ABSTRACT
In Chapter 6, the analysis moves from the political elites to the rural core of the populace. The early Reformation in the Holy Roman Empire was a popular movement that contained both spiritual and social components. This duality already surfaced in the peasant wars of the 1520s but also characterized later periods of confessional strife. Even after the fading of reformist mass activism in the Habsburg lands, popular resistance to the state church remained significant. At the apex of Catholic restoration in the dynasty’s patrimony, the peasantry evolved into the most enduring obstacle to confessional homogenization.
