1.1. Late Middle Ages, Reformation, and Confessionalization
The parochial structure of the church had been the norm since the Carolingian period (i.e. the association of one’s place of residence with membership in an ecclesiastical congregation). In the late Middle Ages, there developed a strong sense – especially in urban areas – of the congregation as a social nexus politically as well as religiously, so that in this context we can even speak of a corpus Christianum (“Christian body”) in microco…