the sixteenth century The Reformation, and a landlord in troubleReformácia a zemepán v úzkych

Nižný and Vyšný Medzev belonged to the administration of the Premonstratensian monastery at Jasov until the eighteenth century, so what happened to the monastery happened to the valley. In the sixteenth century the Reformation and the wars over the Hungarian crown emptied Jasov; the community was broken up and the house effectively closed. A church landlord in collapse is not the same as no landlord — dues were still owed to whoever held the estate — but the century of disorder loosened the grip on a valley full of independent-minded craftsmen. The forges went on working through all of it, because tools are needed in a bad century as much as in a good one.Nižný aj Vyšný Medzev patrili až do 18. storočia pod správu premonštrátskeho kláštora v Jasove, takže čo sa dialo kláštoru, dialo sa aj doline. V 16. storočí reformácia a vojny o uhorskú korunu Jasov vyprázdnili; komunita sa rozpadla a dom fakticky zanikol. Rozpadajúci sa cirkevný zemepán však neznamená žiadneho zemepána — dávky sa naďalej platili tomu, kto panstvo držal —, no storočie neporiadku uvoľnilo zovretie nad dolinou plnou samostatných remeselníkov. Hámre pracovali celý ten čas ďalej, lebo náradie treba v zlom storočí rovnako ako v dobrom.