§51. [Resettlement of Belligerents.] Finally, each and every military officer and soldier, counselor and official, civil and ecclesiastical, of whatever title and condition, who have engaged themselves on either side to fight with sword or pen for them or their allies and adherents [ . . . ] shall be resettled, as regards their persons and their goods, in the same state of life, reputation and honor, conscience and liberty, rights and privileges they enjoyed or could have enjoyed before the said hostilities. [ . . . ] All of this shall apply equally to those who are not subjects or vassals of his Imperial Majesty or of the House of Austria. (8)
§52. [Amnesty for Austrian Subjects.] Those who are hereditary subjects and vassals to the emperor and the House of Austria shall truly enjoy the same amnesty as to their persons, life, honor, and conscience, and they shall have liberty to return to their homelands on the condition that they behave according to the laws in use in the said kingdoms and provinces.
§53. [Restoration of Confiscated Properties.] As to what concerns their properties, if they have been lost by confiscation, or in any other manner, before [the owners] declared for Sweden or France [ . . . ], those properties shall remain lost and confiscated for the benefit of their current possessors.
Article V
[Regulation of Confessional Relations.] Now, whereas the grievances that have arisen among the electors, princes, and estates of the Empire, whether of one confession or the other, have mainly been the cause and occasion of the present war, the following is agreed to and settled:
§1. [Treaty of Passau 1552 and Religious Peace of Augsburg 1555.] The treaty signed at Passau in 1552 and the Religious Peace [of Augsburg], which followed in 1555, the articles of which were unanimously accepted and approved [in 1566, etc.] by the emperor and the electors, princes, and estates of both religions, shall be faithfully and inviolably observed in all their points and articles.
[Contested Articles of the Religious Peace.] Whatever this treaty says, based on a common decision by the [confessional] parties, about formerly contested articles shall be regarded, both in the courts and elsewhere, as a permanent explanation of the Religious Peace until the day when, through God’s grace, an agreement about religion is established. Any challenge or protest raised at any time by anyone, be he clergyman or layman, whether within or outside the Empire, shall be declared by the force of this present treaty to be null and void.
[Equality of Religions among Imperial Estates.] In all other matters, there shall be a precise and mutual equality among the electors, princes, and estates of both religions, to the degree that this provision conforms to the Empire’s constitution, the Imperial laws, and this treaty. [ . . . ] On this basis, all violence and force between the two [confessional] parties is forever forbidden.
§2. [Determining the Date for Ecclesiastical Restitutions.] The determining date of restitution for ecclesiastical affairs and for political changes with regard to such affairs shall be the 1st day of January 1624. [ . . . ]
§3. [Imperial Parity Cities.] The cities of Augsburg, Dinkelsbühl, Biberach, and Ravensburg shall retain the goods, rights, and exercise of religion, which they had on the said day and year. But with regard to the dignities of senators and other public offices, they shall be divided equally among adherents of the two religions. [ . . . ]
(8) Habsburgs.
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