Matits Ferenc: Protestant Churches - Our Budapest (Budapest, 2003)

chartered town of Buda had a smaller population than Pest, and the ratio of Protestants living there was also lower until the middle of the 19th century.

The combined population of Lutherans living in Pest and Buda was i,ioo in 1813, and 3,945 in 1847, with 486 and 1,867 Calvinists living here in the same years, whereas the Catholic population of the dual cities was 61,391 and 109,122 in those years respectively. In 1910, 59.8 per cent of Budapest’s population was Catholic, whereas the ratio of Lutherans and Calvinists was 5.0 and 9.9 per cent respectively.

An essential aspect of Martin Luther's reforms was that he placed the Gospel, that is the Word of God, in the focus of the religious service. He drew up the Formula miióae et communionis, a ritual preserving several Catholic elements, for the congregation of Leising in 1523. Under the ritual entitled Deutiche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdienstes and issued by Luther in 1526, the language of religious service was no longer Latin, and Gregorian chants were replaced by German tunes, which made the German words easier to sing. At the heart of worship were now placed the initial service by the altar preparing the worshippers for communion, the pulpit service consisting of sermon and prayers, and the concluding service by the altar with the Lord’s Supper as its climax. For Luther, the church was a liturgical rather than a sacral space to be consecrated by and during the service with the preaching of the Gospel and the taking of the Sacraments. This explains the custom, baffling to many, whereby Lutheran churches are only open for the duration of services.

Similarly to other Christian churches and with the exception of a few recent experiments, the external and internal appearance of Protestant churches is based on two fundamental architectural patterns—the centralised (Eastern) and the basilica (Western) arrangement. In terms of architecture, the traditions of the Protestant church date, in the spirit of identity and continuity, from the emergence of Christianity, rather than deriving from Martin Luther.

John Calvin addressed the issue of a church’s external appearance in his Institutio religionis christianae. He took a firm stand against ecclesiastical art before the Reformation, especially against its pictorial representations. The puritanical simplicity that abhors external embellishment, the plain white walls and large windows together with the arrangement reflecting the central position occupied by the preaching of the Gospel are in stark contrast with the aspirations of the Catholic Church to give expression to the glory of God with artistic means or its ceremonies associated with ecclesiastical feasts and the liturgy.

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