"Confessionalization" and the Reformation

They argue that it's a myth to believe that “the Reformation represented a radical rupture and restructuring of the medieval Church-State relationship. Indeed, the entire notion of a transnational, unified Christianity being shattered by the Reformation ignores the decentralized nature of medieval ecclesiastical organization and practices and thus of religious identity.” Throughout the medieval period the “greatest administrative and therefore practical power always remained at the episcopal or regional level” and power at the diocese level was already shifting to secular rulers in the fifteenth century. Though the Reformation “accelerated” the “process of secular governmental expansion,” it did not “initiate” it.