„Nit on meines Capitels Wissen“

Whereas early modern cathedral chapters have mostly been studied as electoral bodies of prince-bishops and noble corporations, this study examines the administrative and governmental practices of the Bamberg cathedral chapter from the perspective of the history of knowledge. Its active governance and its efforts to establish an independent archive as well as a functioning administration show that the chapter was largely independent of the prince-bishop. As its written records also emerged as the central memory of the prince-bishopric, the cathedral chapter was indispensable for its existence in the age of the Reformation and Confessionalization. It played a decisive role in shaping state-building processes in the ecclesiastical electoral state.