Duration: 2002–2017

The research project’s mission was the edition of Protestant church ordinances (external link). These include official ordinances and decrees through which Reformation doctrine and the rules of human coexistence based on it were introduced and enforced in territories and imperial cities.
The research center continued the editorial project begun in 1902 by Emil Sehling, which—after an eventful history—still contained numerous gaps, particularly in the western and northern parts of the Empire, which have now been filled. The edition of the Protestant church ordinances was completed as scheduled in December 2017.

This edition provides sources as a foundation for interdisciplinary research. The audience includes all historically oriented disciplines in the humanities, ranging from church and legal history to music and art history.

What are Protestant church ordinances?

Princes and imperial city magistrates who decided to introduce the Reformation in their domains no longer recognized the organizational structure and liturgical regulations of the Roman Catholic Church. They took measures themselves to establish a church system based on Reformation principles. The regulations adopted for this purpose were already summarized by contemporaries under the term “church order.”
Based on Protestant doctrine, these sources provide guidelines for the confessional status of a territory or an imperial city, for the sphere of worship—which encompassed church services and the other ministerial duties of the clergy—for matters of matrimonial law, as well as for the broad realm of moral discipline, and furthermore for the governing bodies of the emerging Protestant regional churches. Many church ordinances also contain provisions for the establishment or expansion of the school system.

The Significance of the Protestant Church Ordinances

With the enactment of church ordinances, the princes and imperial city magistrates exercised, for the first time, significant influence over the religious life of their subjects.
The church ordinances formulated in the 16th century served as the foundation upon which ecclesiastical constitutions in the emerging Protestant regional churches were developed.
Due to the close link between religion and politics in the early modern period, the church ordinances had an impact beyond the immediate sphere of the church. Their regulations were intended to serve the peace and “good order” of the state and were thus also a means for the princes to consolidate their rule.

The History of the Edition

At the end of the 19th century, the Erlangen jurist Emil Sehling (1860–1928) began collecting Protestant church ordinances; between 1902 and 1913, he published five volumes. After World War II, the Institute for Protestant Canon Law of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) in Göttingen continued the project under the direction of Rudolf Smend, Otto Weber, and Ernst Wolf; from there, editorial responsibility passed to J. F. Gerhard Goeters in 1970. Between 1955 and 1980, ten additional volumes were published.

Since 2002, the edition has been continued at the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities under the editorship of Gottfried Seebaß († 2008) and Eike Wolgast and was completed by 2016. The Academy’s existing focus on basic research in the field of the Early Modern Period is reinforced by the research unit on church ordinances.

The editorial work

The structure of the edition is based on the guidelines developed by Emil Sehling more than 100 years ago and further refined during his time in Göttingen; these were only slightly modified in 2002: The reprint of the sources is accompanied by a critical apparatus listing textual variants and by a substantive commentary providing explanations of the content. Five indexes make the sources accessible and provide quick access to people, places, subjects, Bible passages, as well as hymns and songs. Concise introductions to the texts provide information on the historical context and the impact of the individual pieces on the Reformation process.

Chair of the Commission:

Prof. Dr. Peter Graf Kielmansegg

Director of the Research Center:
  1. Prof. Dr. Gottfried Seebaß (2002–2006)
  2. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Eike Wolgast (2006–2017)

Staff:
  • Dr. Sabine Arend (2002–2016)
  • Dr. Thomas Bergholz (2002–2008)
  • Dr. Ursula Machoczek (2007)
  • Dr. Martin Armgart (2008–2010)
  • Dr. Gerald Dörner (2008–2017)
  • Karin Meese, M.A.(2017)

Published Volumes:
Emil Sehling (ed.), Erlangen
  • Volume I (external link) and Volume II (external link) Saxony and Thuringia, along with adjacent regions (1902/04)
  • Volume III (external link) Brandenburg, Upper and Lower Lusatia, Silesia (1909)
  • Volume IV (external link) Prussia, Poland, Pomerania (1911)
  • Volume V (external link) Baltic States, Mecklenburg, Lübeck, Lauenburg, Hamburg (1913)
Institute for Protestant Canon Law of the EKD (ed.), Göttingen

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (ed.), Heidelberg
  • Volume VII/2, 2 (external link) Lower Saxony: County of Schaumburg, Goslar, Bremen (2016)
  • Volume IX (external link) Hesse II: Landgraviate from 1582, Waldeck, Solms, Frankfurt, and others (2011)
  • Volume X (external link) Hesse III: Nassau, Hanau-Münzenberg, Ysenburg (2012)
  • Volume XVI (external link) Baden-Württemberg II: Württemberg, Baden, and others (2004)
  • Volume XVII/1 (external link); XVII/2 (external link) Baden-Württemberg III/IV: Imperial Cities (2007/09)
  • Volume XVIII (external link) Rhineland-Palatinate I: Zweibrücken, Veldenz, Sponheim, etc. (2006)
  • Volume XIX/1 (external link); Volume XIX/2 (external link) Rhineland-Palatinate II: Wild and Rheingrafschaft, Leiningen, Wied, and others (2008)
  • Volume XX/1 (external link) Alsace I: Strasbourg (2011)
  • Volume XX/2 (external link) Alsace II: Hanau-Lichtenberg, Colmar, Mulhouse, Wissembourg, and others (2013)
  • Volume XXI (external link) North Rhine-Westphalia I: Jülich-Kleve-Berg, Minden, Herford, Lippe, and others (2015)
  • Volume XXII (external link) North Rhine-Westphalia II (2017)
  • Volume XXIII (external link) Schleswig-Holstein (2017)
  • Volume XXIV (external link) Transylvania (2012)
PROCEEDINGS:

Arend, Sabine / Dörner, Gerald (eds.), Regulations for the Church—Impact on the World. Protestant Church Ordinances of the 16th Century (Late Middle Ages, Humanism, Reformation 84), Tübingen 2015

GENERAL INDEX:

Emil Sehling, The Protestant Church Ordinances of the 16th Century, General Index (external link), edited by Eike Wolgast, revised by Karin Meese, Tübingen 2020

Kirchenordnung Kurfürst Ottheinrichs von der Pfalz 1556 HAdW

Church Ordinance of Elector Ottheinrich of the Palatinate, 1556