RURAL ORGANIZATION AND RECEPTIVITY TO PROTESTANTISM IN 16TH-CENTURY EUROPE

In this paper, I hypothesize and show evidence for a causal link betwe en local land use systems and popular receptivity to ascetic, rational ist religions in sixteenth-century Germany, France, the Netherlands, a nd England. Rationalist religions typically received popular support i n regions characterized by individual property rights in land and litt le communal control over agriculture. I argue that this social organiz ation of agriculture gave rise to individualistic value systems, which had an affinity with rationalist, ascetic belief systems.