Normal year

Normal year ( lat. Annus decretorius or annus normalis ) is the name for a year that is the normative reference point for certain vested rights and rights.

The most widespread is the term for the year 1624, which was set as the key year according to the provisions of the Peace of Westphalia of 1648 in order to establish the rights of the three denominations recognized in the empire ( Catholics , Lutherans and Reformed ). Not only should the material property of the dioceses , monasteries , ecclesiastical foundations etc. be finally assigned to the religious party that it held on January 1, 1624 (dies decretorius) , but also the right to practice religion should be reset to the territorial status of that year become. So the principle of Jus Reformandi , as it had been agreed in the Augsburg Religious Peace of 1555, was decisively restricted. Changes made before January 1, 1624 remained valid, such as the re-Catholicization of Bohemia , which sparked the great war.

The idea of ​​coping politically with the effects of the religious upheaval by means of such a solution goes back to the Reformation ; the term itself was not used until the first half of the 18th century.

There was another normal year for the Holy Roman Empire in 1803 in the course of the French wars of conquest under Napoleon and the subsequent territorial changes, v. a. the eradication of spiritual territories through secularization . (See Reichsdeputationshauptschluss )

The year 1582 was also regarded as the normal year, because voting rights in the Imperial Council of Princes were later based on the ownership of the Diet of 1582.

literature

• Ralf-Peter Fuchs : A “Medium for Peace”. The normal year rule and the ending of the Thirty Years War. Oldenbourg, Munich 2010 (Library Altes Reich 4), ISBN 978-3-486-58789-0 .
• Waldemar Domke: The virile votes in the Imperial Council of Princes from 1495–1654. Koebner, Breslau 1882 ( Studies on the German State and Legal History , edited by Otto Gurke. XI.)