Taking out the church, bringing in the state

Many forms of political organization vied for power in medieval Europe, and it was not a given that the modern state would eventually outcompete its rivals. Yet, the Protestant Reformation created a window for secular rulers to confront a competing form of political organization, the Church, and centralize power. This helped clear the way for the modern state. Since it was costly to take on the Church, the Protestant Reformation was more likely to take place where rulers were strong enough to shoulder these costs. In the short run, the strengthening of the Crown around the Reformation rendered rulers independent of society, which helped pave the way for Absolutism and impeded economic development. In the longer run, however, the positive developmental consequences of the Reformation outweighed the negative ones. The authors use original data on castle ownership in medieval and early modern Europe to document these findings.