The Reformation and Its Influence On Church Architecture
In the early 16th century Martin Luther and the Reformation brought a period of radical change to church design. Prior to the Reformation, translations of the Bible into local languages were rare and illicit; in the West the authorised version was in Latin, the language of worship, scholarship and the law courts. Comparatively few works of literature were written in the vernacular until the advent of printing in the fifteenth century. Nevertheless, the denial of the right to produce Bibles in local languages was an instrument of control both papal and by princes so that access to the word became a hallmark of Reformation thinking and preaching more prominent. Pulpits had always been a feature of Western churches (and had been much prized by the friars) but they now came to replace the altar as the primary focus. In England stone altars were removed (and trashed) and replaced by a single wood table. However, while the birth of Protestantism led to massive changes in the way that Christianity was practiced (and hence the design of churches), Catholic churches retained an emphasis on the symbolic.
According to Duncan Stroik, late in the Reformation period, there was a shift across all denominations to an emphasis on "full and active participation". In the Roman Catholic Church this was achieved through an emphasis on "emotional exuberance", which meant that even those members of the congregation who were unfamiliar with the ceremony could still be deeply moved. With the onset late 16th century, exquisite marble statues adorned the churches, and gold fittings combined with superb stained glass windows in a celebration of the faith. In contrast, in Protestant churches the altar and tabernacle were often removed, and a communion table and pulpit replaced the altar. Despite the apparent disparity, both denominations sought to provide for fundamentally the same purpose: to allow the worshippers to feel close to God.
Read more about this topic: Church Architecture
Famous quotes containing the words reformation, influence, church and/or architecture:
“Go on then in doing with your pen what in other times was done with the sword; shew that reformation is more practicable by operating on the mind than on the body of man.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)
“Constitutional statutes ... which embody the settled public opinion of the people who enacted them and whom they are to govern—can always be enforced. But if they embody only the sentiments of a bare majority, pronounced under the influence of a temporary excitement, they will, if strenuously opposed, always fail of their object; nay, they are likely to injure the cause they are framed to advance.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)
“What if the Church and the State
Are the mob that howls at the door!
Wine shall run thick to the end,
Bread taste sour.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“The two elements the traveler first captures in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish. At first glance, the rhythm may be confused with gaiety, but when you look more closely at the mechanism of social life and the painful slavery of both men and machines, you see that it is nothing but a kind of typical, empty anguish that makes even crime and gangs forgivable means of escape.”
—Federico García Lorca (1898–1936)