The Importance of the Imperial City of Nuremberg in the Reformation

Abstract

The question of how a certain historical situation or event arises is doubtless one of the classical questions for any historian. It is true, however, that there can never be a final and exhaustive answer, because any question about origins can only be asked within a specific framework, and can therefore represent only a small section, and never the fulness of all the interwoven factors. Historical events are always based on much more than what we are able to get access to by analysis. Within this complex picture it is even more difficult to assess and determine the weight of individual factors in comparison with each other: only rarely can we produce or, indeed, find comparable situations without the factor in question. The question of the importance of one particular event or phenomenon can therefore only be answered in history by identifying the impulses coming from it.