchy of Habsburg led to the Habsburgs being baited into attacking the imperial immediacy of Strasbourg. Although they succeeded in capturing the city, this was planned in an effort to force the Emperor's hand in fighting against the French. Instead Henry X called for a diplomatic end to the war, which failed to materialize. By June, Henry's continued support for the foreign and non-Catholic French, his perceived lack of resolve in strongly combating Jungism, his concessions made to Taborites in Bohemia, and his support for an antipope in Zephrynus II, convinced Pope Leo XII in Rome to support an antiking in Germany. Duke Leopold II of Habsburg, father of successful general Prince Frederick, would be elected King of Germany with papal-backing, beginning a civil war.
A strong ally of Pope Leo XII and Leopold II, Frederick III of Austria and his ally in Hungary would launch an invasion of Bohemia against Henry X. Under the leadership of Prince Frederick, the Habsburg army would secure the Upper Rhine and force the Alsace League to heel. Bohemia's ally the Count Palatine of Burgundy would likewise be defeated, while the League of Arnsberg, spearheaded by Hesse, formed to combat Frederick's expansion north. In December 1551 a conspiracy of Catholic nobles would instigate a coup to oust Henry X from Prague. Instead they would elect Henry X's first cousin, Henry the Pious, who was more adamantly Catholic and related to the Habsburgs and Austrians, making the emperorship of Leopold II all but secured. In response, the Jungist heir to Brandenburg, Henry the Protector, was supported by Protestants as a third option. The result would be the War of the Three Henrys. However, a month later Antiking Leopold II von Habsburg would die unexpectedly, greatly altering the course of the ongoing Bohemian civil war. Frederick III of Austria would attempt to claim the imperial throne, as did Henry the Pious.
War of the Three Henrys
As the imperial civil war between Henry X and Leopold II was ongoing, the Catholic coup in Prague had led to a threeway civil war in Bohemia, split along religious lines. Henry X, now forced to flee the capital, represented the "Imperialists", and sought pragmatic cooperation among the religious communities. Henry the Pious represented a strong return to Catholicism, and cooperation with Austria and Leopold II, while Henry the Protector sought to promote Bohemia's conversion to Jungism. The sudden death of Leopold II in January 1552 changed the course of the war, as Leopold's powerbase, and thus the main supporters of the Catholic faction in Bohemia, now fought among themselves. Frederick III of Austria sought the imperial throne, over Henry the Pious or Frederick von Habsburg. A month later Pope Leo XII also died, while his successor Gregory XIV formally supported Henry the Pious. This was deemed by Frederick III as a betrayal, and in April his relative Olivér I of Hungary launched an invasion of Italy.
The Pope quickly formed a coalition of Italian states to aid in the repulsion of the Hungarians known as the League of Venice. The newly crowned Duke Frederick of Habsburg remained loyal to the Roman papacy, and would counter the Austrian-Hungary claim to the throne. After consolidating control over Swabia, he would march into northern Italy in support of the coalition. While the Hungarians quickly overran Aquileia, Count Engelbert V of Gorizia would continue to resist the Hungarians, becoming a prominent and feared commander. Despite the invasion pushing into Italy, Henry the Pious sought to use the Italian forces he had gathered to quickly take Bohemia before aiding the Pope directly. He would capture southern Bohemia, but in an attempt to capture the Hussite stronghold of Tábor, he would be defeated and forced to flee across the border to Passau. After the Battle of Freyung in September, he next fled to Austria, retaining only a fraction of his original army.
In August Catholic nobleman Jan Ptáček would usurp command of Imperial forces in Bohemia, ordering a purge of several dissenters in the capital. Although not in cooperation with Henry X, who had since fled, Ptáček acted as a de facto head of his military, and began a successful campaign in the surrounding countryside. 5,500 Jungist forces under Henry the Protector, including some 3,000 soldiers from Brandenburg, 1,000 soldiers from Saxony, and 1,500 rebelling peasants, would encounter Ptáček's army of some 13,000 soldiers on 19 December 1552. In the ensuing Battle of Kladen, Henry the Protector would win an unprecedented victory, suffering some 1,000 casualties, compared to the Catholic's 8,500, including Ptáček himself. The battle would see the lose of numerous Catholic nobles and knights, as well as the capture of dozens more. With this battle having been won, Henry would march on Prague victorious.
In March 1553, while preparing for an Austrian-backed invasion to reclaim Bohemia, claimant to the throne Henry the Pious would be assassinated by one of his guards, in a move that was believed to have been orchestrated by Henry X. The reign of Henry the Protector would prove short as well, as in August he was murdered by a radical Catholic monk. This left Henry X as the last surviving claimant in the war, and he quickly began to march on Prague to assert his claim. However, weary of continued conflict, Henry X would formally convert away from Catholicism, which allowed him to enter Prague without further bloodshed. While the War of the Three Henrys concluded, the tangentially related Hungarian-led phase of the Italian Wars would continue.
Italian War (1552-1556)
Prior to 1552 an alliance had existed between the Árpáds of Austria and Hungary, the Duchy of Habsburg, and the Papal States under Leo XII. The Habsburgs had managed to seize control over the Upper Rhine and Alsace League, with Duke Leopold II being elected King of Germany with papal backing, while the alliance ensured a Catholic coup ousted Leopold's rival, Emperor Henry X, from the throne of Bohemia. However, the political situation rapidly deteriorated at the beginning of 1552, as both Leopold II and Pope Leo XII both died. The Catholic faction became divided over who would be supported as Holy Roman Emperor. Henry the Pious, the Catholic claimant to the Kingdom of Bohemia in the War of the Three Henrys, who the alliance was attempting to install on the throne, was one such claimant. Likewise Frederick III of Austria, with Hungarian backing, sought the imperial election, while Leopold II's son, Frederick, also was a potential candidate.
With the election of Gregory XIV as Pope, he formally supported Henry the Pious, in the hopes of ensuring Bohemia fell back into the hands of Catholic rulers. Frederick III would feel betrayed by this, instead leading an invasion of northeast Italy, along with his relative Olivér I of Hungary. Hungarian forces overwhelmed the Pope's ally of Aquileia, defeating them at the Battle of Udine. In response the Pope would form a quick coalition of Italian states to repulse the Hungarians, known as the League of Venice. Wile the leaders of Aquileia fled, the young count Engelbert V of Gorizia would begin a guerrilla campaign against the numerically superior Hungarian occupiers, gaining renown as an unexpected commander of the Italian coalition. At the start of 1553, Englebert V would manage to ambush a numerically superior Austrian army at Levada, killing heir apparent Stephen of Austria, and routing the Austrian army. Despite this, the occupation of several major towns in the Republic of Venice by the Hungarians would force Venice to make peace and leave the coalition.
In April 1553 Hungarian forces began an invasion of Modena, crossing the border and defeating a Modena-Papal army at the Siege of Mantua. The newly crowned Duke Frederick of Habsburg remained loyal to the Roman papacy, and would counter the Austrian-Hungary claim to the throne. After consolidating control over Swabia, he would march into northern Italy in support of the coalition, and arrived in Milan soon after Mantua fell. In a plot to assassinate Frederick and the Duke of Modena, Frederick would survive while the Duke of Modena was killed. This allowed young prince and Hungarian-sympathetic Francesco III to ascend to the throne of Modean. Francesco would end resistance to the Hungarian invaders, which Frederick of Habsburg refused to accept. Instead with the backing of many of the nation's nobility, he would establish the Duchy of Milan under his guidance.
Republican rebels in Modena would look to Frederick of Habsburg for assistance, while the exiled Francesco III joined the Hungarian army near Mantua. Throughout 1554 the Hungarians chased Frederick across southern Milan and the northern territory of the Papal States. In 1555 the decisive Battle of Meldola ended Hungary's ambitions of marching on Rome. Later that year they would withdraw from Modena and Mantua, albeit with a partially friendly government installed in the latter. The repulsion of Hungary from Italy seemed all but certain, and Frederick launched an invasion of Austrian-allied Trento hoping to force Hungarian garrisons out of Aquileia.
Engelbert V launched a campaign against the Hungarians as a result, recapturing much of Aquileia. Frederick advanced into the region, but at the Battle of Adria in 1556, would be killed in battle. With the leader of the alliance against Hungary dead, peace would be made. Hungary would withdraw from the Lombardy region completely, but retained control over Aquileia and Gorizia.
Formation of the Catholic League
With the conclusion of the War of the Three Henrys, for the first time in the history of the Holy Roman Empire there was a non-Catholic emperor. After the death of Leopold II, Catholic antiking established in opposition to Henry X of Bohemia, the majority of Catholic princes within the Empire supported wither Frederick III of Austria or Frederick von Habsburg, Leopold II's son, for the imperial throne. With the ongoing Italian War, which saw both claimants opposed to each other, neither side achieved an election and coronation, and in 1556 Frederick von Habsburg was killed in battle.
Another pressing matter remained: the imperial election now contained a strong Jungist majority, making any future election inevitable to elect a non-Catholic. Although most Catholic princes disliked Henry X, they viewed him as tolerable. The same could not be said for many perspective imperial claimants from the Jungist camp, who they believed would surely pursue harsher attacks against Catholics, and so a campaign would be made to appoint Catholic princes to the electorate.
With the prospect of an Austrian-Bohemian war being daunting, Frederick III was instead open to this scheme. Additionally Austria and Hungary would soon find their military attention given elsewhere, as Austria contended with religious dissenters near Tyrol, and Hungary sought to hold its conquests in northeast Italy while combating the encroaching Roman Empire. Bohemia would be pursued due to Henry X's weariness toward future war and his ongoing consolidation over his own territory, and since the withdraw of the Archbishop of Erfurt, an argument could be made that the electors, especially the ecclesiastic electors, were understaffed.
Under the leadership of Archbishop Daniel von Heusenstamm of Mainz, the Catholics would open negotiations with Henry X. Mainz proposed that Frederick III renounce any claim to the title of King of Germany and pledge his loyalty to Emperor in exchange for the creation of new electors. Austria was an obvious choice for an electorate, but with the Emperor viewing that as untenable Mainz instead proposed Salzburg, a Catholic archbishopric heavily tied to Austria regardless. Other choices included the Count Palatine of the Rhine under Frederick IV, or an Italian candidate.
Ultimately Salzburg and the Palatine would both be accepted as electors, after careful negotiation and intrigue. The proposal would be supported by the Catholic electors and also Emperor Henry X as the elector of Bohemia, who managed to persuade his kinsman and fellow Jungist in Brandenburg to vote in favor. Crucially Lothar von Schönborn would be persuaded to abstain, nullifying the vote from Jungist elector Zechariah Jung.
With this matter settled the Catholic side would still need to unify in support of one claimant in order to challenge the Jungists for the imperial crown in the future. Spearheaded by Leopold III, the Habsburgs hoped to focus the Catholic alliance and prevent infighting within the faction, particularly between the Habsburg and the Hungarian-Austrian alliance, which had plagued the Catholics during the attempt to depose Henry X. At the conclusion of the Italian War of 1559-1563, Leopold III would negotiate that neither Hungary or Habsburg would pursue the imperial crown, instead both would unify in support of a Catholic third party. Both sides had exhausted themselves in northern Italy, and Hungary would soon become too distracted with matterts outside central Europe to refuse. However, at the time of this treaty the parties involved did not agree on which candidate they would support.
Additionally, Leopold III sought to create a central army for the Catholic League, modeled off the Imperial Army of the Empire as a whole. As a result of the conflict surrounding Henry X, the Imperial Army had largely broken down, and consisted primarily of Jungists and some moderate Catholics, particularly from nations loyal to Bohemia or tolerant enough of Henry X as Emperor. Most Catholic nations would withdraw their manpower and financial contributions to the Imperial Army, instead devoting these resources toward Leopold III’s army. By 1570 this force would consist of a standing army of some 12,000 soldiers, raised primarily at the expense of the Imperial army’s recruitment, and it had also secured the allegiance of several installations across the Empire still held by the Imperial government.
Lotharingian Civil War
Although the initial Dutch Revolt had ended in an uneasy peace among the provinces of the Kingdom of Lotharingia, the underlying issues prevalent within the nation remained. The Amiens War had only exacerbated the numerous causes for revolt, as heavy taxation and conscription were necessary to combat the invasion. Communities of the nation were often treated differently based on religion, with many Catholic nobles fearful of a Jungist defection in favor of France; lead general and hero of the war Maarten Tromp had been particularly distrustful toward southern levies. The coastal cities of the nation, and cities primarily oriented toward trade, remained against the war, especially as it involved threatening some of the nation's primary trade partners, and with the destruction at Middelburg, the cities of the north became further disheartened toward the central government.
Since the Amiens War, Ambrosius Bosschaert retained the title of Admiraal-generaal, granting a large amount of control to a pro-republican pro-south government, in the hopes that this would aid in repulsing the invaders. With the war over, Catholic nobles looked to end this power entrusted in Bosschaert. Additionally the sudden death of Godfried II, who died in a jousting accident when a splinter from a broken lance impaled him in the eye, further caused tensions to flair. Godfried had been apathetic toward the persecution of Catholics, which allowed them to accept a ceasefire knowing that their religion would not be actively attacked further, but with the ascension of a young Feinsan II, raised in the reformed church and under the control of reformed ministers, this was no longer a certainty.
Both sides of the nation engaged in a propaganda war, vehemently attacking the opposite's faith in printed books and pamphlets. On the local level most northern provinces instigated a form of inquisition against protestants, much to the dismay of southerns. A brief controversy occurred in 1552, when a Catholic nobleman named Reinmar Rennenberg marched into Malines and denounced the state church and the "tyranny" of the south. However, this only served to unleash an anti-Catholic backlash in Brabant and Flanders. Nonetheless, this disturbance greatly raised alarm in the north, with many nobles preparing militias in case of a government crackdown.
This managed to persuade Tromp, who due to his leadership during the Amiens War had a rare place in government as a Catholic, into supporting the defense of the north should anti-Catholic policies be carried out. To this end, Tromp managed to use his influence to see that he would oversee the reconstruction of Middelburg and a fortress there, hoping to ensure that the Catholics in the future could control access into Antwerp by sea.
Trier Crisis
Peace between Catholics and Protestants would remain until after the death of Henry X in 1563. His death signaled another imperial election, but also brought both sides to the brink of war, over fears that the election would spark an irremediable division. Among the most radical of the electors, one proposal was the division of the empire into its Catholic and Protestant sides, with two emperors being elected between the respective sides. Prominent Jungists such as Louis of Ziegenhein were outspoken against this idea, believing this would undoubtedly lead to a major war that the Jungists would not be prepared to win. Instead the more moderate electors hoped to elect a candidate who was unzealous in his faith and amicable to both sides.
Before the election the Jungists on paper held a slight majority in the electorate. In addition to seven secular electors, the stubborn and elderly Philip von Wied refused to step down in Trier, granting the Jungists one ecclesiastic elector. Additionally the late emperor had cast a vote, and it was hoped the first Jungist emperor would ensure a Jungist successor. To the shock of both sides, Henry X had instead voted for a fellow Přemyslid but a Catholic, Duke Charles II of Livonia. This was interpreted as a slight to the Jungist side, particularly Henry X’s own son and other Jungist relatives. Premier Captain Zebulon Zobel, who despite being Catholic was above all else loyal to the Emperor, was crucial in persuading his fellow electors to consider the option and not cause a schism. Zobel was a knight from Habsburg and a close friend of the Habsburg Dukes, and once he was able to persuade Leopold III, he brought the Catholic League in favor of the idea.
Philip von Wied would author a series of demands, later known as the Decree of Frankfurt, essentially stating that Livonia would support the Peace of Passau, make no attempts to persecute Jungists or Jungist states, and pursue a course of neutrality and peace in the Empire, in exchange for the Jungist electors not boycotting the diet and supporting Duke Charles. With these efforts occurring, the diet quickly grew into the longest single election in the Empire’s history, and the longest interregnum since the Great Interregnum some three centuries ago. Henry X died on 23 September 1563, and Charles would not be formally elected until 5 July 1564, and then would not accept and be formally crowned until 9 December.
Crowned as Charles V, the Emperor would abide by the Diet of Frankfurt, which inadvertently caused him to allow religious toleration in Livonia and end the inquisition there, despite Livonia traditionally being an overtly Catholic power. Soon after his election he would be forced to mediate in Bohemia, when he negotiated the end of a brief conflict among his relatives.