ABSTRACT
During the early years of the Protestant Reformation, reform ideas from Wittenberg were preached and printed across Electoral Saxony and the Holy Roman Empire. 1 Martin Luther was the source of most of these sermons and pamphlets. Saxony was the center of the commotion, and in January 1522 the imperial council (Reichsregiment) in Nuremberg called on the temporal and spiritual rulers of Electoral Saxony to halt all changes to traditional Christianity. Bishop Johannes of Meissen took the imperial mandate as an opportunity for a visitation 2 of his diocese in the spring of 1522. The Elector of Saxony, 3 meanwhile, instructed his councilor to closely observe the bishop’s visitation and ensure that reform-leaning clergymen would not be punished.
