In Lionel Rothkrug's article "Religious Practices and Collective Perceptions: Hidden Homologies in the Renaissance and Reformation" in the series, "Historical Reflections," Dr. Rothkrug theorizes that the Reformation came about because religious practices and beliefs, dating from antiquity, set the stage long before the 16th century reformation events.

Using Rothkrug's collected data on shrines in Germany dating from before 1000 C.E. to 1530 CE, I have created a GIS to demonstrate and test his theory that we can see the patterns of specific religious practices and beliefs in the types of shrines that were erected in certain regions, and that those patterns in turn, influenced whether or not the region was likely to embrace Protestantism.

Creating a GIS based on gathered information from his text and other sources gives a visual spatial perspective of his theory, and allows one to analyze the data and draw conclusions as to the merit of his theory.