Abstract: This study focuses on Primož Trubar’s Slovenian Church Ordinance of 1564, the first legal text printed in the Slovenian language. Although the ordinance was quickly confiscated after publication and its author forced into exile, it represents a unique attempt to codify Protestant ecclesiastical law in Habsburg Carniola and constitutes an important contribution to the European legal-confessional culture of the sixteenth century.

The aim of the study is to approach the ordinance from a multi-layered perspective. First, a legal-normative analysis shows the extent to which Trubar relied on German and Swiss church regulations, and where he resorted to local adaptations. The theological dimension reveals how the ordinance was conceived as an instrument for consolidating the reformed community, while the linguistic analysis emphasises its role in shaping and standardising Slovenian legal terminology. The political context—marked by tensions between Habsburg authorities, the local nobility, and broader European currents of the Reformation—sheds light on the reasons for the swift suppression of the text, but also on its symbolic power as a manifesto of religious and cultural autonomy.

Special emphasis is placed on the comparative analysis of the ordinance with contemporary Protestant church regulations, such as the Saxon and Württemberg Kirchenordnungen in Germany (1527, 1553), the Zürich (Kirchenordnung, 1529) and Geneva (Ordonnances ecclésiastiques, 1541) church regulations in Switzerland, as well as the Danish Kirkeordinans (1537/39). In this way, Trubar’s work is situated within the broader European context of mid-sixteenth-century ecclesiastical-legal reforms. Alongside classical historical-legal methodology, the research also employs interdisciplinary approaches—linguistic analysis, and comparative textual criticism of the document. Thus, the ordinance is treated not only as a legal-theological document, but also as a cultural-political artefact, whose interpretation raises new questions about the relationship between language, law, and religious identity politics in early modern Europe.

Key words: Primož Trubar; Slovenian Church Ordinance 1564; Protestant law; comparative legal history; Reformation in Carniola; vernacular language and legal terminology.

Estimated deadline: June 2027