Despite intensive research into confessionalization, up until now a study has been lacking that inquires into confession in relation to the military. This article makes a start and takes up as an example the phase of the Thirty Years' War. Clearly recognizable are the efforts of those in authority confessionally to homogenize military service. The conviction that only troops of the "right" confession could fight with God's blessing, and constant virulent suspicion of the disloyalty of members of other creeds, motivated suitable efforts to achieve confessional unity. Practical military considerations nevertheless hindered a thorough change. One cannot speak of a comprehensive confessionalization of the troops. At the same time, it can be observed that the military-less the simple soldiers and much more the officers-did feel the pressure from above, and sometimes gave in to it and converted. Although in the age of the Thirty Years' War the authorities proved too weak really to attain their confessional goals, from the late seventeenth century, as a result of the consolidation of princely power, the credal homogenization of the armies could be pursued with greater success. In the are of the military, it is especially clear how very much the formation of the early modern state and confessionalization intertwined. At the same time, in the case of the confessionalization of the military, it is obvious that we must assume the postponement of a phase: In other areas, the process of confessionalization was largely finished, even as, in the military sector, at the very end of the confessional age, it got underway.
