Cuius regio, eius religio
Cuius regio, eius religio is a
phrase in Latin that means "Whose rule, his
religion". In other words, the religion of the
king or other
ruler would be the religion of the people. The principle was as old as state
Christianity, established in
Armenia and later in the
Roman Empire by
Emperor Constantine.
In the
Protestant Reformation, the old principle was granted new life. It was the terminology used in the
Peace of Augsburg embodied in the treaty signed in
1555 between the forces of the
Holy Roman Emperor,
Charles V, and the forces of the
Schmalkaldic League, to determine the religious makeup of
Germany in a compromise between
Lutheran and
Catholic forces. The Peace offered imperial confirmation of the principle that had been promulgated in the
Confession of Augsburg in
1530. The principle of the
Augsburg Diet meant that the territorial princes and free cities gained the freedom to prescribe local
worship, the right to introduce the Lutheran faith (the
jus reformandi), and equal rights in the
Holy Roman Empire with Catholic states. No agreement was reached on the question of whether Catholic
bishops and
abbots who became Lutheran should lose their offices and incomes, until this provision had been inserted by imperial decree.
However, the ideal of individual
religious tolerance on a national level was not addressed: neither the Reformed nor Radical churches (
Anabaptists and
Calvinists being the prime examples) were protected under the peace. Many Protestant groups living under the rule of a Lutheran prince still found themselves in danger of the charge of
heresy. Tolerance was not officially extended to Calvinists until the
Treaty of Westphalia in
1648.
Long before the
16th century, disparities between an official public
cult espoused by the ruler and the private cult of the majority have had effects on the course of history. In
Visigothic Spain, the rulers and the bishops they appointed were
Arians, while most of the population had converted to Catholic Christianity in the 4th century. When
Muslim raiding parties came from
North Africa in the late
7th century, the Visigothic kingdoms crumbled swiftly. The disaffection of the population was a factor.
Similarly in 7th century
Syria, there was little loyalty to the emperor in
Constantinople, partly because of recent controversies over the nature of
Christ. Syrians were treated as heretics.
