Critique and Reinterpretation of Foundations in the Period of the Reformation

Abstract

The Reformation transformed the relationship between the living and dead, as well as gift-giving and founding. The foundation’s purpose was redefined and understood as a gift to one’s neighbor, as gratitude for God’s anticipatory act and his unconditional assumption of sinful persons as a good work and true caritas. The deceased founders became models, who by their confession pointed the way to salvation through the realization of “true faith”. This self-understanding likewise offered the basis and legitimation to temporal leaders and sovereign princes to undertake political changes and remodeling in the Early Modern Protestant imperial cities and territories.