It was in this environment that Baroque architecture appeared in the late 1500s and early 1600s - a deeply Catholic style which stood in perfect opposition to the bare churches of the Protestants.
Here we can see a theological and cultural war played out in architecture.
The 17th century paintings of Pieter Jansz Saenredam show us what churches were like in the aftermath of this mass desctrution of religious art, with whitewashed walls and bare interiors.
They had become humble places where words alone would suffice.
And so, for those Protestants who thought the written word was enough, a big part of their revolution involved the removal of art from churches.
Spurred on by the ideas of Calvin and Karlstadt, they tore down religious art in popular uprisings.