A Recess (german: Reichsabschied, Reichsrezess) in the
Holy Roman Empire 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—and ended with the decisions being read by the Emperor and ratified, the Recess.
[ Leopold von Ranke, ''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 ( lat, recessus imperii novissimus) and contains the resolutions of the 1653/54 Diet of
Regensburg
Regensburg or is a city in eastern Bavaria, at the confluence of the Danube, Naab and Regen rivers. It is capital of the Upper Palatinate subregion of the state in the south of Germany. With more than 150,000 inhabitants, Regensburg is the f ...
.
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