Augsburg Interim

Augsburg Interim, temporary doctrinal agreement between German Catholics and Protestants, proclaimed in May 1548 at the Diet of Augsburg (1547–48), which became imperial law on June 30, 1548. It was prepared and accepted at the insistence of the Holy Roman emperor Charles V, who hoped to establish temporary religious unity in Germany until differences could be worked out in a general council of the Catholic Church.

Consisting of 26 articles, the Augsburg Interim primarily reflected a Catholic viewpoint. It did, however, allow clerical marriage and communion in both kinds (bread and wine) for the laity.

Several Protestant electors objected to the Catholic emphasis of the Augsburg Interim and refused to abide by it. Charles attempted to force its acceptance, an action that led the Protestants to adopt the Leipzig Interim, which upheld Protestant doctrines, at the Diet of Leipzig in December 1548. Neither interim was fully accepted, and a German religious settlement was not brought about until the Peace of Augsburg (1555).