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Crypto-Protestantism is a historical phenomenon that first arose on the territory of theHabsburg Empire but also elsewhere in Europe andSpanish America, at a time when Catholic rulers tried, after theProtestant Reformation, to reestablishCatholicism in parts of the Empire that had becomeProtestant after the Reformation. The Protestants in these areas strove to retain their own confession inwardly while they outwardly pretended to accept Catholicism.[1] With thePatent 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.