ABSTRACT
The development of Protestantism certainly affected the story of Emden's social welfare legislation and institutions, but the new Reformation ideology was not sufficient to bring real practical innovations in Emden's poor relief. Piety and intellectual activity in Emden before the Reformation offer striking contrasts to the city's seemingly backward communal development. In discussing the celebration of communion, the East Frisian Church Ordinance refers to Martin Luther's German Mass as the standard of measure: 'that it thus according to the Ordinance which is used in the Electorate of Saxony'. The gradual decline of the confraternities paralleled an increase in the activities of Emden's trade guilds, but the religious changes in the town contributed little to any guild's institutional changes. The function of the confraternities as loan-banks continued long after the Reformation, reflecting the size of their capital and resources.
