Between Opposition and Collaboration: Nobles, Bishops, and the German Reformations in the Prince-Bishopric of Bamberg, 1555–1619 (review)

In his great history of the popes, Leopold von Ranke noted that the prince-bishops of Franconia proved powerless to hold back the spread of the Reformation. Not only were their parishes full of Lutheran preachers, but the nobility, the magistrates, the burgers, the mass of the subject population—even the episcopal authorities—gave over to the faith. Only those with “old German and Franconian fidelity, ” Ranke suggested, had any remaining reverence for the bishops in their vestments and mitres. In Between Opposition and Collaboration, Richard J. Ninness revisits this issue, and in particular the observation that even the episcopal authorities should be counted among the supporters of the Lutheran religion. By way of a meticulous, archive-based study of the cathedral chapter of Bamberg and some of the higher offices of the diocese, Ninness reveals the inner workings of the prince-bishopric during the age of confessionalization. Indeed, the concept of confessionalization has an important ordering function in this study, for one of the main aims of the work is to add complexity and nuance to the rather one-dimensional image of the confessionalization process, particularly in the Catholic prince-bishoprics. Most studies tend to emphasize the conflictual character of the process and the sharp divisions that occurred as a result of religious change. In contrast, the perspective adopted by Ninness sets out to “. . . challenge at least the blanket validity of this position and argue for a more nuanced approach toward and a sensitivity to the variability of relations among the religious confessions” (p. 12). What is particularly fascinating about Between Opposition and Collaboration is that the confessional groupings under investigation are sharing the same offices of rule in the prince-bishopric of Bamberg.

The study begins with a historical backgrounding of the cathedral chapter itself, where it quickly becomes clear that it was essentially an aristocratic republic monopolized by the imperial knights and held together by “nepotism, cronyism, and exclusive cliquishness” (p. 41). With this as a foundation, the analysis then moves through the various stages of confessional change from the Reformation and the different phases of the Counter-Reformation. Ninness often draws back from a close study of Bamberg to take in the broader context of developments, as with his look at the fate of the imperial knights within the Empire or the broader confessional framework; but the bulk of the analysis is focused on the workings of the prince-bishopric and what this reveals about religious relations. The main point to take away is that adherence to Lutheranism did not preclude a career in the chapter. At the outset of the study Ninness remarks that “the raison d’être of the cathedral chapter was family, not religion” (p. 26), and this observation is later confirmed at the end with the observation that “. . . confession was intertwined with family ties, traditional privilege, and political status in motivating the actions of the imperial knights in Bamberg” (p. 194). This would not surprise too many historians familiar with the period or the place, but what is particularly interesting about the study is how Ninness, largely on the basis of his archival work, is able to demonstrate how the knights were able to negotiate their shifting interests over the course of the confessional period—even in the face of intense Counter-Reformation reform, which momentarily knocked things out of balance—without renouncing their Lutheran beliefs or declining into perpetual religious conflict with the bishop or his Catholic officials. Indeed, mindful of the importance of the chapter as a matrix of patronage and power, it was not unusual for the Lutheran officials to see through the implementation of the Counter-Reformation. According to Ninness, at least in the early phase, “. . . Protestant officials were a more consistent influence in bringing Catholicism to the region...