ABSTRACT
In May 1666, the Protestant pastor of the small biconfessional Swiss village of Würenlos issued an astonishing letter. Carefully drafted, it described precisely the means by which the village church was to be used by the Catholic minority and the Protestant majority of villagers for their daily worship.1 This religious coexistence would have lasting consequences for the church’s spatial and visual arrangements and organization. The pastor’s description of the church interior underlined the fact that the parish church used by both confessions was a highly fashioned space with regard to its specific use for confession and the religious procedures of the Catholic and Reformed clergy and their congregations. Changes in the liturgical arrangement of the church space thus bore the potential for conflict, as happened in 1666. During renovation of the parish church one painting was removed from the sounding board over the pulpit and another from the high altar; both were then hung in the nave ‘before the very eyes’ of the Protestant congregation. The Protestant pastor was upset, since he wished the nave to remain clean, without pictures.2 In order to settle the conflict, the agreement on dividing up the church was renegotiated.3 Following an inspection of its interiorit was decided that the church’s size and design allowed for the installation of a grille that would separate the choir from the nave.4 The choir was assigned to the Catholic congregation; for them, with their focus on the sacred – high altar, relics, paintings – the choir
1 Staatsarchiv Zürich (henceforth StAZH), E I 30.90: Pfrundakten Otelfingen/ Würenlos, unfoliated, 14 May 1666.
