Religion 1500 up to 1550

Humanists such as Ulrich von Hutten set the first reformatory signals. Lutheran preachers such as Aegidius Faber in Schwerin or Joachim Slüter in Rostock, author of the oldest Low German hymn book, declared the new form of teaching. Slüter was supported by the Synidkus Johann Oldendorp, who reformed the Rostock Church Order in 1530. For simple Christians it was about individual salvation and the way to achieve this.

The arbitral verdict on the change of religious denomination was delivered in 1549 on Sagsdorf Bridge near Sternberg. It stipulated Protestantism for Mecklenburg and the national church tailored to the sovereigns as “summus episcopus” (head of the church).

Ulrich von Hutten at the University of Greifswald and other humanists call for reformation. Unrest breaks out 1521 in Slupsk. Church institutes in the city are looted in 1524 following sermons by Johann Amandus. Johannes Kureke is expelled from Treptow an der Rega in 1522. Later on he leads the 'Stralsund Church attack' in 1524/25.

Bogislaw X. tolerates Protestant preachers, as long as they do not incite rebellion. His sons Philipp and Barnim continue in this vein. The dukes seek to initiate a reform of the regional council to include the nobility, clergy and the cities in the summer of 1534. Despite its failure, Johannes Bugenhagen is commissioned to draft new church regulations. This leads to dispossession and secularisation of the monasteries. Five monasteries are converted into abbeys. Their lands fall to the duke.

The Inaugural Chair of Theology at the University of Greifswald is awarded to the pastor of St Nicholas', who simultaneously becomes chief superintendent of Pomerania-Wolgast.