Singing Together, Praying Apart: The Shared Clerical Spaces of Upper Lusatia, c. 1520–1635

Upper Lusatia, a territory attached to the Bohemian crown, developed religious practices which were heavily influenced by cross-confessional borrowing throughout the early-modern period. Yet even this relatively small region contained at least two “simultaneous” churches (Simultankirchen), i.e., churches shared by Lutherans and Catholics. The Cathedral of St. Peter in Bautzen is the oldest and one of the biggest Simultankirche and comparatively well known. The use of this shared church space was clearly regulated and Lutherans and Catholics were only allowed to carry out certain practices during specific times of day. These arrangements resulted in a town, where a Catholic minority that was protected by the King of Bohemia lived relatively peacefully with a Lutheran majority. Less well-known is a second Simultaneum in Upper Lusatia, that of the church of the Trinity in Lauban (today Lubań in Poland). Here, as in Bautzen, the choir of the church was reserved for the Catholics, while the nave was for the Lutheran majority. In Lauban, however, other patterns of co-existence were negotiated. The choir which was run by the nuns also included boys from the Lutheran town school, which the local Lutheran preacher was willing to accept, hoping that he might convert some of the nuns by having them sing alongside Lutherans. While some practices, such as the singing in Lauban or baptisms in Bautzen, were shared between the confessions, others, for example praying and communions, were not. How these fluid boundaries were negotiated and when and how they were challenged gives us fascinating insights into how early-modern actors perceived of their religiosity and which parts of it they deemed negotiable and what they considered to be fixed.