INTERIM: The name of three provisional and temporary arrangements between the Protestants of Germany and the Roman Catholic Church in the time of the Reformation, intended to be valid only for the interval pending a final settlement of religious differences by a general council (whence the name, from Lat. interim, "meanwhile").
1. The Regensburg Interim: The outcome of the Conference of Regensburg in 1541. See REGENBBURG, CONFERENCE OF.
2. The Augsburg Interim: Adopted at the diet at Augsburg June 30, 1548. After the Schmalkald War, Charles V. thought of reestablishing religious unity in Germany; and at the diet in session in Augsburg in 1547 it was agreed that a provisional arrangement should be made until the Council of Trent had completed its work. In Feb., 1548, Charles chose a commission from both communions to devise an arrangement; this commission could not reach an agreement, and several states proposed that the matter be turned over to the theologians. Consequently, at the command of the emperor, Julius Pflug, bishop of Naumburg, Michael Helding, suffragan bishop of Mainz, and Johann Agricola, court preacher to the elector of Brandenburg, prepared a draft, which was then revised by certain Spanish monks and was secretly submitted by the emperor to the Protestant electors and prominent Roman Catholics of the empire. In twenty-six articles it treated of man before and after the fall (i.-ii.), of redemption through Christ (iii.), of justification (iv.-vi.), of love and good works (vii.), of forgiveness of sins (viii.), of the Church (ix.-xii.), of bishops (xiii.), of the sacraments (xiv.-xxi.), of the sacrifice of the mass (xxii.), of the saints (xxiii.), of the commemoration of the dead (xxiv.), of the communion at the mass (xxv.), and of the ceremonies
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At the diet at Augsburg in 1550-51 the majority of the estates advocated the continuation of the Council of Trent and urged the emperor to compel Protestants to accept the Interim. When the imperial invitation to the council arrived in Dresden, Maurice began negotiations with the Protestant estates concerning a general agreement. In Dessau Melanchthon with Prince George of Anhalt drew up the so-called Saxon Confession, which was approved by Maurice, Hans of Küstrin, the dukes of Mecklenburg and Pomerania, and others. It was proposed that certain Saxon theologians should go to Trent under safe protection and defend the pure doctrine. In Jan., 1552, Melanchthon, with two others, started on the journey and got as far as Augsburg; but in March they were called back because the war against the emperor began. The expedition of Maurice to South Germany occasioned the suspension of the Council of Trent. The Treaty of Passau annihilated the Interim and led to the Religious Peace of Augsburg (q.v.).
BIBLIOGRAPHY: G. Beutel, Ueber den Ursprung des Augsburger Interims, Dresden, 1888; G. P. Fisher, The Reformation, pp. 165-214, New York, 1873; A. von Druffel, Briefe und Akten zur Geschichte des 16. Jahrhunderts, iii. 42 sqq, Munich, 1882; C. Beard, The Reformation, pp. 109, 243, 210, London, 1883; F. von Bezold, Geschichte der deutschen Reformation, pp. 805-808, Berlin, 1890; S. Issleib, in Neues Archiv für sächsische Geschichte, xiii, 188 sqq., xv. 193 sqq, Dresden, 1892-94; idem, Moritz von Sachsen, pp. 189-213, Leipsic,1907; W. Walker, The Reformation, pp. 207-208, 218. New York, 1900; J. Babington, The Reformation, pp. 113-114, London, 1901; Cambridge Modern History, The Reformation, pp. 264-266, New York, 1904.
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