Protestantism In Germany From the Augsburg Confession to the Peace of Passau

now extended, in an almost unbroken line, from the
shores of the Baltic to the banks of the Rhine.
The whole of Central and Northern Germany
was now Protestant. On the side of the old faith
there remained only Austria, Bavaria, the
Palatinate, and the ecclesiastical principalities of
the Rhine. Nor did it seem that these States would
long be able to resist the advances of Protestantism.
In all of them a religious movement was already on
foot, and if peace should be prolonged for a few
years they would, in all likelihood, be permanently
added to the side of the Reform. On the 13th of
December, 1541, a petition was presented to
Ferdinand, in the name of the nobility and States of
Austria, praying for the free exercise of religion.[6]
The petition was signed by twenty-four nobles and
ten cities, among which was Vienna.
The neighboring provinces of Styria and
Carniola joined in the request for freedom of
conscience. Referring to the miseries of their times,
the wars, pestilences, and famines which these
sixteen years had witnessed, and the desolations
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