ABSTRACT
The epitome of practical toleration in sixteenth-century Europe was “ecclesial sharing” – the spatial or temporal division of churches between one or more confessions, usually bound by some contract or territorial settlement. This chapter compares the evolution of ecclesial sharing in two medium-sized German cities, Bautzen and Wetzlar, during the century after 1525. It shows that in both towns, the phases through which ecclesial sharing evolved reflected mutations of religious identity as it related to civic bonds and norms, such as “good neighbourliness” and “unity.” The comparison also exposes the key role played by clergy who were wedded to “middle path” theologies in the transition from the turbulence of the religious controversy to the contractually binding regimes of sharing that emerged in both towns during the second half of the century. The resulting regime was not, strictly speaking, one of toleration, but of coequality: early modern toleration was inescapable from hierarchy, and in both Bautzen and Wetzlar, neither party ruled over the other.
