Protestantism and Defence of Liberties in the Austrian Lands under Ferdinand I

Abstract

The struggle between the estates of the Austrian hereditary lands (Erblande) and the sovereign for their rights and liberties reached its peak in the sixteenth century. A very important aspect of this struggle was the fact that the enormous cost of protecting the borders and repelling the Turks could not be entirely covered by the taxes paid by churches and monasteries. Consequently, the sovereign, whose demands were increasing steadily, was to a large extent dependent on the provincial estates, who had to grant Türkensteuer, or ‘Turk-tax’, and other forms of pecuniary aid.¹ The estates, on the other hand, endeavoured to defend their charters of liberty and to protect their rights of tax-granting and grievance. While the sovereign tried to fight the subversive movement in the Church, a majority of the estates was in favour of it. As a result the Protestant denomination became an important element in resistance to the crown. It acquired a constitutional dimension because the religious-ecclesiastical opposition and that of the estates joined together.² On the other hand, the Habsburgs’ fight against Protestantism was at the same time a struggle for maintenance of the sovereign’s power. Thus the latent danger of Ottoman raids seems to have favoured the alliance between nobility and Protestantism.³