The early modern aristocratic church in an inter-confessional perspective

The church of the old German Empire (Reichskirche) has often been regarded as catholic. This article points out the multi-confessional character of this church since reformation and the competitive aristocratic-confessional strategies to occupy church leaderships between 1517 and 1803. The parallel "dynastization" of prince-bishoprics ended in 1648 when most Lutheran princes preferred to annex "their" church states, but in other important institutions (esp. the Domkapitel) the multi-confessional character of the church survived until 1803. Thus only a comparative view on multi-confessional aristocracy provides an adequate approach to the aristocratic transformation of the church in the 17th and 18th century - a competitive process that did not only marginalize bourgeois modes of participation but also increase conflicts among different segments of the nobility.