§14. [Determining the Date for Ecclesiastical Lands of Imperial Subjects.] As to the ecclesiastical goods immediate to the Empire [ . . . ], whoever possessed them on January 1, 1624, whether they are Catholic estates or of the Augsburg Confession, the adherent of that religion shall possess them all, peaceably and without disturbance, until We have arrived, by the grace of God, at an agreement about the religious disputes. [ . . . ] And if the religious differences cannot be overcome, which God forbid, the present convention shall have the weight of a perpetual law, and the peace shall last forever.
§15. [Ecclesiastical Reservation.] (9) If a Catholic archbishop, bishop, or prelate, or an adherent of the Augsburg Confession who is chosen or postulated to be an archbishop, bishop, or prelate, should happen to change his religion (acting either alone or conjointly with his prebendaries and canons, whether one or more or altogether), or if any other ecclesiastics should change their religion in the future, they all shall immediately forfeit their right, though without damage to their honor or reputation, and shall without any delay or any challenge whatsoever relinquish the [offices’] possessions and revenues. Furthermore, the chapter or others who are legally entitled shall have the right to elect or request another person of the same religion to whom, by virtue of this act, the benefice shall belong. He shall, however, forsake the fruits and revenues which the archbishop, bishop, or prelate, etc., who changed his religion, received and consumed in the meantime. [ . . . ]
§25. [Benchmark for Ecclesiastical Lands not Immediate to the Empire.] [ . . . ] All mediate ecclesiastical properties,
[ . . . ] as well as the revenues and rights, however named, that the electors, princes, and estates of the Augsburg Confession possessed on January 1, 1624, shall be one and all possessed [ . . . ] until the religious differences are terminated by a general, amicable agreement. All claims to the contrary shall be ignored. [ . . . ]
§26. [Restoration of the Monasteries.] The Catholics shall likewise possess all the mediate monasteries, foundations, and colleges, which they actually possessed on January 1, 1624, even if such are situated in the lands and jurisdiction of estates adherent to the Augsburg Confession. Such properties shall not be transferred, however, to a religious order other than the one to which they were first donated. [ . . . ] In all the foundations, collegiate churches, monasteries, and hospitals where Catholics and those of the Augsburg Confession have lived among one another, they shall henceforth live in the same proportions that existed on January 1, 1624, and the exercise of religion shall remain the same as it was in each place in the said year and day, without disturbance from one side or the other. [ . . . ]
§28. [Religious Rights of Imperial Nobility.] With regard to the free and immediate nobles, (10) who collectively and individually hold [fiefs] immediately of the Empire, and each and all of their members, subjects, and feudal and allodial goods and possessions, [ . . . ] they shall, by virtue of the religious peace and the present agreement, have the same rights that the aforementioned electors, princes, and estates enjoy in matters of religion and the advantages arising therefrom. [ . . . ] Moreover, all who have been molested [in these rights] shall have them entirely restored. [ . . . ]
§31. [Toleration of Protestant Subjects.] Yet notwithstanding this rule, the vassals and subjects of the Catholic states that have had the public or private exercise of the religion of the Augsburg Confession in 1624 or any part of that year, either by a particular agreement and privilege, by long usage, or by the sole observance of the said religion only for that year, shall retain the same for the future with all the appurtenances and dependencies they have or can prove were possessed in the said year. [ . . . ]
(9) The Ecclesiastical Reservation, an addition by King Ferdinand I to the Religious Peace of 1555, had given rise to numerous disputes.
(10) That is, nobles who were immediate subjects of the emperor.
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