Our examination of the constitutional situations facing both hosts and migrants presents four main conclusions. First, in each, the migrants developed strategies to secure their survival based on how the logic of the imperial constitution applied locally. Making this work required a combination of skillful argument, discreet connivance, and cultivation of political allies. Second, the ambiguity of the Peace of Augsburg left substantial avenues for Reformed Protestants to find a home in the Holy Roman Empire. While considerable scholarship has maintained that “Calvinism” was excluded from the Peace, Reformed Protestants often leveraged the various ambiguities in the interpretation of imperial law to their advantage. Third, support from the Electoral Palatinate proved critical for the Dutch Reformed to find safety in any of these communities.
1 For another example of how Friedrich’s patronage protected Reformed Protestants, Blum, Multikonfessionalität im Alltag, 57–93. Electoral patronage worked most explicitly in Frankenthal, where the migrants had written permission from Friedrich III to build a Reformed colony. The elector also frequently intervened on behalf of Reformed Netherlanders in Frankfurt, Cologne, Aachen, and in the duchy of Cleves. And his muddying of the constitutional waters surrounding how to interpret the Peace of Augsburg also enabled creative applications of the law that, in several instances, allowed Dutch Reformed to argue that imperial law protected their faith. Lastly, more institutional steps between imperial immediacy (
Reichsunmittelbarkeit) and the Reformed migrants meant more opportunities to interpret the Peace of Augsburg in ways that permitted Reformed Netherlanders to find political cover for their stay in the Holy Roman Empire.