Writing in 1526, the Ansbach clergyman Johann Rurer encouraged his prince, margrave Casimir of Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach, to view the widespread support for the evangelical faith as proof of its divine provenance:

As they hunger for bread, Rurer continued, now the people hunger for the Word of God, the teaching of the Gospel ‘clear and pure’. But was Rurer correct in his assumption that the margrave's subjects longed to hear the Word of God, or was this just the hopeful projection of a pious man looking to convert an indifferent ruler to the faith? What was the reaction of the subject population to the religious movement radiating from Wittenberg? Did the margrave's rural subjects in Ansbach and Kulmbach show an interest in the evangelical movement? Did they eventually embrace the Lutheran faith once it was officially introduced? And if Rurer's judgement rings true – that the people hungered for the Word – what was the ultimate effect of Lutheranism in the years following Casimir's death in 1527, when margrave Georg the Pious assumed rule and introduced the Reformation into Brandenburg-Ansbach-Kulmbach? Did religious reform extend to the rural parishes?