Matits Ferenc: Protestant Churches - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2003)
The most prominent difference setting the churches of Hungary’s two most significant Protestant denominations apart is the fact that while Lutheran church spires are mostly topped with a cross, the towers of Calvinist churches end in a star, a sphere or a rooster. However, there are also differences between the two types of church on the inside. As the Lutheran liturgy has retained more of its Roman Catholic counterpart than whatever of the latter survives in the Calvinist Church, an ornamental superstructure, often featuring an altar- piece, rises above the altar in a Lutheran church, whereas the interior space of a Calvinist house of prayer consistently centres on the pulpit and the Lord's table. The latter are marked off by their decoration as well as arrangement. Depending on the material they are made of, sacrificial tables are either carved or painted, and tend to be covered with embroidered or lace cloths. While Luther was certainly against the overuse of painted and carved images in a church, he also took a firm stand against iconoclastic excess. He denounced the worship and the intervening function of saints. The congregations intent on renewing the faith usually removed the altars and works of art erected for the adoration of saints from the former Roman Catholic churches they had taken over. Also banned were items such as reliquaries, censers, chalices, monstrances and all ecclesiastic vestments indicating positions in the church hierarchy, which they deemed to be irreconcilable with their doctrine. However, the places of the Lord’s supper and of baptism were retained, as was the pulpit, that pedestal from where the Gospel is preached. A characteristic feature of the altar space in a Lutheran church, a feature adding emphasis to the altar, is the kneeling desk built to the stepped pedestal and the kneeling grill, which is also built to the structure. The reason for its presence is that the Lutheran faithful receive the body and blood of Christ in the shape of bread and wine, in a kneeling, rather than an upright, position. The liturgy instituted by Calvin, and especially by Ulrich Zwingli, deviated from the ceremony of the Roman Catholic mass, to a larger extent than did that observed by Lutherans. Calvinist believers partake of the Lord’s Supper about six times a year on the occasion of major feasts, after the service itself, at the Lord’s table. The oldest Lutheran church of Budapest can be found in District XVI, or Cinkota, a small town that was incorporated into the capital in 1950. Mentioned in charters as early as the 13th century, the settlement was depopulated under the Turkish occupation of Hungary not to be resettled before the early 18th century. Several remaining parts of the medieval parish church were used for the construction of the new church building in 1709, which was reconstructed and 7
