Concepts of purity serve to transform ambiguity into clarity, thereby homogenizing, stabilizing, and ultimately harmonizing interpretations of self and the world. Based on this thesis, Peter Burschel inquires about the place of this pattern in early modern Europe. His conclusion: since the late Middle Ages, purity has advanced to become a cultural code that guides the fundamental processes of social and confessional discipline in the 16th and 17th centuries - thus historically and anthropologically unifying the era: establishing order, generating symbols, guiding actions, and proving immensely sustainable.