ABSTRACT
The elector’s conversion mandate (Religionspatent), the key document of the recatholicisation, was issued on 27 April 1628, two months after the emperor had ceded the Upper Palatinate to Maximilian. It listed the measures that had already been taken to restore the ‘holy and exclusivelysaving Catholic faith’: the expulsion of Protestant clergy and their replacement by Catholics, the restoration of ‘ancient church usages and ceremonies’, the abolition of the Calvinist Kirchenrat, the publication of the new calendar and the confiscation of non-Catholic books. Since, however, the elector had detected a reluctance to convert, he had now decided on stronger measures. The population was consequently given a period of six months in which to convert to the Roman faith. Those failing
to meet the deadline would be required to emigrate and ‘seek a living elsewhere’.2 They could take their goods with them but were required to pay the Nachsteuer, a tax of 10 per cent on their property.3
