ABSTRACT
Models of state growth and political power now speak in terms of different levels of development, starting at the level of interaction between individuals and groups, and reaching to the macro level and the rise of nations. On the contrary, religious reform, both the Catholic and the Protestant variants, is thought to have had an ordering function in the process of social and political change. Wittenberg was now eulogized as the very centre of the world, 'because it was in this place', claimed Meisner, 'as out of Zion, as it were, that the light of [God's] gospel was set aflame'. From the outset, the integrity of the Holy Roman Empire was necessarily weakened by the attack on the Catholic Church. The Reformation had invested the sovereigns with the right to police their subjects' thoughts as they previously policed their actions.
