as 1487, and its abbot was allowed to attend Reichstags by 1497. Legal freedom was followed in 1512 with jurisdiction over high courts in its territories, which was expanded to blood courts in 1521. All cases in Schussenried's territory thereafter would be tried by a local judiciary, for whom a courthouse was built on the abbey's grounds in 1513. Schussenried joined the of Imperial abbeys in 1538. With the abbey's existence secure by the 1220s, Schussenried's monks sought to make it economically independent as well. From 1224 to 1253, Schussenried Abbey purchased estates in the nearby villages of Hopferbach, , Laimbach, Schwaigfurt, , , , Sattenbeuren, and Eggatsweiler. Further expansion took place over the 14th and 15th centuries via the acquisition of patronage rights in and eventual annexation of , Reichenbach, , Steinhausen-Muttensweiler, Oggelshausen, , Allmannsweiler, Otterswang, Attenweiler, and Eberhardzell. Until the 15th century, the brothers of the abbey were minor noblemen from these towns and after that period were mostly local gentry. As monks at Schussenried, they would also administer to the local parishes, part of the Premonstratensian . Several abbots were from those towns as well, but the majority came from larger Swabian towns. The number of novices at Schussenried at any given time was between 15 and 20, peaking at 45 in the 18th century. These men were educated at Schussenried and other Premonstratensian monasteries, though most of them after 1550 were taught by the Jesuits at the in Dillingen an der Donau, and some acquired degrees from the universities of Tübingen, Freiburg, Heidelberg, and Rome. There was little construction at Schussenried during the 16th century, but it survived the Protestant Reformation and German Peasants' War. Abbot Matthäus Rohrer, in office from 1621 to 1653, reconstructed the eastern portion of the monastery until the outbreak of an illness in 1628 amongst the monks later attributed to poisoned wine. During the Swedish phase of the Thirty Years' War, Schussenried was forced to quarter Swedish troops. When those troops, under the command of Carl Gustaf Wrangel, withdrew in 1647, they set fire to the monastery. The only portions of the complex that survived were the library, the monastery's entrance hall, and the nave of the church. With profits from emergency sales, the monks installed a new roof over the church in 1649–50. Reconstruction of the abbey was completed in 1660 under Abbot Augustinus Arzet. New Monastery In 1700, Abbot