The aim of this volume is to portray the consequences of the Reformation for the people who bore and experienced them, and their role and effect in the reformed church. The book is thus not primarily concerned with discussing theological and organisational issues but with what was new in church life. In early modernity, spiritual and worldly aspects of life formed an integral whole, which meant that changes in the church also led to changes in secular life. Only if one looks from this angle at the Reformation and the aura that it emanated does the significance of Luther's theological approach become fully clear.The study is based on source material from the county of Schaumburg but also includes north-western Germany, i.e. what are today Lower Saxony and Westphalia. The contributions to the volume were presented at a symposium organised by the Protestant Lutheran Church of Schaumburg-Lippe in 2009 to mark the 450th anniversary of the introduction of the Reformation in the county of Schaumburg.