Discussion topics

- Why did most imperial free cities adopt the Reformation, but some not?

- What were the pros & cons of changing your religion?

- Who made this important decision?

 

Key source

• TextLink opens in a new window and DiagramLink opens in a new window illustrating the Constitution of the City of Strasbourg (1482), which struck a balance of power between different social groups

 

Core readings

• P. Blickle, The Communal Reformation: The Quest for Salvation in Sixteenth-Century Germany, trans. Th. Dunlap (1992) esp. ch. 3: 'Burghers' Reformation'
• R. W. Scribner, 'Why was there no Reformation in Cologne?', in: Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research 49 (1976) [pdf download]

 

E-Resources

• City prospects: NurembergLink opens in a new window and CologneLink opens in a new window around 1500
• Map: Germany with Imperial and other CitiesLink opens in a new window (c. 1555)
• Architecture: the Romanesque churches of St Mary's Cathedral (dating from the 8thC) & St Michael's (3D panorama tour of the 11thC Benedictine priory) at Hildesheim form UNESCO World Heritage site 187
• ... and, on a lighter note, an American tourist introduction to the imperial free city of Nuremberg

 

Further reading (recommended in bold)
 

Brady, T. A. Jr, Ruling Class, Regime and Reformation at Strasbourg 1520-55 (1978)

Chrisman, M. U., Strasbourg and the Reform (1967)

Christ, Martin, 'The Failure of the Reformation in Schwäbisch-GmündLink opens in a new window', in: Reinvention: a Journal of Undergraduate Research 5 (1/2012)

" , 'The Town Chronicle of Johannes Hass: History Writing and Divine Intervention in the Early Sixteenth CenturyLink opens in a new window', in: German History 35 (1/2017), 1-20 [advance online publication, December 2016]

" , Biographies of a Reformation. Religious Change and Confessional Coexistence in Upper Lusatia, 1520-1635 (Oxford, 2021)

Close, C. W., The Negotiated Reformation: Imperial Cities and the Politics of Urban Reform 1525-1550 (2009)

Dickens, A. G., The German Nation and Martin Luther (1974)

Dunwoody, Sean, Passionate Peace: Emotions and Religious Coexistence in Later Sixteenth-Century Augsburg (Leiden: Brill, 2022)

Grimm, H., Lazarus Spengler: A Lay Leader of the Reformation [Nuremberg] (1978)

Hamm, B., Lazarus Spengler (Tübingen, 2004) [in German]

Moeller, B., Imperial Cities and the Reformation: Three Essays (1972)

Ozment, S.,The Reformation in the Cities: The Appeal of Protestantism to Sixteenth-Century Germany and Switzerland (1975)

Schilling, H., ‘The Reformation in the Hanseatic CitiesLink opens in a new window’, Sixteenth Century Journal 14 (1983)

Scholz, Maximilian M., Strange Brethren: Refugees, Religious Bonds and Reformation in Frankfurt 1554-1608, Studies in Early Modern German History (Charlottesville, 2022)

 

Essay titles

 

• Assess the late medieval roots of the urban Reformation in Germany.
• Why was the early Reformation so successful in German towns?
• To what extent did theological doctrines reflect the socio-political background of the reformers?
• Was the German Reformation an ‘urban event’?

Inscription commemorating the beginning of the Reformation at the Grossmünster church in Zurich (pic: Christian Bickel, 2007)

 

West facade of St Laurence, Nuremberg, one of the imposing parish churches of this imperial free city. Pic: Jailbird 2006 (Creative Commons)