Editing Alsace (section)

===Religion===
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|title=Religion in Alsace<ref>[https://archive.today/20120801155356/http://www.eurel.info/FR/index.php?rubrique=87&pais=5] Géographie réligieuse: France</ref>
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{{bar percent|[[Catholic]]|DodgerBlue|70}}
{{bar percent|[[Protestant]]|DarkViolet|17}}
{{bar percent|[[Irreligion|No religion]]|black|8}}
{{bar percent|Other faith|green|5}}
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[[File:St Stephen's Church Mulhouse FRA 001.JPG|thumb|right|''[[Temple Saint-Étienne]]'' (architect [[Jean-Baptiste Schacre]]), the main [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] church of [[Mulhouse]]]]
Alsace is generally seen as the most religious of all the French regions. Most of the Alsatian population is [[Roman Catholic]], but, largely because of the region's [[Culture of Germany|German]] heritage, a significant [[Protestant]] community also exists: today, the [[Protestant Church of Augsburg Confession of Alsace and Lorraine|EPCAAL]] (a Lutheran church) is France's second largest Protestant church, also forming an administrative union ([[Union of Protestant Churches of Alsace and Lorraine|UEPAL]]) with the much smaller Calvinist [[Protestant Reformed Church of Alsace and Lorraine|EPRAL]]. Unlike the rest of France, the [[Local law in Alsace–Moselle]] still provides for the [[Napoleon]]ic [[Concordat of 1801]] and the [[organic articles]], which provides public subsidies to the Roman Catholic, [[Lutheran]], and [[Calvinist]] churches, as well as to Jewish synagogues; religion classes in one of these faiths are compulsory in public schools. The divergence in policy from the French majority is because the region was part of [[Imperial Germany]] when the [[1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State|1905 law separating the French church and state was instituted]] (for a more comprehensive history, see [[Alsace–Lorraine]]). Controversy erupts periodically on the appropriateness of that legal disposition, as well as on the exclusion of other religions from the arrangement.

Following the [[Protestant Reformation]], promoted by the local reformer [[Martin Bucer]], the principle of ''[[cuius regio, eius religio]]'' led to a certain amount of religious diversity in the highlands of northern Alsace. Landowners, who as "local lords" had the right to decide the religion that was allowed on their land, were eager to entice populations from the more attractive lowlands to settle and develop their property. Many accepted without discrimination Catholics, Lutherans, Calvinists, Jews and [[Anabaptists]]. [[wikt:multiconfessional|Multiconfessional]] villages appeared, particularly in the region of [[Alsace bossue]]. Alsace became one of the French regions boasting a thriving [[History of the Jews in Alsace|Jewish community]] and the only region with a noticeable Anabaptist population. [[Philipp Jakob Spener]] who founded [[Pietism]] was born in Alsace. The schism of the [[Amish]] under the lead of [[Jacob Amman]] from the [[Mennonite]]s occurred in 1693 in [[Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines]]. The strongly Catholic [[Louis XIV]] tried in vain to drive them from Alsace. When [[Napoleon]] imposed military conscription without religious exception, most emigrated to the American continent.

In 1707, the [[wikt:simultaneum|simultaneum]] forced many Reformed and Lutheran church buildings to also allow Catholic services. About 50 such "simultaneous churches" still exist in modern Alsace, but with the Catholic church's general lack of priests, they tend to hold Catholic services only occasionally.