A Recess () in the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire, also known as the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation after 1512, was a polity in Central and Western Europe, usually headed by the Holy Roman Emperor. It developed in the Early Middle Ages, and lasted for a millennium ...
was the document detailing all the decisions made by an
Imperial Diet.
Until 1654, a Diet began, in addition to ceremonial rituals, with the reading of the Imperial Proposition—the agenda predetermined by the
Emperor
The word ''emperor'' (from , via ) can mean the male ruler of an empire. ''Empress'', the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), mother/grandmother (empress dowager/grand empress dowager), or a woman who rules ...
—and ended with the decisions being read by the Emperor and ratified, the Recess.
Leopold von Ranke
Leopold von Ranke (21 December 1795 – 23 May 1886) was a German historian and a founder of modern source-based history. He was able to implement the seminar teaching method in his classroom and focused on archival research and the analysis of ...
, ''History of the Reformation in Germany'', tr. Sarah Austin, Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1844, Preface
p. iii, note
The last such Recess is called the () and contains the resolutions of the 1653/54 Diet of
Regensburg
Regensburg (historically known in English as Ratisbon) is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the rivers Danube, Naab and Regen (river), Regen, Danube's northernmost point. It is the capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the ...
.
Since the
Perpetual Diet of Regensburg which began in 1663 was never formally concluded, its decisions could not be collected as a Recess.
[Heer]
p. 267
They were therefore issued in the form of so-called Imperial Conclusions (''Reichsschlüsse'').
[ Ratification of these conclusions was usually carried out by the Emperor's representative in the Reichstag, the Principal Commissioner, in the form of an Imperial Commissioner's decree.
]
References
{{Authority control
Government documents