Corpus Evangelicorum

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The Corpus Evangelicorum was constituted in 1653 and comprised all Lutheran and Reformed imperial estates . The board of directors was in Electoral Saxony . Since the founding of the Corpus Evangelicorum, resolutions on religious questions have only been passed in agreement with both bodies, the Corpus Evangelicorum and the Corpus Catholicorum .

history

The establishment of the Corpus Evangelicorum and the Corpus Catholicorum and their growing into the constitutional structure of the Holy Roman Empire was one of the essential constitutional achievements of the Peace of Westphalia . Previously, the majority principle had applied in principle to the interpretation of questions of doubt, for example the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555, which had a denominational or religious nature.

In the last decades of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th century it was no longer possible to resolve the main theological issues within the constitutional framework of the empire. The result was the paralysis of the various imperial organs and finally the formation of the Protestant Union on the one hand in 1608 and the Catholic League on the other hand in 1609 with the aim of protecting religious peace against attacks by the other side.

If it was not possible to integrate these extra-constitutional alliances into the constitution before and during the Thirty Years' War , the Corpus Evangelicorum and Corpus Catholicorum can ultimately be regarded as ideal successors to these defensive alliances. By indirectly integrating the estates of both denominations into the constitutional structure, it was possible to establish a constitutional order of peace that was sustainable, at least from a denominational perspective.

Since the empire was itself Catholic, the Corpus Evangelicorum was of great importance as the guardian of Protestant interests in the empire. An example of the complexity of the situation in the Old Kingdom is the fact that the Elector of Saxony remained President of the Corpus Evangelicorum after he had converted personally ( August the Strong and successor) to the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the remaining Protestant elector, the Margrave of Brandenburg and later King of Prussia - the Electoral Palatinate was again subject to Catholic princes since 1685 - has increased in importance.

literature

• Ulrich Belstler: The position of the corpus evangelicorum in the imperial constitution . Diss., University of Tübingen 1968.
• Peter Brachwitz: The Authority of the Visible. Religious gravamina in the 18th century empire . De Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-025186-9 .
• Andreas Kalipke: Procedure in Conflict. Denominational disputes and the corpus evangelicorum in the 18th century . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2015. ISBN 978-3-402-14655-2 .
• Wolf-Friedrich Schäufele: Christoph Matthäus Pfaff and the Church Union efforts of the Corpus Evangelicorum, 1717–1726 . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-8053-2485-5 .
• Fritz Wolff: Corpus evangelicorum and corpus catholicorum at the Westphalian Peace Congress. The incorporation of denominational class associations into the imperial constitution . Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 1966.