De Gebroken Kerk : Katholieken en de Beeldenstorm

Abstract

In the last decades, historians have studied iconoclasm as a symbolic and ritualised practice in order to understand what drove those who took part in it. But the sixteenth-century iconoclastic furies had an impact that reached far beyond the handful of Reformed that actually participated in them. How did Catholics - at the time still society's vast majority - respond to the attack on their churches? By exploring how Catholics treated the objects that had fallen victim to or survived iconoclasm, I aim to provide insight in the Catholic material culture of the sixteenth century. Religious objects – as well as secular objects within the church – are approached as "things" with multiple layers of meaning. Many church objects were sacred, but they were also tied to the community in different ways; they could be the identity marker of a guild, an individual’s gift, or a medium to commemorate the dead. Moreover, the attack on religious objects could fundamentally change the meaning that was ascribed to them. Therefore, iconoclasm is approached as both a destructive and a constructive force, one that compelled Catholics to engage with their material culture in new ways.