ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the contemporary conceptualization of pews as property, associates with real estate or home-ownership. Gender and status distinctions among pew holders were reproduced through seating in a way that was clearly visible to churchgoers. Roughly the wealthier half of society, members of property owning families, formed the most visible part of the religious public. Church pews were first allotted in Saxony and other Lutheran territories during the Reformation era. The pews replaced altars that were removed in Leipzig and elsewhere, and provided seating for the longer Lutheran service. While most of the rules governing the allotment of pews were general to Saxony, seating patterns in Leipzig reflected the part-open, part-closed nature of urban society. In Saxony, allotment regulations and many practices were established by the late sixteenth century and were standardized and codified by the mid-seventeenth century, evolving in step with other religious institutions and practices.
