This week in Christian history: Criswell ordained, Methodist theologian dies, Ferdinand II becomes emperor

By Michael Gryboski, Mainline Church Editor Sunday, August 25, 2024

Ferdinand II becomes Holy Roman Emperor – Aug. 28, 1619

Archduke Ferdinand II (1578-1637), head of the Holy Roman Empire who was known for his support of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. | Public Domain

This week marks the anniversary of when Ferdinand II, an Austrian archduke who championed the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation, was elected head of the Holy Roman Empire.

Educated by Jesuits, Ferdinand II was known for his efforts to stamp out Protestantism in Central Europe, with him being deposed by the Protestant-majority Diet of Bohemia the same year he was elected emperor due to his religious intolerance.

The dispute over Ferdinand II’s authority contributed to the beginning of the Thirty Years’ War, a major mainland European conflict mostly between Protestants and Catholics.

“By promoting the Counter-Reformation, Ferdinand II set the course of Austrian Habsburg policy for the next century,” noted Britannica. “Ferdinand’s Roman Catholic contemporaries considered him a saintlike monarch; his Protestant opponents feared him as a tyrant.”

“Modern historians tend to view Ferdinand’s religious policy as determined by his time, to acknowledge his importance in molding Austria’s provinces into an integral whole, and to see in his imperial policy an attempt at creating a Roman Catholic German state, however inconsistently carried out.”