The reigning mood was not one of euphoria in Osnabrück when, on October 25 [th], 1648, peace was announced. [1] Though the event was officially celebrated, residents knew that the signing of the peace treaty in no way signified that the town's fate had been decided. It did have one significant and very practical consequence: the closing of the episcopal fortress and residence in the northwest part of the town accelerated, the departures taking on almost parade-like dimensions in their speed. The town reacted to peace with a declaration of war on the old and new princes.

Osnabrück was not just the site of peace negotiations. The town was also the object of dispute, as the diocese of Osnabrück as a whole belonged on the order of negotiations. In the town itself, therefore, it was not only the numerous envoys who were involved in this process, but also the representatives of the landed estates of the diocese of Osnabrück. The peace congress found itself meeting in an inflamed atmosphere that was also fanned by local unrest. The congress took place in a town fighting for its political independence, as well as fearing for its confessional future. How did it come to this situation?



I. Osnabrück at the Beginning of the Thirty Years' War

The town of Osnabrück, which boasted 6-8,000 inhabitants before the Thirty Years' War, was an economic and political center of the princely bishopric of Osnabrück. [2] Even after the Osnabrück bishops left the town in the Middle Ages to move their residences to Iburg or Fürstenau, they did not turn their backs entirely on Osnabrück . When the chancellery decided to form a standing royal episcopal administration, it was seated in Osnabrück. Its location at the intersection between the catherdral and the Church of Mary enabled it to join together these two most important poles of power of the princely bishopric.

Since the 12 [th] Cenutry, Osnabrück had been on its way to attaining increasing independence from the episcopal princes. Attempts in the 15 [th] Century to influence the selection of bishops, though, could be fended off by the cathedral chapter, which closed itself off to the bourgeoisie by virtue of a 16-fold proof of nobility - much like the knighthood. [3] The town's autonomy had been guaranteed by a 1348 statute, which in principle remained valid until the end of the Old Regime. Since the last part of the Middle Ages, the old, inactive council and the representatives of the guilds and militia formed the estates without which almost no important decisions could be made.

In this way, the artisanery of the town, organized in eleven guilds, participated in the running of the town. Osnabrück belonged to the Hanseatic League, but it could not be considered a town that dealt much in distant commerce. It was linked economically and politically to the Westphalian Hanseatic cities, but it only dominated economically in the local region. The Osnabrück Legge was important outside of the immediate region; weaving was the leading town trade; and linen remained the prime export product of the town's merchants. The comment made by the peace legation that Osnabrück seemed to be a town shaped by agriculture was in no way exaggerated. Agriculture remained a pillar of the town's economy, a fact the council meetings had to take into consideration. Residents organized pasture farming along co-operatives outside the gates of the town.

Osnabrück had been a primarily Lutheran town since the Reformation, which had been introduced to the town and diocese in 1543 by the prince-bishop Franz von Waldeck through Hermann Bonnus. [4] In 1548 the Reformation was invalidated in the princely bishopric, causing a state of constant confessional uncertainty that lasted into the Thirty Year's War and affected even the catherdral chapter up until the end of the 16 [th] Century. Nevertheless, the majority of the population clung to the new faith. Catholicism remained present in the town with the cathedral parish and the collegiate church parish of St. John, as well as with the Dominican monastery and the Order of St. Clare convent, but Lutheran teachings - in contrast to the rest of the princely bishopric - remained secure through a church council.

The cathedral chapter preferred to choose Evangelical prince-bishops out of tactical considerations. These, in spite of their weakening through lack of papal and imperial support, knew to work on the expansion of their territory, and they also understood the need to prevent the country from becoming directly involved in the Dutch-Spanish conflict.

At the end of the century, though, the confessional oppostions increased even in Osnabrück. The Gymnasium (upper secondary school), administered until that time by both the town and cathedral chapter, dismissed its evangelical teachers. The consequent founding of a council Gymnasium then presented competition and controversy. A fraction of the cathedral chapter pushed for recatholicization. But the imposing figure of the prince-bishop Philipp Sigismund von Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, who was also admired by the Catholics of his bishopric, managed to smooth over the oppositions. [5] He also ensured that the threat of the approaching war did not encroach directly on Osnabrück. With his death in 1623, it became clear that these times of painstakingly maintained confessional tolerance were finally over even in Osnabrück.



II. Osnabrück under Catholic Prince-bishops

The elections of both of the succeeding Catholic bishops Eitel Friedrich von Hohenzollern and Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg took place under the pressure of the events of the war. [6] The cathedral chapter had to ward off external influences on the election, even though only Catholic candidates now came into question. But both bishops were dependent upon the military successes of the Hanseatic League. The town itself followed a policy of defense. It called for neutrality and especially for the official regulation of confessional relations. The threat of the billeting of League and Protestant troops was dealt with by money payments; the fortification was hastily expanded as best could be accomplished; even some mercenaries were enlisted.

Hopes that it would be possible to live with both Catholic bishops as had been previously done proved impossible. The cathedral chapter refused the mostly Lutheran knights as well as the town the confirmation of their privileges after the election capitulation. Eitel Friedrich von Hohenzollern, in his own best interests, nipped the attempts of the town to demand the confirmation and expansion of its privileges from the Emperior in the bud. With the bishop came the Jesuits to the town in 1624. The calendar reform also had to be accepted by the council. A recatholicization of the Lutheran parish churches in the town did not succeed, in opposition to the country parishes.

These latter ones were subject to Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg. His election in October 1625 was followed by a Danish siege of the town, during which the Danes managed to abduct two cathedral lords under dubious circumstances. The fact that the town claimed neutrality even towards the Danish military, thereby outwardly preserving solidarity with the cathedral chapter and the knights, meant little. The members of the cathedral chapter left the town to meet the new bishop, with whom they - accompanied by League troops - returned for the coming of the new year in 1627/28.

The arrival of Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg in Osnabrück on March 12 [th], 1628 had a different character than that of his predecessor's arrival. The Wittelbach descendant, educated by Jesuits, did not let himself be intimidated by the chartered rights of the town. Residents were disarmed, and troops were placed in the town. The bishop proceeded ruthlessly to recatholicize the town, using violence. He installed Franciscans in the discalced monastery that had been dissolved by the Reformation, and successfully founded a Jesuit university in the Augustinian monastery. The evangelical council Gymnaisum was closed. And for the meeting of the council on the traditional Handgiftentag (January 2 [nd]), the day of elections and swearing-in of the new council, Franz Wilhelm interfered, forcing the appointment of a council sympathetic to him. In May 1628 he began the construction of Petersburg [7] in the southeast part of the town, an episcopal fortress from which the town would be ruled and which would also contain the residential palace.

Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg accepted as the price of his policies that a not inconsiderable number of wealthy Protestant families left town. In 1629 more than 100 families had turned their backs on Osnabrück. The preachers had already left. In spite of measures like tax exemption for Catholics, a turn-around in confessional relations did not happen immediately. In 1629 there were 255 Catholic households in the town. 138 Evangelical households were so impoverished that they were insolvent. [8] The rest of the population carried the tax burden for a time, including the costs of the billeted League troops. Nevertheless, the majority of the population remained Evangelical. The Osnabrück cobbler Bellinckhausen masterfully chronicled these dramatic years [9], spreading scorn and ridicule at the ruling Catholics throughout the town.



III. Osnabrück under Swedish Rule

Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg stayed just barely more than six years to change the relations in his capital and residential town. In 1632 he opened the Charles University, though not quite structurally completed, at great expense. [10 ]The defeat of the League by Oldendorf on the Weser River in June 1633 changed the situation quickly in Osnabrück. When Swedish troops appeared on August 13 [th],1633 at the town, the bishop had already left. For the first and only time, Osnabrück was purposefully aimed at and besieged at length. The attack of the Swedes occurred in the northwest part of the town, where the ground was not muddy and troops could approach under the cover of the town walls. The siege did not cause serious damage. On September 12 [th], 1633 the town was surrendered by the Imperial party, who had retreated to the Petersburg fortress, from which they finally capitulated on October 5 [th].

With this began an almost 10-year Swedish occupation, [11] under which the residents' conditions were not better than before. Where before the town had had to pay the League Graf Anholt 39,000 Thaler in 1623 in the unfulfilled hope of acquiring the help of the knights and cathedral chapter, now it had to pay 40,000 Thaler from a total of 60,000 Thaler to the Swedes for protection of the town. Whereas the knights still did not have to release any funds, the cathedral chapter contributed 20,000 Thaler, which caused the cathedral treasury to dwindle away. Furthermore, the town had to accommodate and feed a Swedish garrison of 600 soldiers. Still, with this new situation, the religious oppression was over for the majority of the residents. The expelled councilors and Evangelical preachers were called back, although not all could or wanted to respond to this call. The Evangelical Gymnasium was called into life for the third time in nine decades, and the calendar reform was annulled. For the most part, no persecutions of Catholic residents occurred. There were isolated incidents of transgressions against Jesuits and Franciscans, who soon left the town. This was also the case for most members of the cathedral cathedral. The Catholic holdings in the town from 1623 remained generally protected under Swedish rule.

The ruling of the diocese Osnabrück, as well as over the town, was turned over to Gustav Adolf's illegitimate son, Gustav Gustavson, who received homage from the estates in Osnabrück the end of January 1634. Since Gustavson remained almost exclusively in the Swedish army until 1639, the administration of the government lay in the hands of his steward and councilors. A small war developed between these people and the dominating Protestant residents about the billeting, forced contributions to the military, and working on fortifications. These tensions were sharpened by the fact that the Swedish side increasingly showed tolerance towards the Catholics in the town. Additionally, the cathedral chapter was largely exempted from the contributions and billeting, and Gustavson even restored the strategically important Benedictine convent located on the Gertrudenberg in front of the town. The most important issue for the council, though, was to rescue what remained of the town's autonomy, damaged through the presence of the Swedish garrison.

On Handgiftentag 1636, during a time when Imperial troops again stood unsuccessfully before the town, Wilhelm Pelzer was elected mayor of Osnabrück. He seemed to be up to the task. A trained lawyer and experienced syndic, he belonged to those emigrants who had returned to the town in 1633. The decision to elect Pelzer was also a decision against Albert Modemann, who had reigned since 1633. He, too, was a trained lawyer and had also emigrated during the Wartenberg phase. The struggle for power between the two was one of the main reasons for the onset of the second big wave of witch hunting in Osnabrück. [12]

As early as the second half of the 16 [th] Century, a large number of women had been executed under the mayorship of Rudolf Hammacher. There had not been any concrete political reasons. These were rather the results of an uncertain atmosphere in a town divided by confessions and hard-hit by the plague. Pelzer aimed his policies of persecution at his political rival Modemann, whose mother - along with other women of the town's upper classes - became a victim of the flood of trials. Since Modemann had in the meanwhile become Gustavson's councilor, and with this a representative for the sovereignty, the conflict quickly moved to a higher political level. This had disastrous consequences for numerous women in the town: Through the witch trials, the town's privileges against absolutist attempts by the sovereign to interfere were defended, which had moreover only ever been honored with reservations. When Gustavson personally took over the government administration in 1639, the dispute culminated. Against the wishes of the delegates, Pelzer had to leave in 1640 under furious threats from Gustavson. The mood was divided in the town. Large parts of the population approved of the trials, since this time the upper classes were affected as well. In particular, the evangelical preachers of the parish church St. Mary turned against the persecutions and even accepted the temporary closing of their churches. It can only be attributed to Gustavson's threats that the ever-popular Pelzer was not given the still vacant position of town syndic in 1641. The new reigning mayor Meyer, who took over Pelzer's position, was little more than a pawn of the diverging interests in the town.

The mood in Osnabrück was therefore very tense when, on Christmas 1641, the peace preliminaries in Hamburg named Osnabrück along with Münster as the congress sites for the peace negotiations. The complicated constitutional ordinances, which reflected the social oppositions of the town, put the town's political situation in times of crisis in a difficult situation - in fact, brought political decisions almost to a stand-still. This affected the Catholic council between 1629 and 1633 as well as the Protestant council in the remaining years. The estates' refusals to cooperate especially damaged the town's financial policy. The town was deep in debt, not so much to its own residents, but to near and distant regions. This endangered the merchants' trade in the town and also their ability to remain in the town. The town also lost more of its population during the Swedish period. The extent to which this occurred has yet to be researched.



IV. Osnabrück during the Peace Negotiations [13]

The council and residents looked to the peace negotiations with increasing hope, because the town's relationship with the Swedish military was worsening visibly. In view of the forthcoming neutralization and the accompanying withdrawal of the Swedish troops out of the Hanseatic town, the willingness to accept billeting and forced contributions was rapidly disintegrating. As the starting date for the congress neared and more inquiries for lodgings during the congress reached the town, the Osanbrückers became increasingly self-confident. No more did they allow themselves to be intimidated by the martialist threats of Gustavson, who warned that the town might follow Magdeburg's fate. Instead the new syndic Böger was sent to negotiate in Stockholm and to seek out contact with the Swedish peace legates.

The tactic of driving a wedge between the Swedish military and Swedish diplomacy was successful. Johann Salvius, lured from the council with bribes, interceded in favor of the town. When the imperial representative Johann Krane freed Osnabrück from the oath to the emperor and bishop for the period of the congress, the Swedish military still threatened the town with the forced collection of debts. But even Gustavson had to bow to the circumstances and left the town. Osnabrück was now freer than it had ever been before. The town possessed military sovereignty again, even acquiring the much-hated episcopalian Petersburg fortress.

In spite of these successes, the structural problems had not yet been solved. With the departure of the Swedish troops, the desire to pay taxes sank to a new low among residents. The much-needed sums that would enable the town to greet the legates with gifts could not be rounded up. The morale of the town's guards was also low. And yet it was the responsibility of the town to guarantee the town's neutrality, thereby ensuring the safety of the legates. Threats by the council, and later from the legates, did not change anything in this drama, which had resulted from years of problems. Neither fines nor prison sentences solved the problem.

Osnabrück was quite aware of the fact that it did not fulfill the necessary qualifications for hosting a congress of such importance. The only printing house had been closed. Attempts in 1643 to convince Petrus Lucius of Rinteln to open a printing house in Osnabrück failed. Some of the legates arriving from the South found the stay in the Westphalian congress towns to be a bit of an affront. Their complaints would have most likely been aimed at the climate, since the hygiene situation would not have been atypical. Not that Osnabrück didn't have its filthy corners. The Neuer Graben ("new ditch"), the standing water between the old and new parts of the town, was probably a sewer. And it took until November 16 [th], 1647 for the council to respond to the probably numerous complaints of the legates to arrange for some sort of refuge disposal that would clean up the dung heaps every Saturday. But was it perhaps even more embarrassing that the new town hall still did not have a roof in the fall of 1645, when negotiations had begun?

The problem of continuing denunciations of witches was dealt with more explicitly. When in 1647 two boys were arrested on suspicion of witchery, followed by a judicial process including the bringing in of an expert opinion from the University of Rinteln, the council was able to realize in time what sort of a stir a witch trial would create among the legates. If the council was successful in this area, it still had to accept that the estates knew how to control the still-present wealthy upper classes: various attempts to relax the strict marriage ordinances of the town failed, and at one point the serving of the better beer of Minden was temporarily forbidden. These were everything but convivial times!

The congress itself created fewer problems than might be assumed, especially if one takes into account the quick rise of the number of persons living in Osnabrück. When in 1649 the town of Augsburg asked Osnabrück about its experience as a congress town, since Augsburg was being considered as a site for the negotiations between France and Spain, the following comments were noted: First, additional guards had not needed to be engaged, since residents had been used for this purpose. Second, the imperial, royal, electoral and other special legates had been greeted by the council members with a number of armed residents at the town gate, who welcomed them with salvoes from muskets and canons. Third, the legates' quarters had been paid for by the legates under supervision of the council, and no complaints had been made. Fourth, the most important legates, especially those hoped to be able to offer support during the negotiations, were treated to wine, fish, and other niceties. And fifth, fortunately no significant criminal offences from the ranks of the legates had been reported. Minor incidents, usually committed at night by servants or relatives of the legates, had been dealt with by seizing the wrong-doers and then allowing them to be punished by the legates themselves.

Little is known about the accommodations of the legates in Osnabrück. It is unlikely that truly appropriate apartments were empty for the legates. It is noteworthy that the legates who could afford such discriminating taste preferred the courts of the clergy and nobility. The Swedes occupied the most likely largest area on the north side of the Große Domsfreheit quarter, which had previously been occupied by Gustavson. The Danes, the Brandenburg legate Graf Sayn-Wittgenstein and the imperial prince legate Graf von Trauttmansdorff inhabited noble courts in the Neuer Graben quarter and on Hakenstraße. Krane, though, resided in the market area in the Löwe pharmacy.

Imperfect accommodations were taken care of with time-consuming construction projects, as reported by the Spanish legate de Saavedra, who apparently lived in a residential house on Krahnstraße. Catholic legates found the Dominican monastery a suitable accommodation; Bavarian legates lived from the generosity of the Catholic foundation of St. John in the newer part of the town. Those with limited funds stayed with Osnabrück families. The simplicity of this arrangement was described by the Basel delegate Wettstein [14], who rented a room from a wool weaver.

The legates' presence was of course exploited by the trade and industry of the town. The council had extreme difficulties keeping this aspect under control. Problem areas criticized by the legates included the prices, quality of coins, and the exchange rates. The Swedish legate Oxenstierna complained to the council in December 1644 about the high prices and threatened to withdraw the legates. The council immediately complied with the demands. They forbade trading in front of the gates of the town, designated a market steward and preached from the pulpit on the need to follow the new guidelines. The council also took this opportunity to control the weights and measures in the town, as well as to standardize them.

The high prices were due at least in part to the many new duties, which paralysed the flow of goods. The town tried unsuccessfully to take action against this problem in conjunction with Münster. There was also protest against attempts by the legates to privilege foreign small merchants with wares. If necessary, these sorts of situations could be taken care of with violence, as two Hamburg small merchants under the protection of Oxenstierna found out in March 1648. Even if the accommodations and care of the legates was neglected in many aspects, especially concerning luxury items, this example shows that the town maintained control within its borders.

Incidents between residents and the legates were rare. For the most part those that did occur originated in confessional differences, as for instance when one night in December 1644 members of the Krane delegation smashed the windows of Protestant clergy. The council understandably immediately played down such events. Alcohol played a role in almost all of the brawls, knife fights and abusive insults. Residents of Osnabrück were dealt with harshly upon misbehavior, including the women who got involved with servants of the legates.

The beer and wine consumption probably increased considerably during the years of negotiations. The locale St. Jürgenshaus, located on Große Straße and leased by the town, served the much-loved Minden beer. There was also beer from Hamburg, Bremen, and Paderborn, as well as the strong beer from Brunswick, Mumme. To imagine these times as morally loose, though, would be misguided. Life in the town had certainly become more interesting. Locals heard news from throughout Europe. Travellers were pulled magnetically to the town, but we unfortunately only learn of them when the council had to act because of them. It was in this manner that the rover Tobias Schnauber made himself known after annoying the Swedish and Danish legates in May 1645. Likewise, four English actors with 15 accompanying persons became part of the town's chronicle after settling in Osnabrück to perform their tragedies and skits. We even know of Jews in this time. The possibility of a paid position by a legation brought people from around the world to the town. Career opportunities were also available for the Osanbrück residents. The Swedish legation secretary Bärenklau hired the Osnabrücker Jobst Knemeyer in his service and trained him in a kitchen in Oldenburg in order to take him to Vienna, Prague and Regensburg as a cook and buyer.



V. "When the entire negotiations had an odd appearance" - The Participation of the Town in the Peace Negotiations and the Consequences of Peace for Osnabrück

As soon as the legates arrived, the cathedral, knights and council vied for their attention to win them over to their own interests. Oxenstierna had just reached his quarters when the town presented him with a list of demands. Similarly, the Catholic clergy of the town requested support from the secretary of the French legation. Even the knights became active and demanded the participation of the town in the contribution payments that had been placed on the princely bishopric. It was especially irritating for the council when individual residents asked legates for support, since this situation was widely exploited. For example, the barbers of the town hoped to receive their own guild administration and petitioned the legates of the Hanseatic town for this purpose.

The beginning agitation of the town's Catholics proved to be more dangerous: in one instance, the abbess of the Gertrudenberg convent spread the rumor to the representatives of Nürnberg in October 1645 that the town had offered the Swedish military money to finish demolishing the already damaged convent, which stood in front of the walls of Osnabrück. Additionally, the Catholics saw their chance to act: In 1646 the monks of the Natrup monastery held a public debate, and in the same year a private school run by the sexton was discovered. There were also foreigners in the town who hoped to achieve their wishes by way of the legates. This was especially true of the faithful of the town. Their demands were not necessarily met with a lack of understanding on the part of the legates, since the residents had been freed from all mandatory contributions and lived - as far as Oxenstiernas was concerned - quite well from the congress.

The negotiations themselves were watched with interest. Residents self-confidently reproached the town's privileges such as the right of fortifications, sovereignty of the Church, the Privilegium de non evocando, and they insisted to have been a free imperial town for quite some time. When the discussions moved to Münster, costs were not spared in 1646 to be able to be represented with the councilman Brüning and the town syndic there as well. The necessity of a competent negotiation process decided the election of Gerhard Schepeler as mayor of the town in 1647. Schepeler [15], a trained lawyer, had married the daughter of the emigrated former Osnabrück resident Christian Grave, making her financial interests in Osnabrück his interests, as well. He was far from being uncontroversial in the town, but maintained good relations with the knights and the cathedral chapter.

The town won a negotiation clerk in Schepeler who let them know right away how things needed to get done. Without bribes, the immediate goal of becoming subject only to the emperor as well as the ratification of more extensive privileges would remain a dream. But the council was not yet ready to draw conclusions from this and make the necessary money available. The only area in which they proceeded resolutely was the elimination of the episcopalian Petersburg fortress. Demolition began in July 1647 - initially with caution as they fearfully looked for reactions for the legates. The Osnabrück cathedral chapter reacted immediately and informed the bishop, achieving with his support the protest of the imperial legates. The town worked constantly to get the Protestant legates to take a clear stand on this issue, especially the Swedes, because even the former representative Gustavson announced his opposition from Stettin in September 1647. The council was clear from the beginning on the need to have the demolition of Petersburg ensured by a contract. This was especially true since the restitution of Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg could not be prevented, and he would be able to influence this process by stepping forward and protesting as an official legate in his capacity of representative in Münster of the electoral college.

With the distinct changes in the princely bishopric, which were conceded to the house of Brunswick-Lüneberg, the importance of the Guelp legates increased for the town, which did not improve the town's negotiation position. The town's legates, who had no official status, had a difficult time of it. Their power of authority did not extend very far, and the mistrust in the council and among the estates of the town was considerable. As difficult as it was to even receive an audience with the legates, there was then almost no margin for action. Besides this, it was almost impossible to advise the council or even the estates on confidential matters without the public soon knowing about it. The Guelp legate Lampadius was on target when he spoke of a notorious 'status democraticus' in Osnabrück.

All that the town managed to finally accomplish was the destruction of the Petersburg fortress. The small canons from the peace celebration of October 1648 had barely stopped sounding before the town was on its feet to rid itself finally of the episcopal fortress. It was reported to Münster with pride that it was a miracle that no one died during this process. It was a humiliation for the bishop to have the destruction of his fortress followed by flag waving and drums. As late as November 1648, the imperial legate Volmar attempted to find a compromise solution with the town. Even Oxenstierna was no longer so enthused about the destruction. The relations between the town and the bishop were at an all-time low, and Osnabrück brimmed with rumors of secretly returned Jesuits.

Negotiations continued for the town without interruption after the official conclusion of peace, although the congress had been moved in the autumn of 1648 to Münster. Negotiations over the Capitulatio perpetua lasted a long time, which discussed the concrete realization of the results of the peace negotiations for the princely bishopric of Osnabrück. [16] Furthermore, the council and the estates made impossible demands of their legates. The relations to the Guelp legates worsened visibly, because the town consistently refused to give the new prince-bishop Ernst August a written letter of homage if they could not receive a comprehensive confirmation of their privileges.

Besides this, the town decided against participating in an Evangelical church council. Thus the town's legates were handled like nuisances whose arguments did not need to be heard. Even Schepeler, who was responsible for the negotiations again in Münster in the spring of 1649, could not achieve a clear position from the town's panel, even though the stipulations of the peace preliminaries from 1641 lost their validity with the ratification of the treaties in February 1649. The town feared new billeting and knew that Gustavson expected 80,000 Thaler as compensation for his departure. Although the ratification of the treaties was celebrated in Münster, Osnabrück remained unsure how the future would turn out.

Given the significance of the situation, no one was ready to truly take on responsibility for the situation. Important questions, not just financial ones, were posed to the estates, including to some townsmen committees. Now Wartenberg's attempt to mollify the harsh fronts by preventing a provincial diet in Schönflieth bei Greven really failed. On the other hand, Wartenberg successfully received the consent of the imperial delegate Volmar to move the negotiations to Nürnberg based on the Capitulatio perpetua. The town was slighted, having hoped to continue its service as congress site.

The years of happily taking care to remain independent from the relations in the princely bishopric were now over. It was now time to show that they were ready to enter into negotiations with the estates of the princely bishopric. This was especially necessary in order to achieve the quick departure of the Swedish and imperial troops, especially since the town was no longer freed from having to accommodate and feed them. On the advice of the of the Guelp legates, the town sent the town-councillor Brüning to Nürnberg as the town's authorized representative. Brüning remained in the Franconian imperial town until the conclusion of the negotiations in July 1650. He achieved little in Nürnberg. The bishop did have to issue a declaration that the tearing-down of the Petersburg fortress had occurred under the amnesty of peace, but all remaining open questions were left for the treaty work of the Cqpitulatio perpetua. This was the only way they would be considered. The results of the Nürnberg congress were accepted with resignation; after the voting, the town had not been asked for an opinion anyway.

In late autumn, Franz Wilhelm von Wartenberg officially returned to his princely bishopric. During the negotiations he had resided for some time in the west part of the town at the Eversburg fortress, the seat of the cathedral dean. Only after the ratification of a treaty with Gustavson, in which the compensation payments were regulated, did the bishop travel to the Iburg fortress before he came on December 18 [th] to an estates' meeting in the town. The mayors Schepeler and Schardemann went to Iburg in the beginning of December to congratulate him for his restoration, which they would gladly have prevented. The tensions were not eliminated in the least; this was all only done for appearances. The form of homage remained a question of conflict, but they agreed to leave this issue aside. Even the final introduction of the Gregorian calendar was not a foregone conclusion.

Worries of those residents who had mourned the peace in October 1648 proved to be unfounded. [17] Unlike neighbouring Münster, Brunswick, or Erfurt, the town was spared military subjugation to rulers. When Ernst August I. entered as sovereign, the town met him half-way. The Guelp could build his residential palace in the new part of the town and move in to it in 1673 without opposition of the council. The town also accepted that the defense of the present residential town would be taken over by an episcopal garrison. Even the entry of the sovereign taxation system to the town could not be avoided.

Ernst August I. did not interfere in the remaining town policies, though. Of his successors, only Ernst August II. resided in Osnabrück. The other bishops found the bishopric of secondary importance and its internal relations uninteresting. The confessional relations, though, which for a time resembled a 'Cold War,' were regulated by the peace treaty of 1648. It forced both confessions to achieve a coexistence and state of co-operation, which had actually been present since the introduction of the Reformation in 1543.

FOOTNOTES