Ferdinand II's Argument Of The Counter Reformation

The Counter-Reformation’s Adversarial Advocate

The religious conflicts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, ignited by the Protestant Reformation and culminating in the Thirty Years War, (1618-1648) permanently shifted the power structure of Europe. A member of the Hapsburg dynasty, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (1578-1637) was likewise fanatical in his Catholic beliefs, willing to stop at nothing to eradicate the heresy of Protestantism. What Ferdinand considered to be his greatest achievement, the Edict of Restitution in which the empire banned Calvinism as well as asserted that all converted ecclesiastical lands were to be recatholocized, captured the essence of the counter-reformation: compromise, both religious and political,

Ferdinand II’s Edict of Restitution was both the greatest success and the greatest blunder of the Catholic cause, because while its rigid enforcement of Catholicism epitomized the goal of the reformation, it was that same refusal to compromise on religion as a political matter that ultimately lead to the defeat of the Holy Roman Empire in the Thirty Years War. Protestantism had been slowly spreading throughout Europe, much to the dismay of the Catholic Church. This sparked what would become known as the counter-reformation, in which the Papacy and other leaders attempted to re-catholicize Europe. What many refer to as the heart of the counter-reformation, The Council of Trent was held in three parts from 1545-1563 in an attempt to supposedly reevaluate all doctrines of the Catholic faith (Encyclopedia

Yet, because this edict combined his religious and political agendas, the counter-reformation’s inability to compromise on religious doctrine made it impossible for Ferdinand to find political compromises as well: “Basing his policies chiefly on religious principles, he suffered from discrepancies between his religious goals and the maxims of a modern raison d’état” (Sturmberger). Such was the case with the assumed victorious Edict of Restitution which in reality “alienated Protestant states hitherto loyal to the emperor”(Encyclopedia of the Early Modern World). Specifically, in protest of the Edict, the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg refused to attend the Electoral Convention in which Ferdinand’s son was to to be elected King of Rome. The goal of this convention was also to establish peace within Europe; yet, because of Ferdinand’s religious fanaticism, he refused to compromise on the Edict. To express their grievances, Saxony assembled a conference with the other Protestant states within the empire. This deeply worried Ferdinand, but still he could not bring himself to revoke the Edict. This later proved to be a horrific mistake: “Had Ferdinand and Maximilian been able to bring themselves to compromise of the Edict, they probably would have been able to keep the allegiance of the two Protestant electors… but that