# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1848 10 17_S30
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

30

Concerning religious freedom itself, it was determined that, notwithstanding the right of reformation which belonged to the territorial lords according to the practice hitherto, all subjects of Catholic Estates of the Empire shall nevertheless be protected in the free exercise of the Augsburg Confession, if at any time in the year 1624 they exercised that worship publicly, or in private (privatim). Those Protestant subjects of Catholic Estates, on the other hand, who in the year 1624 possessed the exercise of evangelical worship neither publicly nor in private, shall be peaceably tolerated, and be entitled to hold their divine service in their houses, and also be permitted without hindrance to attend the public worship of their confession in the neighborhood.

No subject shall be despised on account of his religion, or be excluded from the merchant guilds, places of art, trades, inheritances, hospitals, charitable foundations, or any other right.

Neither of the two Confessions shall employ its power or majority for the oppression of the other.

The Protestant princes in Silesia, namely the dukes in Brieg, Liegnitz, Münsterberg and Oels, no less the city of Breslau, are protected in the free exercise of divine service according to the Augsburg Confession. As regards the counts and lords in Silesia who are immediately subject to the royal chamber, as well as those in Lower Austria, they shall neither be compelled to emigrate, nor hindered from attending evangelical divine service in neighboring places. The Emperor also permits the building of three new Protestant churches in Silesia, namely at Schweidnitz, Jauer and Glogau.

To the clergy of both confessions it is strictly forbidden, by sermons, lectures, disputations or writings, to contest or make doubtful the validity of the Passau Agreement, of the Religious Peace, or of the present treaty of peace.

At the assemblies of the ordinary Deputations of the Empire the number of Catholics and Protestants shall always be equal. When the business to be dispatched concerns only the adherents of the Augsburg Confession, Protestants only are summoned, and where it concerns only the believers of the Roman Church, only Catholics. If the proceedings relate to both Confessions, the assemblies are formed half of Catholics and the other half of Protestants.

In matters of religion and in all affairs where the Estates of the Empire cannot be regarded any longer as One body, the disputes shall not be decided by a majority of votes, but settled only by an amicable agreement.

In the seventh article all the concessions of the treaty of peace are expressly extended also to that part of the Protestants whom men are accustomed to call the "Reformed."*)

If an evangelical territorial lord goes over to the Reformed confession, or a Reformed prince obtains Lutheran countries by right of inheritance or in consequence of the present treaty of peace, he is free to have Reformed court preachers with him, without burdening his subjects. On the other hand he is not authorized to alter the public divine service of the Lutherans or their church laws. Just as little may he take from the Lutherans churches, schools, hospitals, stipends, pensions or other foundations and turn them over to the Reformed.**) But if a congregation of its own free choice wishes to adopt the Reformed confession, this is well permitted to it, at its own cost and without prejudice to the others.

In the sixteenth article it is ordained that immediately after the signing and sealing of the present treaty of peace all hostilities shall cease.

The prisoners of the belligerent parties shall be set at liberty at once after the proclamation of the treaty of peace.

The seventeenth and last article states that the Peace of Westphalia shall be a perpetual fundamental law of the Empire, the transgression of which is to be regarded and punished as a breach of the public peace.

At the conclusion of the work of the Peace of Westphalia various solemnities took place both in Münster and in Osnabrück. While the instruments (documents) were being signed in Münster, threefold salvos of the heavy ordnance from the bastions of the city announced it to the expectant inhabitants. On the following day (25th of October 1648) the peace was proclaimed in Münster in a festive manner.

The Syndic rode through the streets of the city to that end on a decorated horse. Before him rode a kettle-drummer with seven trumpeters and behind him three town servants in red cloaks. At the most frequented places the Syndic read from a large book a condensed extract of the instrument of peace. During the reading, lines of musketeers gave a threefold salvo, which the heavy ordnance on the ramparts answered.

In Osnabrück the citizens were assembled on the 25th of October before the town hall, and informed that peace was concluded and signed. Thereupon a hymn of thanksgiving was sung.

*) The Passau Treaty and the Augsburg Religious Peace had not yet given the Reformed any political rights.

**) In what heaven-crying unlawful manner this article in particular has been broken at the introduction of the Union-Evangelical Church in Germany, is known.

News of World Affairs.

For several months none of the European steamships has brought news of greater importance than the last, which left Liverpool on the 16th of September and arrived here on the 20th of last month.

In Germany the civil war, which has long been threatening, is at the door, and the readers should not be surprised soon to hear of occurrences against which the former were mere child's play. Berlin is the hearth and the Prussian monarchy would be the first to fall. Some time ago the Prussian Diet had called upon the ministry, by an edict, to forbid the officers of the army all actions which had a reactionary tendency, that is, which aimed at a restoration of the old order of things. The ministers refused to let such an edict go forth; but the democratic part of the Diet was resolved by no means to let this resolution of the Diet be declared null and void; on the 7th of September the former resolution was renewed and its execution urged upon the ministers. These resigned. The popular excitement during the proceedings was tremendous. The King has now the choice either to call a democratic ministry, as the Diet and the people of Berlin desire, or an open rupture must come. On the other side the Prussian army, which has always been averse to the revolution, is prepared for a decisive struggle. In the Prussian provinces, especially the eastern, the revolutionary sentiment is by no means so general, and men will hardly submit to the commands of the Berlin population.

Also in Frankfurt important changes have occurred. The Imperial Regent had namely commissioned the Prussian government with the conclusion of the armistice with Denmark, and the same had also actually been concluded. The Frankfurt German Diet, however, refuses, allegedly because the Prussian government has exceeded the limits of its authority, to recognize it and to have it carried into execution. In consequence thereof the whole imperial ministry has resigned, and the Imperial Regent himself was near doing the like. As soon as a new ministry shall have been formed, its first business will be to command Prussia to annul the armistice. Here it will again be shown whether Prussia will submit, or will wholly renounce obedience to the so-called Central Power.

The war with Denmark would thus be renewed. At the same time the inhabitants of Schleswig-Holstein have likewise protested against the conditions of the armistice, and the new government created by the armistice has not entered upon its functions at all-