RYSWICK, ris'wic, CLAUSE: A stipulation introduced by the French representative into the peace of Ryswick. The French had installed Roman Catholic worship and diverted Evangelical church properties to Roman Catholic use in many German places of which Louis XIV. had taken possession under pretext of the reunion of Nimeguen (1679). These were now to be restored by the peace of Ryswick. The final draft was already being prepared when shortly before midnight of Oct. 29 1697 the French representative insisted upon adding to the fourth article the clause, "nevertheless the Roman Catholic religion shall remain in the same status in which it now is in the places so restored"; and he threatened that the French king would break off negotiations immediately and resume the war against those offering impediments. The representatives of the emperor and the Roman Catholic estates, the imperial deputation, and the delegates of Wurttemberg, of the counts of Wetterau, and the imperial city of Frankfort attached their signatures; and for want of a vigorous support from the English and Dutch representatives and the Swedish mediator, the remonstrances of the remaining Evangelicals were in vain. The emperor, however, unconditionally ratified the peace, and thus the diet consented that the matter should rest, although 1,922 places were affected by a change of their religious relation. Specially, the Elector Palatinate Johann Wilhelm, under Jesuitic influence, employed the clause for despoiling the Evangelicals.

(C. T. G. von SCHEURL.)

BIBLIOGRAPHY: J. S. Patter Historiwhe Entwickelung der heutigen Staateverfaacunp des deutachen Reicha, ii. 300 sqq., Gottingen, 1787; J. C. Neuhaus, Der Friede von Ryawick und die Abtretunp Straaaburpa an Frankreich 1897, Freiburg, 1874. The background in the other treaties men tiond is given in brief in Cambridge Modern History, vol. v. passim, New York, 1908.