A Recess (german: Reichsabschied, Reichsrezess) in the

Holy Roman Empire The Holy Roman Empire was a political entity in Western, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its dissolution in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the accession of Otto I in 962 ...

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 An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

—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 ( lat, recessus imperii novissimus) and contains the resolutions of the 1653/54 Diet of Regensburg. Since the

Perpetual Diet of Regensburg The Perpetual Diet of Regensburg or the Eternal Diet of Regensburg, (german: Immerwährender Reichstag) also commonly called in English the perpetual Diet of Ratisbon,Jean Berenger, C.A. Simpson, ''The Habsburg Empire 1700-1918'' (2014), p. 134 fr ...

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