 Applicants were initially obliged to prove descent from four grandparents of the higher aristocracy, but later from 16 great-great-grandparents of the same rank.In this way Schänis became a place of care for the unmarried female offspring of the higher nobility of southern Germany.During the Reformation the abbey was briefly suspended in 1529, but reinstated in 1531 after the re-Catholicisation of the "Linthgebiet".