Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Territory and Community
- Chapter 2 Rebellion, Representation, and Reform
- Chapter 3 “Lord in Our Own House”
- Chapter 4 Reformation and Revolution
- Chapter 5 The Limits of Obedience
- Chapter 6 A Plague of Preachers
- Chapter 7 Orthodoxy and Order
- Chapter 8 The Christian Commune
- Chapter 9 Cuius Regio?
- Chapter 10 The Stool of Wickedness
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Chapter 6 - A Plague of Preachers
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 September 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Chapter 1 Territory and Community
- Chapter 2 Rebellion, Representation, and Reform
- Chapter 3 “Lord in Our Own House”
- Chapter 4 Reformation and Revolution
- Chapter 5 The Limits of Obedience
- Chapter 6 A Plague of Preachers
- Chapter 7 Orthodoxy and Order
- Chapter 8 The Christian Commune
- Chapter 9 Cuius Regio?
- Chapter 10 The Stool of Wickedness
- Conclusion
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The two decades following the death of Albrecht Alcibiades were a time of transition and confusion. The year 1555 is generally taken to mark the end of the Reformation and the start of the confessional era. At the same time, when describing the religious situation in the 1560s, it is easier to say what it was not, rather than what it was. The “storm years” of the Reformation were clearly over, but the future trajectory of Lutheranism remained uncertain. On the Catholic side, even after the end of the Council of Trent, the general religious ethos remained largely pre-Tridentine for several decades. This is not to say that the reforms had little impact, but the mood was tentative. The range of religious options had increased rather than narrowed; meanwhile the emergence of Calvinism offered an increasingly viable alternative to either Wittenberg or Rome. Confessional orthodoxies had yet to harden, and in the age of Maximilian II, the possibility for compromise on numerous aspects of doctrine and practice remained open.
On the political side, the 1560s has been identified as the peak of the “crisis of the nobility” in the Holy Roman Empire. Franconia was indeed the arena for what has become one of the symbolic episodes in the crisis, the campaign of Albrecht Alcibiades' former chancellor, Wilhelm von Grumbach. His career is representative of the general character of the crisis. Frustrated in his efforts to rise to the ranks of the territorial nobility, Grumbach became a champion of the lower nobility against the princes. He embodies both the growth and futility of noble opposition to the process of territorial consolidation in the sixteenth century.
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- Information
- Reformation and the German Territorial StateUpper Franconia, 1300–1630, pp. 97 - 112Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2008