Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Cuius regio, eius religio" in English language version.
At the beginning of the seventeenth century ... virtually all European political leaders accepted the idea that religious diversity was dangerous to the stability of any government. ... Political leaders and political theorists alike assumed that religious difference would inevitably lead to internal social conflict or even civil war and anarchy. The brutal wars of the sixteenth century certainly reinforced this idea. ... Religious diversity among Christians was simply too dangerous for most jurisdictions.
The conception of the church as the spiritual arm of the temporal authority was in accord with the Reformation view of the proper relationship between church and state.During the Middle Ages society was considered a universal whole governed by God through the papal vice-regency. ... The Reformation brought the medieval unity to an end and replaced it with the Augsburg formula of religious compromise, cuius regio eius religio.
