Page "Thirty Years' War" Paragraph 16

In the Cologne War, Spanish troops expelled the former prince-archbishop and replaced him with Ernst of Bavaria, a Roman Catholic.

After this success, the Catholics regained pace, and the principle of cuius regio, eius religio began to be exerted more strictly in Bavaria, Würzburg and other states.

This forced Lutheran residents to choose between conversion or exile.

Lutherans also witnessed the defection of the lords of the Palatinate ( 1560 ), Nassau ( 1578 ), Hesse-Kassel ( 1603 ) and Brandenburg ( 1613 ) to the new Calvinist faith.

Thus, at the beginning of the 17th century, the Rhine lands and those south to the Danube were largely Catholic, while Lutherans predominated in the north, and Calvinists dominated in certain other areas, such as west-central Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

However, minorities of each creed existed almost everywhere.

In some lordships and cities, the number of Calvinists, Catholics, and Lutherans were approximately equal.