The Peace of Westphalia

The negotiations that produce the Peace of Westphalia take four years. Delegations from every European power — over one hundred of them — gather in the Westphalian cities of Münster and Osnabrück, in separate chambers because Catholics and Protestants will not meet in the same room.

The documents signed on October 24, 1648 are among the most consequential in the history of international law. They end the Thirty Years War in Germany and the Eighty Years War between Spain and the Netherlands simultaneously. They establish the principle of state sovereignty that underlies modern international relations. They settle the religious question — in a messy, unsatisfying, but durable way — by confirming the principle established at Augsburg in 1555: each ruler determines the religion of their territory, with provisions for religious minorities.

The principle does not create religious liberty. It creates religious coexistence — a somewhat lower bar. Catholics and Protestants are allowed to exist in the same empire under different rulers. They are not required to convert or leave.

The wars of religion that began with Luther in 1517 end, essentially, here. They end not with one side winning but with exhaustion — with the slow recognition that the attempt to achieve religious uniformity by force has cost more than it is worth.

Europe will find other things to fight about. But it will not again fight wars primarily about whether the Mass is a sacrifice or a memorial.

Complete and mutual amnesty and oblivion of everything that has been done since the beginning of the troubles.

This is not forgiveness in the Christian sense — it is a political agreement not to prosecute further claims. But it has the shape of forgiveness: the decision to stop accounting, to release the accumulated grievances, to declare that the cost of continued conflict exceeds the value of continued justice.

The wars of religion ended not because someone won and someone lost but because both sides got tired of paying the price. Exhaustion is not the best motivation for peace. But it is sometimes the only one that works.

Peace of Westphalia was not ideal. It was possible. And possible peace is better than impossible justice.

What conflict in your life or community is being sustained by the refusal to declare a mutual amnesty? And what would it cost you to stop accounting?