Pastors and Priests in the Early Modern Grisons: Organized Profession or Side Activity

Abstract

Duringthe era of church reforms the clergy tended to become a profession—at least such has been argued with respect to English ministers during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.1The present study endeavors to show that an analysis of the shifting position of the clergy in the continuum between a nonagricultural side activity, an estate in traditional society, and a profession can contribute to our understanding of the role that clergymen played in early modern church reforms, confessionalization, social discipline, and acculturation.