Crypto-Protestantism
Crypto-Protestantism is a historical phenomenon that mainly occurred on the territory of the Habsburg Empire but also elsewhere in Europe and Latin America. It describes the attempt by catholic rulers made after the Protestant Reformation to reestablish Catholicism in parts of the Empire that had become Protestant after the Reformation. The Protestants in the areas that were re-Catholicised by force strove to retain their own confession inwardly while they outwardly pretended to accept Catholicism. With the Patent of Toleration in the Habsburg Empire in 1781, Protestantism was again permitted, and from that time on most Protestants could live their faith openly once more.
