When I'm faced with a question like this I refer to SkidRows amazing playthroughs.
Every one is a masterpiece of timing and efficiency.

The part you're looking for is about 8 to 10 minutes in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfym_eAHzj8

I think this opens the secret in the next passage he enters, but I'm not sure.
The hammer moves a very short distance. - Does it look like this when you play it ?

thirdkeeper a écrit :

I have already beaten this level and got all secrets, the problem is that the hammer in the church wasn't moving at all. After some testing, I have found that it's an issue with high framerate (presumably). Not exactly game-breaking, but still a bit annoying.

AH! That makes sense. - High frame rate has wreaked havoc with many older games
that never anticipated anything over 60 when they were in development and they
wouldn't have any way of testing even if they had. - In Far Cry 2 caused AI twitching,
disappearing and bouncing 30 feet in the air with every step and many other bizarre
game ending bugs - some of which would remain hidden until you were 84% through
the game and then you'd lose all your progress. The point that I'm overly elaborating
on is that there could be other issues that are game breaking even if we can't see
them. - So it is advisable to limit frame rates to 60 or less.

- Thanks for the info - !

thirdkeeper a écrit :

I hate how videogames work sometimes, but, oh well, nothing really special, would be nice to have a framerate fix of course, but this game is almost 25 years old, so.

Right. Most film and television runs from about 29 or so. - I'm comfortable with 60.
That's my monitors refresh rate anyway, and I have a tight system so I never experience
any jitter or lag. I'm just glad I can still play these old gems 8 )