Every kind of authority has to rely on the cooperation of at least some of its subjects. This universal law applies as well to monarchies, principalities and noble estates of the early modern period. To rule meant to organize interchanges between the holders of prerogatives, rights and liberties and those affected by them on a regular basis. Moreover, in the Western tradition, princes and lords sought to define themselves as acting not like tyrants, but rather like Christian authorities endowed by God with the office of maintaining the public peace, administering justice and promoting the common good. To this end, specific arrangements were instituted that included policies dedicated to these purposes, administrative bodies (or other kinds of organization) that could implement the policies and channels of communication to articulate consensus or conflict. The actual type of rule that resulted in specific cases thus rested on prevailing ruling concepts, as well as on bureaucratic developments and no less on customary habits of communication.1