This collection examines the 'practical' impact of religious change in Central and North-Western Europe from the fifteenth to the seventeenth century. It focuses on the effects of reform on clergy, church resources, ecclesiastical patronage, education, and poor relief. The title reflects the fundamental conclusion that there was no one monolithic experience of 'Reformation', that initiatives were taken for very different reasons, and that they displayed innovative as well as conservative features.

While offering a great range of original research and subject matter, all of the contributors devote particular attention to three main themes: the blend between continuity and change, the share of religious factors in socio-economic developments, and the identification of winners and losers.

Taken together, the essays illustrate the scarcity of unambiguous trends, the tenacity of socio-economic structures, the modification of religious dogma by the 'real' world, and the conspicuous benefits of religious change for the social elites.