Lexie Breaux
February 8, 2012
Second Block
Compare Protestant and Catholic Churches

During the first half of the seventeenth century, Roman Catholic and Protestant churches differed in appearance in their interiors. The interiors reflected the fluctuating theologies and religious practices of both religions by their decorativeness, style and architecture. While the Catholic Churches ornamented entire buildings with statues of saints, paintings, and elaborate designs, the Protestant churches contained no decorations, and exhibited an extremely plain style. The catholic churches décor consisted of many intricate details that can be compared to the complexity of the religion itself. Details carved into the wall to create busy patterns that told stories of the statues of saints positioned around them. This intricacy reflected the catholic belief that in order to be saved one had to do more than have faith, which included several meticulous rituals and sacraments. The protestant churches contained no decorations and strictly provided a building to worship. This also reflected Protestant ideas because they believed in a more simple form of religion. Protestant simplicity could be found in their salvation by faith alone, their religious authority in God, and their structure of their beliefs and church.

In addition, the style of both buildings differed and symbolized their religious backgrounds. Just as the décor resembled the ideas of both churches, the fashion of each building did as well. Catholic churches styled their interiors using sharp edges with a more square style along with engravings. This symbolized the strictness and firmness of the catholic religion and how their faith was precise. On the other hand, Protestant churches depicted their basic religion with an equally basic style. Protestant churches made their interiors plain with circular, single-colored poles and used no engravings. This showed how the protestant religion was more lenient with religion, but focused more on the actual faith than the physical church.

Although both styles of the churches differed, the architecture found inside could be seen as similar. Both used columns in the church with high arches between the poles. This similarity showed how the churches, though vastly different, still shared some common beliefs and practices. The only difference in architecture of the two churches came from the positioning of the clergy. The Catholic Church had the congregation closer to the clergy with the priest being the center of the worshippers. However, protestant churches sat more sporadically with the pastor being in the front of everyone. This symbolized how the Catholics believed in the hierarchy being closer to God than anyone else, while the protestants believed that everyone had an equal relationship with God, no matter what title.

The two churches broke apart clearly because of their differences in theology , their beliefs, and how they viewed religion. These differences could be seen in many characteristics including the style, architecture, and decorations found inside of both facilities. The Catholic Church’s embellishments portrayed the multifaceted aspects of their religion, while the Protestant Church’s plain-styled interior described their beliefs entirely.