Abbesses and priors of collegiate churches („Stifte“) faced similar conditions of theiroffice. Despite comparable evidence they were treated very differently by academia. Inorder to overcome this deficit this dissertation project takes a comparative approach andfocuses on the authority of abbesses and priors of civic collegiate churches in SouthWestern Germany (15th/16th century). It explores how different agents i.e. the cities,bishops and the chapters helped shaping and dismantle religious authority. Thus,primarily sources produced by conflicts between abbesses or priors and these agents areused. The project’s aim is to show that intersectionality was very important for religioussuperior’s authority. Religious lifestyle, status, gender and civic discourses all played arole in constructing authority