Augsburg
An imperial city in southern Germany where the diets of the Holy Roman Empire met in 1530 and 1555. The Lutheran confession presented there and the religious peace concluded there both bear its name.
Augsburg lies on the river Lech in Bavaria. The emperor Charles V summoned the diet of the empire to meet there in 1530, and the Lutheran princes presented their confession to him in the city (Augsburg Confession Preface 1–8); see the Augsburg Confession. The diet of 1555 was moved to Augsburg, which its recess calls a city of the emperor, the king and the empire, and the recess containing the religious peace is dated there on 25 September 1555 (Peace of Augsburg § 2 and closing clause); see the Peace of Augsburg.
What happened here
- 25 June 1530, firm dateThe Augsburg Confession
At the Diet of Augsburg seven princes and two cities present the emperor Charles V with a statement of their faith in twenty-eight articles, drawn up by Philip Melanchthon. Lutheran princes and cities bind themselves to it again in the Book of Concord of 1580.
- 25 September 1555, firm dateThe Peace of Augsburg
The imperial diet at Augsburg makes a lasting peace between the estates of the old religion and those of the Augsburg Confession. Each estate keeps its religion in its own lands; subjects who dissent may emigrate; all other confessions are excluded.
- 31 October 1999, firm dateLutherans and Catholics Agree on Justification
At Augsburg the Lutheran World Federation and the Catholic Church confirm a joint declaration: they share a consensus in basic truths of the doctrine of justification, and the condemnations of the sixteenth century do not apply to the teaching it sets out. Differences remain.