Conversion of space

In early modern Germany the relationship between church space and religious reform was fiercely contested. Germany's late-medieval churches were richly furnished, with multiple altars, elaborate altarpieces and numerous paintings and statues of Christ, the Virgin Mary and the saints. This chapter shows that conversion to Protestantism did not necessarily require or induce iconoclasm or the far-reaching cleansing of sacred space. Lutheran churches often looked very much like their Catholic counterparts. Evangelical reformers' prime concern with regard to church space was to provide a suitable environment for preaching. Renate Drr points out that the development did indeed form part of a trend towards the clericalisation of church space, although it did not in fact negate the principle of a priesthood of all believers. The reform of the Lutheran liturgy, in particular the breaking of bread at communion and the deletion of the exorcism ritefrom baptism provoked as much, if not more hostility.