Lord of the Sacred City: The Episcopus exclusus in Late Medieval and Early Modern Germany

Many urban histories have emphasized the rise of civic autonomy and proto-democracy. Based on chronicle and archival sources, this volume focuses upon German bishops, former lords of the city and fierce opponents of civic freedom. It investigates how bishops contested exclusion from political, economic and religious dimensions of civic life, which culminated in the Protestant Reformation. Four chapters are devoted to episcopal expulsion throughout Germany and the cities of Constance and Augsburg in particular, and a further section explores the puzzle of the bishop’s civic survival in the later Middle Ages, made possible through episcopal ritual.