INTERIM (Lat., in the meantime). The name given to three attempts made in Oermany during the Reformation to draw up a formula which might serve as a basis of agreement be tween Catholics and Protestants until the points of difference could be decided by a general •oun cil. The Ratisbon interim was the result of the deliberations of a commission appointed during the Diet of Ratisbon in 1541, of which Eck, Pflug, and Dropper were the Roman Catholic, and Melanehthon, Buser, and Pistorius the Protestant members. On the greater number of doetrinal points the commission found it possible to agree on terms which might be deemed consistent with the views of both parties; but as to the sacraments and the power of the Church, the differences were irreconcilable. At the next Diet at Augsburg in 1513, a new interim at. the command of the Emperor, Charles V.. was prepared by Pflug, Delding (Sidonius), and Agricola. it is called the Augs burg interim. In it the use of the cup by the laity. the marriage of priests, and some other
minor things. were conceded to the Protestants; but it met with very general opposition, pa• ticularly in the north of Germany, and was re voked in 1552. By the exertions of the Elector Maurice of Saxony, a third interim, the Leipzig Interim. was adopted at the Diet of Leipzig, December 22. 1543, which guarded the Protes tant creed, lint admitted great part of the Roman Catholic ceremonial, and recognized the power of popes and bishops when not abused. It was the work of .3.felanelithon. Bugenhagen, Crueiger, Major, Eber, and Pfeffinger. It proved no more satisfactory than those which had preceded it and gave rise to the adiaphoristie controversy. (See ADJ.\ MIORISTS.) Consult : Dente], l'ebe• den Ursprung des A ugsburger Interim (Dresden, 1838 ) ; Druffel, JIriefe and Acten Gesehichte des III. Jahrhunderts (Slunieb, 1S75).