What was the effect of the Reformation movement on the parishioners of the German countryside? This book examines the reform movement at the level of its implementation - the rural parish. Investigation of the Reformation and the sixteenth-century parish reveals the strength of tradition and custom in village life and how this parish culture obstructed and frustrated the efforts of the Lutheran reformers. The Reformation was not passively adopted by the rural inhabitants. On the contrary, the parishioners manipulated the reform movement to serve their own ends. Parish documentation reveals that the system of parish rule diffused the disciplinary aims of the church and rendered the pastors impotent. A look at parish beliefs suggests that the nature of parish thought worked to undermine the main tenets of the Lutheran faith, and that the legacy of the Reformation was a dialogue between these two realms of experience.

"Dixon's careful and detailed research in judicial records provides a wealth of anecdotes that demonstrate the central role of the pastor in attempting to create an orderly moral society." Choice

"...provicative....fortuitous....The book is clearly and tightly organized....his study of parish life in the late sixteenth century is much more original." Marc R. Forster, The Sixteenth Century Journal

"...Dixon efficiently sketches the introduction of Lutheran ideas to Brandenburg-Ansbach, and the creation of a working church hierarchy under margraves's tight control....the theories involved are well developed and ripe for critical reevaluation...a precise and detailed analysis of a well chosen case." Randolph C. Head, Central European History

"Dixon succeeds admirably..." Joel F. Harrington, American Historical Review

"Dixon's study is a fine addition to the small but growing literature on the Reformation in rural areas." Mary Jane Haemig, Lutheran Quarterly