Article XVII
[ . . . ] §2. [The Peace as Imperial Law.] (27) For the greater strength and security of these articles, the present treaty shall serve as a perpetual law and established sanction of the Empire to be inserted, like other fundamental laws and constitutions of the Empire, into the acts of the next Imperial Diet and into the emperor’s electoral capitulation. They shall bind no less the absent than the present, the ecclesiastics as well as the laity, whether Imperial estates or not. They shall be a prescribed rule to be followed for all time by the emperor’s councilors and officials, as well as those of other lords, also by all judges and officers of courts of justice.
§3. [Invulnerability of the Peace to Other Laws.] It never shall be alleged, allowed, or admitted that against this treaty and its clauses and articles, no challenge may be raised on the basis of any law, canon or civil law [ . . . ] or agreement, much less on that of the edict of 1629 (28) or the transaction of Prague (29) with its appendices or the concordats with the popes or the interims of the year 1548 (30) or any other temporal or ecclesiastical decree. [ . . . ] All exceptions, no matter what basis is alleged, shall equally be invalid. The same applies to all exceptions taken, no matter what they assert or allege. [ . . . ] [§4 provides that all violators of the treaty will be treated as breakers of the peace and prosecuted with the full force of the law.]
§5. [Universal Duty to Defend the Peace.] The peace herein concluded shall remain in force, and all parties in this transaction shall be obliged to defend and protect all and every article of this peace against everyone without distinction of religion. [ . . . ]
§6. [Redress for Injured Parties.] If, nevertheless, for the space of three years the differences cannot be terminated by any of these means, all and every one of those concerned in this treaty shall be obliged to aid the injured party with word and deed, once the party has demonstrated that peaceful means will be successful. [ . . . ]
§7. [Prohibition of the Use of Force of Arms to Settle Conflicts.] No Imperial estate shall be permitted to pursue its rights by force of arms. [ . . . ]
(27) Article XVII, §1 provides for ratification of the peace within eight weeks of its signing.
(28) The Edict of Restitution, 1629.
(29) The Peace of Prague, 1635.
(30) The so-called Interim issued by Emperor Charles V at the Diet of Augsburg in 1548.
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