Introduction

Summary

One may try to distinguish for the common man the essentials of Christianity [das Wesentliche des Christentums] as clearly as one wishes, but he still does not like to be disturbed in his longstanding outward devotional practices. If this happens, then he believes (although unjustly) himself justified in throwing over all remaining devotional practices and permits himself indifference in worshipping God, diversion, and carelessness.

Ludwig Haßler, the Stadtpfarrer of Rottenburg am Neckar, 1793

Pfarrer Haßler knew his parishioners well. They were staunch Catholics who faithfully attended church services and participated in a wide range of devotional practices. At the heart of popular devotional life were pilgrimages, processions, church festivals, and the Mass – what Haßler called “outward devotional practices” but which we might call aspects of a public and communal religiosity. This commitment to the religious practices of Roman Catholicism was essential for the formation of a strong Catholic identity among the people of Southwest Germany between 1550 and 1750.

The creation of religious identities occurred in Southwest Germany and throughout the Catholic and Protestant territories of Germany in the early modern period. Southwest Germany was a region of beautiful churches and wealthy monasteries, elaborate processions and dramatic pilgrimages, and Catholic confessional identity made it the heartland of Baroque Catholicism.