The Government of Episcopal Principalities in the Early Modern Age. A Comparison of the Realities South and North of the Alps – Augsburg, Bressanone, Constance, Eichstätt and Trento (Il governo dei principati vescovili nella prima età moderna. Un confronto tra le realtà a Sud e a Nord delle Alpi – Augusta, Bressanone, Costanza, Eichstätt e Trento)
Author : Wolfgang Wüst
Abstract :
Ecclesiastical rule or, more precisely, secular territory under the rule of ecclesiastical imperial princes, bishops, abbots, provosts, prelates and other monastic and religious authorities of both female and male gender, was already in a crisis of legitimacy long before secularization as a soon to be "superfluous" entity of a lost world. In historiography, it was burdened with the accusation of social and ideological backwardness to a far greater extent than other members of the Old Empire. The question of whether they formed an independent, let alone homogeneous, group of states from a typological point of view was usually not considered. This early finding, which admittedly still needs to be differentiated regionally and chronologically and then corrected if necessary, generally raises the question of a review of the definition of the nature of states. An internal stocktaking, which we will limit as an empirical project in detail to five case studies south and north of the Alps, is therefore necessary. These are the prince-bishoprics of Augsburg, Eichstätt and Constance north of the Alps, as well as Brixen and Trient, which, as a former part of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, today lie in Italy.
Keywords :
Alps, Augsburg, Bressanone, Constance, Eichstätt, Prince-Bishoprics, Trento
