CHAPTER FIVE MAKING THE BI-CONFESSIONAL CITY: POLITICAL ENCOUNTERS A mutiny might have arisen, and the community might have struck the council dead!1 In the late 1540s tensions flared when Schmalkaldic War ended Augsburg’s decade-long experiment with religious uniformity. In 1537 a reforming council had attempted to silence debate and controversy in the city by establishing a new religious order, but its fall revealed the vulnerability of the city’s policy. In 1536, a year before issuing the new church ordinance, Augsburg had joined the Schmalkaldic League of Protestant princes and cities.2 After years of hesitating, this decision had signaled the council’s readiness to support reform openly. Persuaded by infl uential leaders Georg Herwart and Jakob Herbrot, Augsburg made the fateful decision to side with the Protestant princes against the emperor when war broke out in 1546.3 One of the city’s great mercenary generals, Captain Schertlin von Burtenbach, served with Philip of Hesse in the war. After a few initial victories, the Schmalkal- dic League was strategically weakened when Duke Moritz of Saxony, a Lutheran, invaded the lands of one of its leaders, his cousin, Elec- tor Johann Friedrich. On 24 April 1547, Charles V defeated Johann Friedrich at Mühlberg, and Philip of Hesse soon capitulated as well. They, and other members of the league, such as Augsburg, faced the consequences of rebellion. In the fall of 1547 Charles convened an imperial diet in Augsburg to assert his authority and consolidate his victory with a resolution of the religious divisions in his empire. The Diet of Augsburg caused a signifi cant transformation in the political and religious history of the city of Augsburg. The eight-year 1 “Darumb mocht ainmall ain meutterey entsteen, unnd die gemaind ain Rat zu todt schlagen,” StadtAA, Reichsstadt, Strafbuch, 16 April 1547. 2 The League of Schmalkalden was founded in 1530 by signers of the Augsburg Confession for mutual support in case the emperor took action against any of the members. 3 Georg Herwart, one of the mayors, and Jakob Herbrot, the Furriers’ guildmaster, were both avid Zwinglians, and Jakob Herbrot had important business connections to the league’s leading members, Philip of Hesse and Ottheinrich of the Palatinate. 140 chapter five period between the imperial diets of 1547 and 1555 comprises not only a transition but a time of great upheaval in the life of Augsburg’s citi- zens. It marked the removal of the centuries-old guild organization from civic government and the return of the Catholic clergy and Catholic ceremonies to the city after a decade of exile. Once again the old and new faiths were practiced openly side by side, but imperial intervention in the city’s government now made it diffi cult for Protestants to view Catholics without suspicion or resentment. Guild members resented the loss of their political representation and infl uence in city government at the hands of the emperor. Consequently, the city began a new era as a de facto bi-confessional city. These changes caused a great deal of consternation amongst the populace, as familiar institutions and practices were threatened, and some even disappeared. Augsburg’s new government oversaw a city in turmoil after the war and in doubt about its religious future. In the fall of 1547, the emperor and estates gathered in Augsburg to address once more the religious confl ict that had been plaguing the empire’s German lands for the last three decades. The diet established a provisional peace agreement, which became known as the Augsburg Interim. Among other things, the diet implemented a new statement of faith, which all Protestants in the empire were supposed to obey. It included a few concessions, such as clerical marriage and communion in two forms, but not enough to please most evangelical reformers. It was too close to Catholicism to please the Protestants, but not close enough to satisfy followers of the old church. Since the Interim was only intended as a temporary settlement for Protestants, and Catholics did not have to follow the new statement of faith, the Interim did not lead to any sort of reconciliation or unifi cation in the empire or the city of Augsburg. The Interim delegated that task to the Council of Trent, which met intermittently from 1545 to 1563. Before leaving Augsburg in 1548, Charles V turned his attention to the cities who had supported his opponents in the Schmalkaldic War. Along with hefty indemnities, the emperor determined to impose consti- tutional changes on the cities’ governments. An opportunity like this for close imperial scrutiny was just what Augsburg’s magistrates had feared and why they had hoped to avoid hosting an imperial diet ever since they reformed the city in 1537.4 Augsburg, home to wealthy fi nanciers, 4 See Roth, Augsburgs Reformationsgeschichte, vol. 3, Chapter Two, especially 42..