E.W. you noted in your last email: If the ruler switched religions, so did the populace. Of course, this may not hold for ALL the German political divisions. It certainly was true for the Kraichgau region. The knights of the Kraichgau fought hard for the privilege to choose the faith and appoint the pastor for a village within their fiefdoms. The following is part of a translation I did for Cary Anderson and myself so we could understand a little more about the area of the Kraichgau. >From the book "Der westfälische Friede By Heinz Duchhardt, Eva Ortlieb": "In 1646, Count of Gemmingen himself was very instrumental in fighting to have that right preserved during the Westphaelean Peace Treaties. In a detailed report for the Austrian Diplomat Maximilian Graf von Trauttmansdorff, who himself became a member of the knights in the Kraichgau since he was presented a confiscated estate there by the Emperor, von Gemmingen presented the position of the knights to him on 1 June 1646. In the instructions of Emperor Ferdinand to the Count von Trauttmansdorff of 8 October 1646, the Emperor declared that he is ready to recognize the unconditional ius reformandi (right of Reformation) of the knights, as the Protestant demanded. In this context, the role of the knights on the imperial court as “lobbyists” for the interests of the knights should not be underestimated. " Paulus Lederer was a servant of Maximilian Graf von Trauttmansdorff. Elke By the way, the present Count von Gemmingen mentioned in a talk he gave in 2005 that he still has the right TODAY to appoint the pastor in the Protestant parish of Bad Rappenau. He still has to interview the candidates and recommend his choice to the bishop in Karlsruhe and issue the letter of appointment and present it to the new pastor. The funny thing about this is that the count himself is Catholic.