the Vice Chancellor held no political power, but then Duke Christoph enlarged the role of the Kammersekretär by allowing him to advise on policies concerning the chancery, church council, and even to oversee the treasury, a right no other official but the chamber master (Kammermeister) possessed. In the reign of Duke Ludwig, he would become one of the most influential officers in the central government, assuming the role of personal adviser and close friend to the Duke, rivaling only the territorial governor, Landhofmeister in influence on policy. Following the Reformation, new positions that worked during the Visitation were created. With the help of the Ducal court and reformers Johannes Brenz, Ambrosius Blarer, and Erhard Schnepf, a powerful new, centralized ecclesiastical cabinet formed to assure the Duke's will in religious matters were felt throughout the duchy via a strict system of visitation to all of the duchy's districts. The creation of the church council, Kirchenrat, in 1553 resulted in a position only held by burghers: the church council director, or Kirchenratdirektor, who worked with the church council on Ducal policy in religious matters, helped with the appointing of local preachers and administrating of church lands, and supervised the monasteries. Supervision of the monasteries and nunneries was important to the Duchy, as the Reformation made their exorbitant spending no longer acceptable, though they were still allowed to exist in Lutheran Württemberg. The government placed levies on the "fourteen great monastic trusts," and the Duke or the Estates could spend this money on the Duchy's defense or on other projects. While he supervised this revenue, his clerks recorded it account books called Kirchenkastenrechungen. Of the positions only held by nobility, most were created in the 15th century and required little or no education, paid much more than burgher, and often involved constant contact to the Duke or other nobles. Originally, the Württemberg court had a Hofmeister, but this office was broken into the offices of territorial governor, Landhofmeister, and the court steward, Haushofmeister. The most powerful of the nobles in court traditionally was the territorial governor, Landhofmeister, who served as the Duke's foremost adviser and controlled the chancery. With the creation of the chancery in 1482, the same year as the reunification of the Duchy (then County) and establishment of Stuttgart as capital, the Landhofmeister and the Chancellor worked closely together, and this association remained important until the Kammersekretär supplanted the chancellor in